Leo Update

I am hoping and hoping and praying that Leo has not had a setback. He's been doing so well that stopped watching him like a hawk and relaxed thinking he was for sure fine now. Then this morning. I was preparing his breakfast medicine (mixed with canned food so he thinks it's a treat) and after first running in to check that I was fixing it, he disappeared. He usually stays and tries to pull it off the counter before I'm dont. Darn tall cat..

I went to set it down, prepared to shove him away until it's actually on the floor... and he wasn't there. I called him. Nothing. He was already locked in upstairs so Star can't get his meds, so he couldn't go far. Finally he bolted into the room and went face down in the bowl. He came from the litter box area, so ah, ok, that's why he was missing.

After just a few bites, he made a weird meow, turned and ran to the door, stopped short, flopped down and started licking his 'area'. Oh no, I thought, he's having another incident. He must be hurting. I got Greg's attention, thinking we might have to run him to the vet before he goes to work. But then Leo jumped up and went face down in his food again.

Last night he did not finish his meds because he didn't like the food I mixed it in. Star didn't like it either. I knew it wasn't a favorite, but I was low on cans, and it was all chicken... He got most of the med part, I think, but I know he didn't get it all. And that's both the antibiotic and the other thing that I can never remember what it is except that aside from what it is, it's also a pain reliever.

So I don't know if he still having problems but the meds keep him from hurting, or if he was getting better and had one isolated incident.

He's acting fine now. He's been his normal self all day. Playing, annoying Star, eating, and there haven't been any out of the litter box problems. Not even this morning. I hope I misread what was happening. I hope there won't be any further problems. I'm certainly not going to put his meds in food they've both disliked in the past!


I'm picture-less today, mostly because of how late it is and how much I have to do today.. But I did want to post the wildfire banner. I have both family and friends out there near the wildfires. We're praying for rain, and that everyone will be safe.

Star's Gif Finally

Poor Star. I promised to do a gif for her ages ago! Well, I finally got it done. And in her favorite spot too. Her bean bag chair.

This is my 'go away I'm sleeping' spot.

While I was at it, I fixed up her avatar so she's got her pretty little chest spot, called a locket, which I think is adorable in itself!  Now it's more her!

Improvements!

Leo's doing better! There have been no 'accidents' and he's not licking excessively. And he's started to play again! I mean, leaping and flying and jumping around the room after Da Bird! I was so relieved that I didn't even try to get the camera out, I just kept playing with him!

I don't know where Star was during the play time, but if she'd been there I know he wouldn't have been flying so freely like that! I do think she knows he's feeling better though, because she's back to being a grumbly hissy face at him. And me if I attempt to pet her when she's being all stalky and stare-ey at him.

The food... same deal. He's not crazy about it. Star nibbles the one occasionally. But they are both quite pleased with all the extra canned stuff. Leo still gets his meds in a little bit of food before getting the rest of the can. We have to hurry to give him the rest because if he finishes and you're not there with the rest, he will actually, seriously, try to shove Star away from hers!

Seriously! I don't know why she hasn't killed him for that yet.. But she will move over and let him!! Where's the hissy face then? Where's the paw of doom? It's the weirdest thing. We herd him back to his bowl but she will take forever to get back to hers. Which can be an issue if we gave her fishy food. He still wants fishy stuff, poor guy.

Two more weeks til he gets tested again, but the way he's acting, I think, and hope, he's going to be ok!


The cat tree is still endlessly fascinating, for both of them. They love it! Leo especially.


Preparing to do the Tree Dangle!

First, ya gotta stretch, that's important!

Once yer in position, don't forget to check the location of any potential attackers..

Then check for bunnies, squirrels and birds!

That's today's lesson; do the dangle! Just not too far.. you might fall off..

heh, not that I've ever done that..

Star takes a more dignified approach.

I always wait til daddy's home, then he can run off the barbarian

by coming in the door thus freeing up the tree for me.

Now, give daddy love eyes so he'll scritch behind the ears

and maybe force mommy to give an early snack.

Leo and Change

So no fish cat food for urine crystals. Want to see Leo's reaction to the removal of his usual fishy dry food and replacement with two, sorta expensive, grain free fish free dry cat foods? Sure you do!

no want....

Do you know how many cat foods are out there?? Boy I sure didn't. And even the employees didn't have a clue what I was asking for. So we sat there forever, Greg, me and two employees, reading every label... Even ones that don't list a fishy ingredient on the front, have fish in it. I was almost set on one, I'd read the label three times before I saw it.. herring oil.. argh!

Finally, we settled on two that were fish free, one was also grain free, the other has peas. I thought we should try one at a time, but before I voiced that, Greg had both bowls filled, each with a different one. Star sniffed one, walked away, sniffed the other, took a bite or two, and left. Leo checked the one he considers 'his dish' and gave me a dirty look. Then he checked Star's dish. Then he took off. I think it's safe to say he doesn't think this stuff is real food since it's not fish..

The good news is, he's taking his medicine really well and has not had any inappropriate eliminations. He's back to playing happily and seems to feel better. Yes, he's still sleeping a lot, but I think that's meds making him sleepy. Last night he was released from 'lock out' by sneaking into our room past Greg and he slept with us all night. Yay! I missed him!

But Greg has this issue with sleeping with kitties who pee indiscriminately.. odd huh? Why wouldn't you want to sleep with someone who peed on two pairs of your shoes and your favorite bat man tshirt... Or the threat that he could dribble on your feet in the middle of the night... What's that to having a warm fuzzy buddy lean against your feet all night??

I tease, but I too am glad Leo is back to peeing only in the litter box! He's loving the extra portions of canned foods (with meds), so now we just need him to get on board with the new dry food. Keep purring and praying that things keep looking up please!!

I love you all for the support and information! It's been very helpful and insightful! Thank you all!!

Leo Update

I wanted to put up a quick update. Not that there's a lot of change yet, but I really needed to thank you all for all the comments and information and support! I'm making my way through as much information as I can, from the vet and from what you all have said.

Before I forget, a huge thank you to KC for the purr for Leo badge! That touched my heart so much, thank you!!

To answer some questions. Yes, he is on a pain reliever. He is on an antibiotic even though the vet said it was unlikely to be bacterial, but being on the safe side.

I think it's the effect of the meds, or maybe the not feeling good, but Leo's been sleeping most of the day, and has been very clingy. I have to say that I enjoy holding my baby and cuddling him, I just wish he felt better! So I've spent half my day cuddling him and the other half reading and trying to make sense of things. I might be on brain overload... but we're determined to get our boy healthy!

It took me exactly two doses of meds to figure out that trying to force Leo's jaws open for the liquid was not going to work! So since the vet said to pour out the capsule into a bit of soft food, we went ahead and put the liquid in it too. It took him a few moments to decide if he was going to eat it, but since we picked his new favorite (chicken with cheese) he ate it all up and licked the bowl! Whew!

Star has pretty much left him alone, except for a little hissing. But every time Greg comes into the room, she hides. We couldn't figure it out.. But now I think she thinks he might grab her next and try to shove some med down her throat or stuff her in the carrier! Poor girl, I keep telling her she's fine, but she's not buying it just yet.

Again, thank you all for the information and support, it means a lot!



This is where Leo spent the parts of the day when he wasn't laying on my chest

I see you mommy, I'm gonna come back over now that you made eye contact!

Star kept an eye on him from across the room in her bean bag

I knew when they took you away that it was too good to be true.. They just had to bring you back.. And now you smell like that awful place on top of everything else!

Sick Boy

When I took Leo in this morning, the vet thought his inappropriate urination was behavioral. Possibly from stress with Star, which is not like it's a new thing, or maybe that hiss fight he had with that cat through the door and window last week, or something else. But he didn't think it sounded like he had a physical issue.

I knew better.

None of Leo's stresses are new or suddenly changed, not that his relationship with Star is great, but I couldn't see him suddenly starting to pee everywhere because of it. And, ok, this is a delicate section so skip on down if you are easily offended... All the sudden in the last week or so Leo has been spending an inordinate amount of time grooming his... WhoHa (that's the technical term of course). I know boy dogs will lick their dinglberries (another technical term) just because they can, but I have never had a male cat who licked his part unless there was a problem. I was thinking about asking if anyone knew anything about that kind of behavior, but then the peeing, so it was off to the vet anyway.

What happened is Saturday Leo just got up off our bed and peed on a folded mattress cover right in front of us. That's when I figured, something is up, he would not do that if he was fine. Greg, who has a low tolerance for pee outside the box, closed off the upstairs to both kitties. Then last night in the middle of snack time, he moved into the closet (which still doesn't have it's door back up..) and started peeing. Greg saw him and said "Hey!" So he came out of the closet and peed on the carpet in a crouched down position, not the usual pee position.

Ut oh, I said, that's it, now I know he's got a problem. As Greg was scrubbing the carpet, we found two more puddles right in front of the other food station. Cats do not like to pee where they eat, more proof of problem. Right after cleaning those two puddles, there was another one and dribbles in the kitchen, meaning he was on the move as he peed. More signs of trouble.

So first thing this morning, Greg called to see if he could drop him off before work because I don't drive, don't have a car. No go, and the only appointment they had was at 10:40. So I got my nephew to take us. And like I said, the vet didn't think it was a physical problem. No fever, he couldn't feel any issues, his eyes were clear, all looked good. But he'd check his urine anyway and I could either take him home and get the sample and bring it in, or I could leave him. I left him because they said his bladder was empty and they could give him fluids and maybe lasixs to get him to go.

I should have remembered that for the entire 8 hour trip home from Chrystal's when I adopted my sweet boy, he didn't pee once.... This was going to be a long day. They said I should call around 4-4:30 if I didn't hear from them. I called at 4:30 because I didn't want to appear to be one of those crazy obsessive cat mommies... even though I was staring at the phone every five minutes all day wondering if it was broken and that's why I didn't hear anything..

The nurse said he JUST finally went! Which meant they hadn't tested it. But it didn't look normal, could I call back in 40 minutes, apparently the time it takes to run the tests. Sure, of course I could. ARRGH!!! Do you KNOW how long 40 minutes are when they already said something's wrong????

I called my nephew and asked him to be at my house in 40 minutes because that would be getting pretty close to the time they close and I didn't want him to spend the night if we didn't have to. I called at 40 minutes on the dot. Basically they just said to come get him. I'm on my way!

The vet called me into the room. No Leo. He said that Leo has both blood and crystals in his urine. As near as I can understand it, crystals are the bigger problem because if they continue, they can grow and completely block his ability to pee. I lost a cat to that once, I do not want to go through that again!

So we are home, armed with two medications. One he'll be on for three weeks, the other, I think is a week, until it runs out. I only have a weeks worth of the antibiotic in case we have trouble giving him it liquid form, then next week we can pick up more in pills or liquid, which ever is easier. I've also got a stack of papers to read. While the vet didn't say anything about it being FLUTD, some of the papers talk about it. I guess we wont know if he has that until we see if it clears up or continues?

He also told me that fish cat foods can be a cause of crystals! We never had fish dry food until we got Leo, but because that's what he was used to, that's what we continued feeding him. And Star started preferring it over her old food so that was their basic diet. In canned food, we stuck to poultry because, as any long time reader may know, Star is a chicken addict. But recently, I'd say in the last three months, we have gotten more fishy flavors and they both liked them so we got more and more fish.. I had no idea this could be a problem.

Please pardon the no pictures today. And all the pee talk. And, seriously, thank you all for the purrs and prayers. If you would, please purr and pray and send good thoughts that when he gets tested again in three weeks that it's all cleared up and wont be an on going problem! Thank you everyone!!

If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go snuggle my baby boy now.

Vet Visit

Leo is heading to the vet this morning with a possible kidney issue. Please purr or pray or send him good thoughts. For me too, that I can actually get him in the carrier!
I'll try to update when I know what's going on.

Making Up For Broken Toys

So the question: How to make up for the broken ringy toy..

I think this worked!

Leo: It smells like... other kitties!

Ok, it's used... But we vacuumed every inch of it after their first sniffs!

It's even Star approved!

Star: Hmm, yes, I can see this as my throne..

Since it's been here, it's hardly ever unoccupied. At night we put it in front of the closed door so they can see out there. When Greg goes to work, he puts it back on the carpet, leaning against the wall because Leo can really make it rock when he takes a flying leap! When I get up, I open the door and put it back in front of the screen and they love it!

The fur you see on it in Star's picture is all them... that's after it was totally vacuumed up! She waits for me to put it in it's spot and is on it immediately. Leo comes down later and when she gets off, it's all his! Then they go back and forth all day and night. I think they kinda like it..

Illuminating!

Leo was given the Illuminating Blogger Award by Mica Minnie Moo of Twinkletoes Tails! So now he has to give an illuminating fact about himself.

Which is not an easy thing, since this blog started with him when we got him from Chrystal. That means most of his life with me has been recorded here. So after thinking hard I think I managed to uncover something!

You know that his full name is Leo the Chinese Lion. But you may not know what he has in common with lions. Lions don't purr or meow (Leo does both, that's not the thing!) but they chuff. When Star does her stalky stare at Leo, he doesn't growl, doesn't meow. What he does is chuff at her. It's kind of an ehh ehh ehh noise that lets her know "I know you're watching me" as well as alerts me to the stalky behavior.

Talk about coincidence! I just had to stop writing because I heard his distinctive chuff and saw Star creeping up on him. I've learned not to treat her like she's been being a bad girl because that just guarantees that she figures she's already in trouble, she may as well kick his butt while she's at it. So I had to soft call her and draw her attention to a different sunpuddle (he was in the one she wanted) to avoid a fight. Whew!

Now we have to pass the award on, here's who we choose!

Mr Jinx at Manx Mnews
Spud at Random Felines
Sascha at Brian's Home (I know one of the sisters already got the award, but this is for Sascha!)

Oh, and I suppose it would be bad of me not to put up a picture of my boy, now wouldn't it?

Just a little closer Mr. Squirrel... come on..

Almost forgot to mention! Last night, I thought I heard Leo chuffing so I paused what we were watching and listened, and he was actually, seriously, no fooling around, really growling! Ok, it was a little high pitched, but he IS a teenager.. (do boy cats do the voice change thing?) He was looking out the window and having a complete fit! When he ran to the door, I figured out why. There was a big kitty looking back at him!

So I guess the chuffing is reserved for Star, real growls are for intruders!

Poor Poor Ringy

You've all seen those ringy toys with the balls inside the track I'm sure. Some kitties LOVE them! Some aren't that interested. I got one for Star years ago, BL (Before Leo) and she ignored it. It made me sad. Then she would occasionally sit in it like it was a cat bed and she'd sit in the middle of it. But that ball, no thank you.

Greg went on a mission to get her interested and would spin the ball around the track when she was in the room to get her interested. Then, one amazing day, she bapped the ball! Once... *sigh*

But Greg persevered and kept tempting her, playing with her and she got to the point where she loved the ringy toy! Maybe not every day, but she would play with it several times a week.

Star: This. Is. Mine.

Star: Oo! There's the ball!

Star: Got you now!! Bwhaha!

Then... AL (After Leo) Star would sit in it again. I think she was guarding it. Kind of silly since Leo didn't seem to know what it was or what to do with it. Greg worked with him a little, when Star was elsewhere. He spun the ball and showed him how it worked. It didn't take Leo near as long to start playing with it! His biggest problem was his extra sized paws!

Leo: My turn! I love this thing!

Leo made it work though, he just played carefully! He tended toward the blitz attack mode. He'd fly into the room, smack the ball a few times and bolt back out! He's a wild man, my Leo. If you check the chart on the last post, at one year, he's a 'human' 15 years old, wild and crazy teen boy!

Well, as the title of this post suggests... All is not well in ringy world...

It got stepped on! Horrors! I won't rat out the culprit.. *coughcoughGregcoughcough* but suffice it to say, the ring is no more.

Alas, poor Ringy, we knew ye well..

Star: ...Wha... Hey! Who did this!?!

Leo: It wasn't me! I didn't do it!

But, hey! I can get my paw in that hole no problem!

Star: Who did it? Oh... Well, at least I still have my kick-a-roos!

But if ol' big foot stomps these, I'll surgically remove his toes with my claws of death! I don't care if he IS the light of my life and my favorite, strike that, the ONLY person in the world I love! EVERYone has to respect MY toys!

Don't fret, Star, the guilty party felt bad, I'm sure it'll be replaced before too long. Oh, and in the mean time, there's some new stuff we'll show off, hopefully this week.


While I was going through the ringy pictures, I decided Hey! Another good opportunity (see the first one here) to show off their size difference! Since I can't get them close enough to show it 'in person'..
Here's a side by side comparison, the ring is the exact same size in both pictures.

Young and big boy, older and petite girl. I love both of my babies!

Star's Birthday/Gotcha Day Celebration!

I really dropped the ball, but Star, being the sweet kitty that she is, has given me a reprieve. As long as I get her birthday/gotcha day party up before the weekend is over, I get to keep my arms! Otherwise, she’ll shred me to bloody stumps.

Note to self: Claw clipping time again...

She’s being this lenient with me because of my earlier back trouble, physical therapy, vacation, and my mom’s surgery. I appreciate it, Star, I truly do! (Next week I’ll show you how she helps with my physical therapy!) So let’s get right to it!

We don’t know Star’s actual birthday, and we honestly don’t remember what date it was exactly when we got her. So we did some guesstimating. We know it was right at the end of the nieces’ and nephew’s school year. So June was a good choice. And since she’s a number 1 kitty, June 1st was the best, logical choice.

I’ve told her story before, you can find it here: Gray Cat Obsession

The short version is I thought she was one of the free kittens they were giving away at the house I parked next to when I picked up my nieces from school. I’d seen her on the porch one day and just wanted her! Thinking she was a slightly grown up kitten of the ‘free kittens’ sign proclaimed. She was not.

She was one of the momma kitties. But they were giving her away too, so I got her! My nephew, who I’d picked up from junior high before going for the girls, carried her home in his arms. We were not expecting to get a kitty or I’d have had a carrier. But her owner was in the middle of a divorce and was hardly ever there and was only there at that time to pick up a few things. (Actually, it looked more like he was throwing things out into the yard and breaking them, but I digress..)

It took days, but once I got her in a room by herself, visited her several times a day, I discovered that she was very happy to be pet and cuddled. Just not picked up. Once I let her out to mingle with my three elder kitties, she quickly took control as top cat.

Within a few years, she was an only cat and seemed to prefer it that way. Cuddly and kittenish as long as it was her idea and she got her way. Which she almost always did.

Eating chicken? Oh that’s hers, must share! Ham? Same deal. Gooseliver (braunschweiger)? She’d take your arm off for that! Pick her up? Expect her to fight tooth and claw. Let her come to you, forget anything you’re working on, it’s Star time! Catnip? Whenever she wants it.

It’s only been recently that she’s started showing her age, but bring out the right toy and she still plays like a kitten, leaping and biting like a champ!

I looked up how to tell cat years and discovered that my 13 year old petite darling is actually 68. I guess it’s understandable that she’s showing her age. Occasionally. She seriously doesn’t show that age when she’s chasing around 1 (15) year old Leo!
　

Here’s the chart I used:

        let's take a glimpse at a simple formula for calculating feline age in human years. Assume that
        a 1-year-old cat is equal to a 15-year-old human and a 2-year-old cat is equal to a 24-year-old
        human. Then add four years for every year after that. (Example: A 4-year-old cat would be 32 in
        human years.) The following chart shows this formula of calculation:

So it’s her Birthday/Gotcha Day! Time to party!

My little lady loves her nip, so there will be nip, nip toys, and niptinies! Along with all of her favorite foods, chicken, tuna, gooseliver, ham.. I better stop, she’s drooling already.. Rest assured, everything needed for a party is here, except YOU, her guests!

Cartoon Leo and Star!

Have you seen the cartoonize my pet thing yet? The one Twinkletoe Tails showed everyone how to use? How cool is that? I had to try to make my kitties of course!

They all come out the same size, so I had to shrink Star because my sweet little girl is about half the size of my sweet little boy! I think they came out kinda cute!

I realize that you may not know it from most of the pictures I take, but Star does have the biggest roundest eyes. But she squints at the camera.. Leo's are a little more tilted, but that's pretty close! The only other thing missing, I think, is Star's tiny little dot of white on her chest. That's called a locket, which I think is just adorable!

Anyway, you should try it, it's fun!

Adopt a Cat Month

Did you know that June was the National Adopt A Cat Month? 5 days in and I can't believe I haven't mentioned it!

 

Especially since I adopted Star in June 11 years ago when she was a two year old mommy kitty! At least I think it was June and I think I've pretty much decided to use June 1st as her 'official' gotcha day. Unfortunately I was too messed up to get that out there and give her a gotcha day party so I'm planning on that for later this week to make it up to her!

Leo, of course, was also adopted from the amazing and wonderful Chrystal and she has plenty more, including Leo's sisters, who need homes, so consider adopting from her, please.

See the picture above? I really really believe that is true! I rescued Star from being tossed out by her former family, and Chrystal rescued Leo from life as a feral. I could not ask for two better kitties, I couldn't ask for more perfect ones for my household.

Ok, I could ask that they get along better... but I don't think that's the most important thing, especially after seeing how many other bloggers have kitties that don't particularly love each other. My kitties get individual love and attention, they just don't get it from each other. I still say they're perfect!

So my request of you is, hug your kitties, whether they like each other or not (or the hugs!) because yesterday was hug your cat day but you can carry over! And if you can, adopt a kitty this month! And seriously seriously consider adopting from Chrystal because those rescue kitties really are the best breed! If you absolutely cannot adopt, share the thought, and blogs, with everyone you know, and if you can, donate to those who do the rescuing. (I think you know who gets my vote for those donations, but I know there are lots of other worthy rescue places out there, just please help the kitties if you can!)

Alright, I'll stop preaching to the choir now! And end with this: I LOVE KITTIES!!! Don't you??

Yikes

Yikes, the kitties are giving me 'the eye' for being so slack on posting. Not to mention visiting and commenting on our friends posts.. I promise, I'll be better, kitties! Now can I have some cuddles to show you forgive me?

Star....?

Leo...?

Anybody???

Star: Hmm, ....I don't think so, lady.

Leo: Yeah, lets see you keep your word for a few days first, then we'll see..

Meanies...

MOL


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Edit:

Hey! It's hug your cat day! I guess they got no choice now! Mwahaha!