mikekn

There are few things quite as odd as having a cat brush past your legs...


...while you are in the shower.

( Been awhile since I've done one of these. )

I'm probably forgetting a bunch of stuff, but that's what I get for wait so long between posts.

Mughi has been a sink cat for years now - begging to have a trickle of water turned on so she can drink or play in it. She'll sit under the faucet letting the water run down her head, catch it on her paw and lick it off. Twice so far this week, as I've been getting my shower she's poked her head in to watch the water and eventually each time has hopped into the shower with me. She stays at the far end, but doesn't seem to care that there is water pour down next to her.

I think her favorite part of our return trip to the vet was walking through the rain from the car to the office. Speaking of the vet - we got her test results back yesterday and most everything looks good. Potassium levels are a little low, but not bad. Kidney function isn't great, but no worse then last year.

Meanwhile, Tyree's ears are already looking much better. I suspect we'll be given the all clear for him when get goes back in a week or so.

Yesterday I took three of the cats to the vet for their annual check-ups and shots. Mughi and Gunter go in together, and Tyree goes in on a separate trip.

( Cat stuff )

Friday morning I took Mughi in for an ultrasound, to see if they could find any causes for her weight loss. The only thing abnormal were her kidneys, which were smaller then normal. I'm told this is fairly common in cat's her age (16+) and would not account for the weight loss. The vet doing the ultrasound thinks it would be worthwhile to test the thyroid further. I'll be giving our vet a call today and see if they've had a chance to look at the scans yet. Interesting side notes: We now have ultrasound pictures of Mughi's kidneys and liver. The scanner they use is one I'm working with on a cattle scanning project.

Friday evening we cleaned bits of the house and then went out to see The Brothers Grimm. I enjoyed the film quite a bit. It's not Gilliam's best by any measure, but it was fun (I expect his next film will be more in-line with what folks expect from him). We'll definitively be picking it up when is comes out on DVD. (We also need to replace all my Gilliam laserdiscs with DVDs...). Ran into rarcke, neoparn, lemonherb, Laura, and others in the theater. They invited us to join them for a late meal at a diner in Norristown - good time had, thanks!

Saturday morning I did some yard work - probably only the second or third time I've worked out there this year. We've completely lost control over some parts of the "flowerbeds" (I'd need a chainsaw to start weeding and a chipper to finish), and are just hanging on to others. I'd love to hire someone to go in and just clear it all out, but I suspect that would cost quite a bit at this point. Anyway, I got the front and one side of the house to the point where I wasn't embarrassed by it.

That afternoon was gaming with a full house of people. It was great! We started with a game of Fluxx to give us something to do while we chatted and waited for more people to show up. After that I played Secret Tijuana Death Match, then three games of Carcassonne. I saw games of Lord of the Rings trivia, Scattergories, SPANC, and a monster blended Munchkin game. There may have been others that I missed. I know I was caught up in playing that I wasn't paying any attention to the time and completely spaced doing anything about dinner. There were enough munchies around that I didn't go hungry, but still not the best way to treat guests (Sorry about that! Usually we order pizza or Chinese or something).

Sunday was a lot of sitting around the house. Some cleaning, some sleeping, but nothing much really got done. Mostly I just remember looking at the clock every so often and being surprised by how late it was each time.

Monday was the first fencing practice in quite a while. I tried out my new armor (which I bought over a year ago...) for the first time. I like it a lot better then what I'd been wearing. Now I can finally return the loaner armor to Tadcaster :)

It's been about three weeks since we started working with Dr. Spiegel and the cats. ( Here's what we've done... )

So Dr. Spiegel, the animal behavior vet, visited yesterday. He asked lots and lots of questions. Met the girls but didn't interact with them too much - enough to met and greet but not much more. We went in with Tyree for a while, more questions and some interaction with Tyree. After which he wrote up the plan of action for the next week or so. All told, he was at the house for a little over an hour.

( The plan (and other comments) )

We've been in a sort of holding pattern for a few weeks, with no real progress. We pen up the girls for a few hours most every day and give him the run of the house, but he never seems to relax during those times. He still jumps at the gate when one of them walks by and spends a lot of his outside time just sitting in front of their room. The only time he does relax is when I spend time with him in his room with the door shut. I've not found a treat that he likes enough to use for clicker training (the original ones were making him sick). I still click before brushing him, but that's not enough for him to really "get it".

On Monday morning I've scheduled a visit from a behavior specialist that our vet recommended. This is an in home visit, so that the vet can get a good feel for what is going on with the various interactions and environment. The end result of the visit should be a plan of things to do and not do to help change the behavior. Here's hoping.

Oh, and it turns out this vet has a website: www.petpsych.com

I'm behind on just about everything, so I'll just sneak in an ( update here. )

Not a whole lot of progress to report. ( But here's what's happening. )