Scribblings from the Mitchy Side

First of all, news of Mr R T Furball. The blood tests weren't 100 per cent conclusive but the vet decided there was enough there, with the symptoms, to go ahead and treat him for hyperthyroidism. So he's been on meds for the past week and it seems to be working, he's lost the "OMG I MUST EAT ALL THE THINGS ALL THE TIME" behaviour. The downside is this treatment isn't a cure, it's a "meds for life" deal. Hmf. Which is going to make figuring out what to do when I go away interesting but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. We'll pass briefly over how much money this is going to cost per month too.

However, the other downside is it's NOT stopped the throwing up behaviour I originally took him into the vets for. I say "throwing up" but often he doesn't actually produce anything, he just retches violently. So far, this seems to be occurring once every week. So long as it doesn't escalate, I'll wait until the next scheduled appointment (May 1st) before squeaking anxiously to the vet. I have to say though, Rob's fine in himself - bright eyed, alert, happy, yowly, purry and furry - all the usual signs of a healthy cat! *scritches the purring lump curled up next to her*

Life update - no news on the work front. Socially, I'm a busy bee atm. Tomorrow I'm meeting up with someone I used to know when I was dating Mike, one of the Cambridge mob. Will be good to have a good ol' gossip and catch up with what's been going on with that crew.

Friday I'm digging even further back into the past and meeting up with Vicky, who I knew at middle school. We reconnected (by accident!) on Facebook and have decided Lunch Must Be Done. So I'll be in Hornsey on Friday for rapid fire gossip and food scoffing during her lunch break :)

And then Monday I'm back up in Cambridge for another meeting with my finance adviser and I'll be having lunch with Julian, another chap I knew from dating Mike - he was Mike's house mate :) I am well out of the loop on what he's been up to so that'll be fun. All I know is he's about to be first time father any week now :)

Lastly, have a picture! I took this when I was on one of my really-should-do-this-more-often walks. This is Blueboy, a shire foal who was 4 days old when this pic was taken. Isn't he a handsome chap?

It's been an interesting few months for Rob the Furball, and I mean interesting in the Chinese curse sense of the word. He's had four bladder infections in a row since Christmas, the third one being serious enough that he was in the vets for 3 days. However, the vets didn't give up and neither did I and so far, he seems to have finally beaten the thing.

Of course, being him, having tested him out on some free samples of special kibble and finding out which one he liked best, he decided after 3 days that he didn't like it. Well tough, young cat, that kibble was sufficiently expensive that (to borrow a phrase from ursulav) it must have been made from ground up unicorns and as I bought a Very Large Bag of it, you're stuck with it for quite a long time. I've been mixing a lil' bit of his el cheapo Whiskas senior dried food into the new stuff and that seems to have persuaded him it's not vile and evil, so we'll see. It's not an appetite problem because he's hoovering up his daily ration of wet food with his usual enthusiasm.

He's been sick a bit this past week, and I was all "Oh NOES, not again!" because that's been the symptom of when he's getting another infection, but he was still eating and using his litter tray and he didn't SEEM in pain or miserable, still being a yowly, attention-seeking guided furry missile every morning and evening and all the times in between on weekends. So I've been playing the waiting game.

This morning, the daft animal was nosing around my computer table (which is a very low table in the lounge) and got his head caught in a loop of mouse cord. He tried to move forward and the loop tightened so he panicked, launched himself off, dragging the mouse, keyboard, modem, remote controls and few bits of crap off the table. This caused him to panic even more. Your trusty correspondent was caught between trying to pin a thrashing, terrified furball down so she could untangle him and preventing the monitor from flying off and landing on top of him :P

He thrashed himself free and took off like greased black lightning. Happily there is no damage to anything at all and, as far as I can tell, he's fine. I'm letting him calm down a bit before I insist on getting a close look at him to make sure he didn't get hurt. The good news? I now have conclusive proof that his bladder is working just fine....

Mitchy: *walks in, sees cat on Thess's lap, being brushed and purring his head off*
Mitchy: Oooh he likes that new cat brush then!
Thess: Oh yes, he's purring and dribbling all over my knee.
Mitchy: Did you get much fur off....
Thess: *holds up fur equivalent of second cat*
Mitchy: him...never mind, forget I spoke.

Woke up this morning to Rob T Furball being a yowly pest and demanding fuss and attention! It's marvellous!!

Thank you for all the good vibes, clearly you all possess superb telepathic powers :D *hugglesquishes*

*tries to explain to a furball that yesterday's wet food was a treat and no, no matter how much he yowls, there isn't any more*

Do still have to keep an eye on the stress grooming but at least the hairballs appear to have shifted :)

The furball hasn't been on top of his game for a while. He's had an unholy problem with hairballs for the past 3 weeks (and I mean excessively so), and has shown some worrying signs of stress behaviour by constantly grooming the same part of his body over and over. So I took him into the vet's yesterday for a check up.

She thought it likely he's got a big ol' hair ball that might just be breaking up slowly, so gave me some gel to put on his paws that he'll lick down and digest and should help him shift things. She also gave him an injection to relieve any possible skin allergies, in case that was what was causing the excessive grooming.

All well and good. But today? He's a shadow of his former self. He doesn't want to move, even when I chivvy him, and this is a cat that would bolt if I spoke in That Tone of Voice. He's not left the lounge all day, nor have I seen him eat or drink. He's still grooming obsessively. He has been sick, twice, since he had his first dose of the gel. He moves in slow, careful stages, but otherwise he's not indicating he's in pain. It looks like he's aged 100 years in one day. It could just be the hairball making him unhappy or....

If he's no better in the morning, I am totally taking him to the emergency vet clinic.

Good health vibes for cute cuddly furballs will be appreciated.

So that's one old bed base, one broken toilet, one bust microwave and one manky sofa out of my house :) The sofa wrangling had me covering my eyes but the guys managed to get it out without wrecking anything or themselves - which isn't easy in my flat. There's a badly designed dogleg where the hall joins the lounge and a horribly tight gap between the outside stairs and my front door, so care manoevering is required. Also, I am more determined than ever to never bring anything large in here that can't be dismantled for easy removal. :)

*cuddles the World's Comfiest Sofa, apropos of nothing*

Only downside right now is a traumatised cat. He was initially shut in the kitchen out of the way but yowled so piteously that we attempted to send the Thesski in there to keep him company, only for him to find the only gap between us and freedom and leg it outside. So he got locked out for the duration. And then when he scurried back in and tried to dive behind the old sofa, which is his prefferred hiding place, we'd gone and taken it away!* He's not a Pleased Kitty right now. Which is why while I was out earlier, I picked up some nail clippers and flea treatment - I figure, if I'm going to be hissed at for the rest of the weekend anyway, I may as well really deserve it.

The Thesski is currently perched in the rocking chair, attempting to wrangle a keyboard. This does not look comfy but she insists it could work. I'm on the lookout for a cheap comfy chair though, any colour, doesn't have to be particularly good condition, so long as it's the right side of hygenic. If anyone knows anyone anxious to offload such, please let me know. I've been trawling local second hand sites for a few weeks and nothing's come up so far. A small two seater sofa would work too, in a pinch. Although I have to say, I'm loving the lounge space I've just re-acquired.

Next project - degunking and dejunking the spare room. This is going to be my new den. Also temporary bedroom. I need a room I can curl up in and be a dormouse in peace and quiet. When the spare room's sorted, I can start on the main bedroom. At the very least, Thess should end up with a bit more elbow room.

But for now! There is tea, then food shopping (we're currently making Old Mother Hubbard's cupboard look well stocked) and then a long afternoon and evening of rugby :) Life is good! *happy squeaks*

OK, I know he's a bit of an oddball cat, but now I'm a smidge worried. I just offered him a sliver of hot chicken - and he turned his nose up at it! Chicken! He LIKES chicken! *eyes him*

I'll try him with a piece of cheese later and if he doesn't take my fingers off in his bid to inhale it, 'm totally taking him to the vets next week :P

ETA: He ate the cheese with enthusiasm, but I think he's having problems chewing. Hopefully, I'll get funds in a couple of weeks and I can get him checked out. He's eating his dried food ok so I'm not too worried. :)

...when your kitty cat curls up next to you his head on your thigh, and he's all warm and purry.

*sighs happily*

Feeling a smidge better now, thank you for the well wishes. Annoyingly, I've reached that point where I still feel not quite OK but not badly enough to take more time off work. I'm hoping it'll be clearer one way or the other tomorrow, preferably in the "feel 100%" bit.

Rob's being so affectionate lately, it's kind of unnerving. I should explain that this is a cat that spent his first seven years refusing to sit on, near or remotely close to humans, including me. His idea of getting fuss and attention was to yowl piteously from a distance of 6 or 7 feet away and roll over on his back. Should you get up to oblige with belly rubs, he'd run away. The only way I could fuss him was if I picked him up and cuddled him, but I was only allowed to do this standing up. Sometimes he'd let me fuss him when he was curled up on a chair or my bed.

Then, verrry slowly, he mellowed. First it was deigning to curl up on the sofa with me, albeit at the opposite end. Then he gradually started sidling over to get fussed. Over the last year, he's become velcro cat and, since my hospital visit, he's practically my shadow. He spent today trying to climb onto my lap - this he hasn't done in the entirety of his nearly 13 years of life. *shakes head* It's cute and I'm kinda glad but at the same time, I wish he wouldn't keep toppling over sideways onto my mouse hand - it hurts :P But I do like the way he snuggles into my side of an afternoon and purrs his furry head off :)

Anyway, have a couple of pics of the shameless tart:-

( Here be cute cat pics )

It's funny, technically every day is Saturday for me at the moment, but the real Saturday still feels special. I love Saturday :)

I'm currently watching the end of the Sunderland/Newcasatle football derby (1-1 atm) and when it's done, I shall scamper to Morrison's and do a small shop, as I'm out of bread and, horror of horrors, milk! I haven't had any tea yet today! *wails* I also have a strange craving for pork pie....*shrugs* No idea why but I'm happy to go with it :)

The rebuilding of the PC continues. The most tedious thing is replacing all the firefox bookmarks. I have GOT to learn to save a back up of my favourites file on a disc or something. Of course, learning to do backups is something I need to work on anyway. Until this PC, I had been really, really lucky with my computers. I can only assume this PC is karmic revenge or something.

Downloaded the next episode of Numb3rs and will watch that when I get back. At some point, I MUST catch up with SG:A, I'm so behind. Maybe I'll download 'em next week. However, I have shiny, shiny books to cuddle this weekend, so I don't want to download 'em now :)

In other news, I have been kicking the cat out of the lounge at night, for two reasons. One, I'm sleeping on the sofa and the cat can be an awful fidget, especially at 3am when he wants fuss and attention. Two, it's a long term strategy because I am tired of cleaning crap and dead things off the sofa and carpet. To this end, I bought him a very cosy cat bed, one that's like an igloo in shape, so he had somewhere warm and comfortable to curl up in the hallway, which is a smidge on the drafty side. He took to it like a duck to water but until today, hasn't stayed in it long enough for me to get a picture. Oh he slept in it, but as soon I walk towards the hall, he'd leap out and scamper down the hallway. I could only assume he felt trapped in it - maybe it reminded him a bit of his cat carrier - but now he's quite happy just to poke his fuzzy snout out when I walk past. I'll leave it a bit longer, so as not to spook him, and then I'll see if I can get a picture. It's very cute :) Which reminds me, I promised cute cat pics, but realised I lost them all in the reformat and deleted the ones of Rob off my camera :( Fortunately all the really important photos are uploaded to Flickr and Photobucket already but it's still annoying, I had a couple of really cute shots. Oh well. I'll just have to stalk him again :D

I did actually let him sleep in the lounge last night and he was very well behaved. He spent all night curled up at my feet, like a furry hot water bottle :) Didn't try and get fuss and attention once. Hmm. Maybe he's learned. I'll try again tonight and see :) But when I go back to my bedroom, he's still being shut out of the lounge, so the cat bed was a good investment. I will probably still shut him out of the bedroom, I do like to sleep with the door shut, but I may see if he's less of a fidget there too. He'd like to be nearer to me at night, he follows me to the bedroom door and looks piteously at me when I shut it in his face. Aww!