Kitty Induced Stress!

Shoowee... Its been a rough week.

And just a warning, this serves as a bit of a TMI warning for this post.

This afternoon around 6PM it was a week since I suddenly lost my Taxi. I am still waiting for his ashes after we arranged to have him cremated. An expense I know, some might say a waste of money, but I can't imagine not having him with me.

And then, this morning after I woke up, Minx jumped up onto the bed to come and call me for breakfast and I noticed her face looked a little lopsided. I had a look and I could feel a slight swelling under her jaw but nothing really clear, it was just swollen.

I immediately made an appointment with our vet as I am not one to ignore anything strange with any of my furbabies. When the vet examined her she was surprised I'd seen anything as the swelling is very slight, but I know my furry masters very well. Especially the cats since they are inside with me all the time. I very quickly see a change in their litter boxes, appearance or behaviour. The vet shaved a small spot over the swelling and took a couple of samples from a swollen lymph node. And now we wait for the test results. Minx has some antibiotic tablets to take in the meantime.

I took pictures of Greebo and Minx being cute and doing their little mini-me skit last night and I looked at the photos now and you can see a slight bulge just under Minx's right jaw (on the left in the picture).

And then a little later in the day, I was working in my kitchen when I heard a cat throwing up. Anyone who has heard that sound will know it sounds too awful, and cats are not supposed to throw up at all. I quickly found the sound and was surprised to find Turk heaving! I thought I'd wait till he was finished so I could give him a once over and clean the mess when my son pointed out that there was something in his mouth. I realised there was about 3cm of a black organza ribbon hanging out of his mouth and he seemed to be working it in again! I was stunned, and perhaps I shouldn't have- but I grabbed the protruding ribbon and as Turk reversed away from me, the full length of the ribbon came out as he retched. Its a 1M length of ribbon, and its from a whole lot that I was cutting earlier this week for a customer order! Damien had found Turk and Magic playing with the cut, hanging 1M lengths and had taken a chewed ribbon from Turk and moved the remaining 200 odd ribbons into a closet. I assumed all was okay until I pulled the one out of Turk today. I counted the ribbons again and I think they're all now accounted for, but I am a little afraid he may have another one in his tummy, so he's being watched like a hawk. 

In case you're wondering why I'm worried, cats ingesting string or ribbon or such is dangerous as it can literally tangle their intestines!

I do hope this is the end of my kitty worries... And I do hope Minx's test results come back with nothing serious.

A Tribute

I have decided to get a small tattoo in memory of my precious Taxi cat. I don't know yet what I will get, my tattoo artist and I are working on a design...
It won't be a very big tattoo, and I want to incorporate his name into it somehow.
As soon as its done I will put a picture up here of course.

Waiting In Anticipation!

I have applied for my family and I to be puppy raisers and I can't wait to find out when the representative from the South African Guide-dogs Association will come and see us!

Being a puppy raiser entails raising and training a puppy from 8 weeks old to between 11 and 18 months old, and then returning the pup to the Guide-dogs Association for the completion of their training, and then assignment to a blind person.

It’s a lot of work with formal training from the SAGA and strict standards to adhere to, as well as regular visits to the puppy’s temporary home to see how it’s going. The pup will have to go everywhere with me to get used to all sorts of people and places. And of course it means having a highly intelligent puppy to deal with as well, which comes with its own set of rather entertaining complications! I believe it’s a very worthy cause, and it’s something I have wanted to do for many years but couldn’t undertake because I worked full day.

I do hope we will be approved and I look forward to blogging about our puppy raising adventure.

Is It Odd...?

Greebo is sleeping on our bed almost every night. He hasn't done that since I brought Taxi home as a kitten...

Its Getting Late...

And I caught myself wondering, for a split second, where my Taxi was that he wasn't here on the bed with me like he usually is.
And I started crying again.
I miss my cat...

I Miss You

I miss the way your tail would pop straight up as soon as I spoke to you when you were walking down the passage or into a room.
I miss the way your nails would click on the tile floor as you walked.
I miss that funny little skipping jump you did in the morning when it was time to go down to breakfast.
I miss the way you always looked me right in the eye when you came towards me.
I miss how you never just lay still if I stroked and cuddled you.
I miss the way you purred and kneaded me when you came to snuggle with me on the bed.
I miss how you would sit on the edge of the bath and watch me bath or shower, sniffing the bubbles or watching my toes under the water.
I miss the way you rolled around all over the furniture when I crooned and sang to you.
I miss the way you slept on my bed, on your back with your feet in the air.
I miss how you would look at me and meow without a sound.
I miss the way you bounded up the stairs ahead of me when you thought I was going to my bedroom.
I miss how you were always where I was, on the bed with me, in the kitchen, on the couch.
I miss the warm solidity of your body under my hands.
I miss how you opened doors to get to me.

I miss you so much my sweet Taxi. My gentle giant. I miss you so very much.

My Taxi Is Gone

My darling boy. My silk brick.

My sweet snickerdoodles, who slept at my feet on the corner of my bed, or on top of me should the opportunity have presented itself. My darling tixanax who went wherever I went, including opening doors so he could let himself into the room I was in. My precious snickers who slept on the couch where he could see me if I was downstairs, and went running up the stairs if it looked like I was headed in that direction. My boy. My toothless wonder who nonetheless managed to catch birds on the balcony outside my bedroom, and then played with them in my bathroom till he let himself out and I could throw it away. My sweet kitty who had almost no voice, and would look at me and talk to me and I knew he was meowing at me because his mouth was moving.

I am going to miss my sweet Taxi cat something awful. There will be no more weight on my feet at night. There will be no more running up the stairs ahead of me with such visible excitement it never failed to make me smile. There will be no more rolling around and purring like a mad thing when I talked to him.

My heart is broken.

He was only 6 years old, and the cause of his sudden passing is a mystery. His heart just stopped. I am grateful to some extent because I honestly expected to battle diabetes or some such in his old age brought on by his FeLV.
Not half an hour before that he had crept past me on the kitchen floor with his eye on some birds on the back lawn. And then he was gone.

We're having him cremated and I will get his ashes back in a little wooden box.

Snuggling

My kitties love to snuggle with each other... 

Minx and Magic seem to be exceptions to this. Both of them are completely integrated into our furry family, and they all play together and sleep on the same couch and the same bed and eat together, but I very rarely- if ever- see Magic or Minx snuggling with the other cats.

Thelma and Louise Sleep Inside

We're looking at a really cold winter, so I spoke to my Glugster and we decided that we would start training the girls to sleep inside the house overnight.
The girls sleep outside in their igloo, and because my cats are indoor cats the doors stay closed so they can't get outside.
Bringing the girls inside meant they had to be taught to sleep only in one place, and they had to be taught that the cats were off limits. With Thelma and Louise already having responded exceptionally well to simple training like sit, stay, I was sure I wouldn't battle.
So we brought their cushions in off the outside couch, and blankets, and I started training them.
It is fabulous! The girls already know they are not allowed in the house, so I had to teach them they could come inside if I invite them. They come in when called and they go straight to their cushions in the corner of the dining room. I've let them know that that room is their space when they're inside and even if I barricade the room and remove the barricade in the morning, they don't come out of the dining room until I call them to the back door to let them out again.
I am so impressed with how well behaved the girls are! I put down newspaper and if they need to mess in the night they do it there.
We have had a couple of barks in the night, at the cats who want to go and see why the dogs are now sharing their space, but apart from that its all good.

Caught You!!

This is Minx and Diva! 

We heard a noise and my son went to look what was going on, and he found these two mischievous little girls in his bathtub!! We have learned the hard way that our cats LOVE toilet rolls that can be unrolled and tangled up!

 

Naughty girls!!