What is your pet doing right now?*

[Gattopardo]

Being little destructive reason that I can't have anything nice.

New black out curtains from Dunelm, called Luna, and her arsehat of a brother has clawed the curtains already.  They had been up for less than 6 hours.

[ian]

It's vet day.

Capture operations commence in about 10 minutes. I expect they'll intercept this message.

[ian]

And caught. Easier than anticipated, mostly because LMC ran right into me and I scooped her up and straight into the carrier before she'd recovered her senses. Look mum, no scratches.

Catching Bad Cat isn't so bad as she's daft enough to think she can escape by playing dead. How's that working out for you, fuzzball?

[ian]

Oh well, one nice long scratch down my wrist from the vet's attempt to feed LMC a pill. We opted to switch to a topical de-wormer at that point. As a plus, she didn't poop on anyone this time.

Bad Cat just flopped around. She's been biting out chunks of fur which, upon investigation, seems not to be any kind of horrid parasite, but we think some kind of feline OCD (she's always been a fastidious cleaner and upchucker of furballs). It might be stress from her ongoing battle with her magpie nemeses, we suppose. Anyway, some vitamin E supplements for the time being.

That's me £170 poorer. As a boon, I got the vet to use her ninja medical skills to pull a recalcitrant splinter out of my finger. It's a lot easier to get an appointment at the vets than the GP these days.

[T42]

Dogs: sleeping, farting. Unfortunately upwind of me.  But hey, it's not all bad: the fartier of the two is curled up at MrsT's feet.

[Mrs Pingu]

Aw, sorry to hear Bad Cat is stressed. Not nice when it's behavioural.

We've just picked ours up from kitteh GITMO. As usual Pumpkin was pleased to see us, while Ninkasi curled herself up into a tiny ball until she thought we couldn't see her anymore in the vain hope we wouldn't stick her in a box.
Honestly, you'd think she'd be pleased to get away from the place.

Now they're both doing the revolving door thing while they investigate everything inside and outside, rinse & repeat every 5 mins.

[ian]

Bad Cat doesn't seem stressed, if anything she seems to enjoy a good leg gnawing session, and she will insist and going out to face the magpie menace. But she needs to stop, as the fur on her front leg is getting thread-worn, and it makes a horrid sound. We have some food supplement which I doubt is much use, but I'm not booking her in for feline cognitive behavioural therapy.

Bad Cat and LMC behave exactly likes yours when liberated.

In other good news, they now have three-month anti-parasite treatments, rather than 1 month, which will save considerable and bloody battles getting it on LMC's neck. Bad Cat, on the other hand, rarely even notices she's been dabbed.

[hellymedic]

David trapped tux feral and took him to Medivet for neutering and pest control.

Place seems quiet without him. I think he'll be back tomorrow.

[Andrij]

David trapped tux feral and took him to Medivet for neutering and pest control.

Place seems quiet without him. I think he'll be back tomorrow.

I didn't think David was the noisy type.

[hellymedic]

  David's been quiet today, bemoaning scant ceremony for his 55 solar orbits.

Place is quiet because Big Tom is mostly absent and does not sing in Feral's absence.

Big Tom can be operatic...

[hellymedic]

Feral has returned from MediVet minus goolies, fed well and wandered off.
All felines are currently on the loose.

[Gattopardo]

Both have spent all day hiding in wardrobes.

Which is odd.

[ian]

Guarding the porch, where I chased last night's mouse. It's still in there, I can't coax it out and I'm not moving everything since it'll just dart back under the stuff I've moved. I tried the ET approach with a line of cat food out of the porch door and down the path.

However, when I came back from the kitchen after putting the cat food back, Bad Cat was working her way up the line of food and into the porch.

Sigh. I'll try and coax it out when it's dark. It may have cooked during the day. I did put out some food and water for it, let it not be said I don't treat my murine guests well.

[ian]

Evicted the mouse with a feather duster. Was about to clean up the evitable poop when I noticed the reason it had been unkeen to move. Four little mouselets squeaking away.

I gathered them up and put them outside in a box in the hope that mom would come back. Seems she didn't as there were four dead mouselets this morning.

I know they're officially vermin and stuff but I'm really quite sad about this.

Bad Cat, on the other hand, seems unperturbed. She also threw up on the bed this morning because we all love doing laundry at 5.30am. Don't eat grass seeds, you muricidal moron.

[ian]

Bad Cat still biting out her fur, looking quite tatty in places now. Lordy, have some self-respect. Vet says she couldn't find any parasites but we've dosed her just in case. She likes the oily food supplement for sure. The only stress she has are the magpies and they always tell me 'she started it.' She fights LMC a lot, but she really does start that, and that's hardly a new thing.

[essexian]

Purrdee the kitten is in love 

Coming up to 10 months old, Purrdee has taken a considerable shine to an old craggy intact tom who comes around a couple of times a day for food: Lord Rayner. When ever he shows up, Purrdee follows rubbing herself against him and generally walking sideways in front of him.

He is nonplussed about this as she has been done but its quite funny to see her falling over herself to impress him!

[Mrs Pingu]

Poor Bad Cat. I don't suppose there will be anything you've not already seen here:
https://icatcare.org/advice/problem-behaviour/over-grooming-problems

[ian]

Yeah, thanks. We're not sure what the problem is. It seems like fleas, she likes taking a good bite out of her legs, like she's trying to get at something, but even the vet couldn't find any creatures lurking in her fur. She got a good dose of pesticide just in case. Maybe she just likes biting herself, even as cats go, she's pretty dim and she genuinely does seem to like having a good fur-bite. I worked her over with the furminator last night – this traditionally doesn't yield much from Bad Cat (LMC, on the other hand, you could stuff a sofa with the all the fuzz that comes off her), but there was plenty of loose fur. Maybe she's just too fuzzy for the weather.

She doesn't seem evidently stressed. I don't think the magpies are that bad and they've been around for years.

I'm, of course, worried that it might be Morgellons.

[Riggers]

Our Noodle isn't doing so well. Went to the vets on Monday, and she has 200ml drained (fluid retention) from her abdomen. All the while, she's affecting an air of nonchalance, and even licking her front paw. But things aren't good. She's booked in tomorrow afternoon for a final visit. I have to say I welled up at the vets this morning and even now typing these words.

She's 20. Only three legs, courtesy of a Greyhound attack when she was 12, so she's done pretty good really, but she's struggling to support herself, and with the fluid retention, she's like a football. I know her heart's struggling and this may well be indicative of cancer. But I couldn't bear to take her in today. And she's drinking lots, but even so, the vet said she's dehydrated.

She's sleeping on next door's decking.

I can also say, when oft repeated by non-cat people: She's not just-a-cat. Not to us.

[sam]

I can also say, when oft repeated by non-cat people: She's not just-a-cat. Not to us.

There was a good piece about this in the Telegraph some years ago: "we’re at once a self-professed nation of animal-lovers, and yet one where grieving for an animal is considered indulgent and faintly ridiculous."

[Riggers]

I can also say, when oft repeated by non-cat people: She's not just-a-cat. Not to us.

There was a good piece about this in the Telegraph some years ago: "we’re at once a self-professed nation of animal-lovers, and yet one where grieving for an animal is considered indulgent and faintly ridiculous."

Thanks Sam. Good piece.

[Gattopardo]

I can also say, when oft repeated by non-cat people: She's not just-a-cat. Not to us.

When people say that, walk away.  They don't understand, and won't.  The furballs become part of the family, part of your life.  Creep in to your heart and leave a massive hole when they leave.

I like my cats more than I like a great number of people.

Condolences to you riggers, give noodle a chin rub from me.

[hellymedic]

Our Noodle isn't doing so well. Went to the vets on Monday, and she has 200ml drained (fluid retention) from her abdomen. All the while, she's affecting an air of nonchalance, and even licking her front paw. But things aren't good. She's booked in tomorrow afternoon for a final visit. I have to say I welled up at the vets this morning and even now typing these words.
She's 20. Only three legs, courtesy of a Greyhound attack when she was 12, so she's done pretty good really, but she's struggling to support herself, and with the fluid retention, she's like a football. I know her heart's struggling and this may well be indicative of cancer. But I couldn't bear to take her in today. And she's drinking lots, but even so, the vet said she's dehydrated.
She's sleeping on next door's decking.
I can also say, when oft repeated by non-cat people: She's not just-a-cat. Not to us.

Sad news. 20 is an advanced age but it's still sad.
The medic in me is wondering about her liver, though it's academic.

Thoughts are with you...

[Mrs Pingu]

Aw, sorry to hear that Riggers, I loved to see your pics of Noodle. It's a very hard thing saying goodbye.

[barakta]

Sorry to hear about Noodle, that's incredibly sad.