Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Therapy Cat Tales from 5/16/12


Tabby writes:

I'm back to visiting again!  Yay!  I wore a special outfit called a bunad today, because it's Norway's Constitution Day tomorrow.  My bunad is the national costume (national outfit) of Norway.  There are many different variations of the bunad, so not all of them look like mine.  I've got a dress, a shawl, a funny hat that fits over my ears, and a purse!  I wore them for the pictures, but I walked out of the shawl and the hat got in the way, so I ended up only wearing the dress for visiting.  I wore the rest to show a couple friends while visiting, though.

S. was surprised to see my bunad, so I had to show off the whole outfit for her.  Then we got our list of friends to visit with and went to our floor.  Another S. was in the lobby, so we said hi to her.  She was so happy to see me, and said she's missed seeing me.  I missed seeing all my friends, too!

In the tv room, A. was sitting by himself.  His special friend, G., died yesterday.  G. was a very special lady and always lit up when I came.  She'd laugh and play with me, sometimes feeding me Fig Newtons!  I'm going to miss her.  I climbed into A.'s lap, pushed my head into his hand, and meowed softly at him.  He almost cried as he petted me and hugged me!

I saw my friend T. in a bed, when she's usually up and about in her walker or a wheelchair.  That confused me, but I walked right in and jumped up on her bed.  She didn't remember me, but she was so glad I came to visit her!

When we visited R., she'd been eating pretzels.  She put them in a plastic cup before I jumped on the bed, but the bed still smelled of them.  She offered Mommy one, and so I was offered part of one, but I didn't want it today.  I loved R.'s blanket!  It was so soft and snuggly!  I curled up on her hands and on the blanket, listening to stories about her cat knocking down a bird feeder in an attempt to catch the birds.  Her cat also made his way back home after being moved, after she left.  The cat went back, but no one was there to feed him, so he walked across the freeway again and to the new home, where he stayed for the rest of his life.  Pretty amazing!

M. wanted to pet me today!  She used to be afraid of cats, even though her husband had cats the whole time they were married.  She's not ever been afraid of me, though!  She likes me, but she's not sure sometimes what I'm trying to do.  I asked her for pets, and she didn't know what I was doing, so Mommy told her.  Then she petted me.  I guess she just needs training like I was trained.  She wanted to see my full bunad, so Mommy put it on me.  M. thought that was the cutest thing she'd ever seen!  She said I was a very good girl, wearing all of that, especially the hat.

P. was walking without her walker, but she's not supposed to.  She had left it by her bed to answer the door, so she held onto my stroller as we walked in until she got to her walker.  Then she was safe.  She missed me, too, and thought that I'd come without seeing her.  She didn't know I'd been sick and not come at all.  So she was very glad to know that she hadn't missed her visits with me!

While we were waiting for the bus home, there was a baby girl crying.  I was dozing, but popped my head up when I heard her!  The man next to us, who was admiring me, laughed at that.  The mom of the little girl brought her over to see me, and the little girl got to pet me!  She was very gentle, even though she petted the wrong way.  She has a kitty at home, so was making a baby sign for kitty as she was talking with her mom.

When we got back home, the duck family was swimming in the marsh!  I hadn't seen the ducklings this year, so that was very exciting!

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Happy Mother's Day, Happy Birthdays, and update on Tabby

Happy Mother's Day to all moms, kitty moms, and those who have taken on the role of mom!

Tigress and Miss Marble (and their adopted-out brother Hemming) all turned one year old yesterday!  They're all doing very well.  Tigress even gave us a present, a nice mousie on the porch.

Tabby was all ready to go to the Doggie Dash yesterday, but Mommy wasn't.  Tabby got a ride around the block, then Mommy's tummy decided to give her a surprise.  Guess she had something called food poisoning from something she ate on Friday.  Tabby's eating dry food consistently now, and drinking water on her own, but getting fed some canned food to supplement the dry food.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Good news for Tabby!

Tabby writes:

I'm back to normal!!!!  Well, I'm still not feeling well, but I'm back to wanting lots of pets and attention, asking for pets, talking, and drinking water!  Mommy's still force-feeding me some, but I'm eating bites of dry food throughout the day, too.  Not much, but some.  Mommy says that I may even get to go to the Doggie Dash with her tomorrow!

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Update on Tabby

Tabby writes:

Mommy's still having to force-feed me, but now I'm eating a can a day of the canned food.  I should be eating 2 cans, but that would be too much food for my system to handle when I'm not feeling well.  So we're doing 4 feedings a day, 1/4 can each time.

A couple hours ago, I wanted some of Mommy's soy milk and raisin bran cereal!  It smelled so yummy, so she let me have some on a plate (after checking that there were no raisins in what I got, because that could make me sicker).  I ate a few bites on my own!

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Update on Tabby

Tabby writes:

I'm taking my medicine and being a good girl drinking water from the water bowl.  Mommy got me some (human) baby food, chicken-flavored, which is more watery than the canned food.  Funny, it makes me thirstier!  Maybe that's from the medicine, though?

Friday, May 4, 2012

Good news, bad news for Tabby

Tabby writes:

We just got the results back from my latest blood test.  It's not hyper-T.  It's mild hepatitis.  My thyroid levels are all within range, so it's just the liver levels that are elevated.  I'm getting three medicines to take for the next few weeks, because I've either got:

1.  A primary infection that is causing my liver some trouble.

or

2.  My liver's having some trouble and I got a secondary infection.

The good thing is it's not contagious to the other cats or to humans.

P.S.  There's a slight possibility that it's cancer of the liver, but that's a very slight possibility.  We'll do the medicines for the infection first, and then I'll have another blood test once I'm over the infection.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Newsflash: Tigress came inside today!

Tigress writes:

Wow!  Guess what?!  I decided that inside isn't the bad place I thought it was.  Being inside for a day changed my mind, even though I hated the trap and hated that I was inside when it was happening.  Now that I've had a couple days to think it over, though, I'm finding it very interesting.

Today, I decided that I wanted to check it out more.  When the daddy opened the door for my sister, I was right there.  The daddy left the door open a little for me to socialize with the inside cats.  Freya was busy grooming my sister, because she kind of thinks my sister is her own kitten.  I could tell my sister was happy, so I looked at the door, then looked at the daddy and meowed.  He opened the door a little more, and I walked through!

I went to the food bowl first and sniffed it, then sniffed the water bowl.  I walked back out the door, and the daddy called to the mommy to come see me.  She watched from the hallway and he watched from the living room as I came back inside and sniffed the bowls again.  Then I walked into the kitchen, still crouching low because I was unsure what was going to happen.  My sister wanted to come see me, so she hopped down from her spot on the blanket-covered table.  That sound scared me, though, and I ran back outside!

A little later, I went back over to the now-semi-closed door.  Heimdall had his head out the door, sniffing the outside air, so I walked along the wall until I got to the door (just in case he was going to come outside).  He turned toward me and we touched noses!

Vet appointment for Tabby tomorrow

Tabby writes:

I'm going in tomorrow for the vampires (aka vet techs) to take more of my blood for thyroid testing.  Thanks for all the purrs, prayers, and good thoughts!  I love all of you so much!

P.S.  I drank some water on my own, went poop (formed and in the box) on my own, and got force-fed 1 whole teaspoon of food.