Wishing you all a Happy New Year!

Our little buddy is sick

This week we have been adapting to the news that our beloved Mr. Kitty, Leo, has diabetes. We have been really worried and heartsick because we love our good friend, and don't want him to suffer.

I first noticed a change in his litter box, but I thought it was the litter formula that had been changed. Then he started to pee in the bathtub. I just thought he didn't like the litter, or that I needed to clean the box more often. I changed the type of litter. He started to poop in the bathroom. This annoyed me, but I again thought he was rejecting something about the litter box. Was it the hated vacuum cleaner that I had left next to it? Finally, I saw that he had lost some weight and was starting to feel bonier. Belatedly, it hit me that he was having a health problem, not a behavior issues. I felt terrible that I had not made the connection earlier.

On Monday, I took him to our vet. Tuesday, we got confirmation that his blood and urine showed elevated sugar levels. It took a few days of missed phone calls and scheduling to finally get him in on Friday for an insulin lesson. Our new routine is to give him insulin injections twice a day, change his food to a special diabetic formula, and watch him closely for three weeks. Then we get his blood tested again to see if the dose needs to be changed. I have already given another diabetic cat insulin injections, so I know that it is not difficult at all, and the cat hardly notices the very thin needle; the injections are under the skin, not into the muscles. The main thing is to have a solid routine so that the injections are 12 hours apart.

With luck, it will be easy to regulate his blood sugar level. He's ten years old: a "mature" cat, but not yet "geriatric," and he could still live comfortably and happily for many more years.

The story of Loren the cat.

Although this cat looks a LOT like my cat Leo, it's not Leo, it's a cat in Spain whose name is Loren.
I only know him from his story and these pictures. Behind the apartment in Zaragoza is a school whose grounds shelter a number of feral cats. Staff and neighbors feed them so they survive, although they are very scruffy, and not all of them make it. It's distressing, but at least they get some attention.

Apparently, some people have taken to dumping or abandoning cats there because they know there will be a minimum of care for them. One day, Loren was looking out the window, and saw a young man with a backpack approach the fence, take out a cat, hug it, and then leave. He was clearly unhappy to be doing it, but he had left his cat there to fend for itself. This made us very sad!

Loren told our neighbor Marta, a lovely and tender-hearted soul who rescues animals, what he'd seen and she and others who keep an eye on the animals there saw that this cat was not adapting to its new life. It was a house cat that was not going to make it because it couldn't compete with the feral cats for food. It became skinny, matted and was clearly struggling to survive.

Our neighbor managed to get the cat to come with her (it seemed happy to be rescued) and put an announcement up. A family adopted it, had a vet look at it, and shaved off its matted fur. They named him Loren after the person who helped start the rescue, but although he's a kitty that loves people, he didn't get along with their other animals, and they had to put him up for adoption again. Luckily, now that his hair had grown back, you can see how these pictures helped find him a new home.

We're happy the story turned out well, but we wish there were some way we could let his original owner know that he is OK. I wonder if his new family has given him a new name?

While I'm away....

Leo is in very good hands.

His decorative belly fur doesn't fit in the window ledge.

Leo

It's so hard to take good pictures of my cat! He avoids the camera.


He doesn't like the flash.


I like to sneak up on him when he's sleeping.

Cat yodeling, or autotune your cat

Ha! If I tried this with my 20-lb cat, I would get shredded. My cat yodels every night between 3-5AM, so I have no need to apply any of these techniques.

I have kept company with more than one engineer, so this makes me laugh.

Oh, you were going to file these?

Leo loves his pop-up cube: it has become his den, and he loves it when we dangle toys around it.


Our cat usually stays indoors, for a variety of reasons, our ridiculous climate being one, and his lack of street smarts being another. Years ago when I lived in Berkeley, where cats can live outdoors all year long, I spent too many Friday evenings taking a feisty male cat to the pet emergency clinic to want to have to deal with those head wounds they get when they try to defend their territory. But from time to time I am reminded that Leo is a mighty hunter.
When I take him out on the front lawn to hang out with him he chews grass and looks shifty-eyed at the squirrels. As soon as we get out there, the birds start yelling at him and sometimes a squirrel will scold. I got a reminder that all that play with his toys inside is really just a substitute for the real thing when we were getting ready to leave on our trip last week; we had his little Port-a-pet ready but he was out on the lawn. As I was walking toward him to put him in the carrier, I saw a sparrow dive-bomb him, and realized that he had a bird in his mouth. I could see it was still alive but holding still, and I reached to grab the back of his neck. He growled at me, but I pulled his head back and he let go of the bird. In an instant he had it pinned under his front paws. I pulled him back again and the bird was able to fly away, somewhat slowly, but surely. I hope it didn't have any puncture wounds and could recover, but I will never forget the sight of that mouthful of bird. He is so fast.He stayed for a week at the farm, but did not attack the guinea pigs or the pigeon! He loves the barn, and if it had any rodents, it doesn't now.

Leo says Hi

My giganto-cat.

Does this happen to you?

If you haven't seen this one on YouTube, you'll have seen it on CuteOverload.

This is more or less accurate. My cat does not understand the concept of the weekend, so there is no sleeping in. And my cat's voice is much whinier and more demanding. The claw poke to the face usually happens on my nose, not my ear. My feet are also a target. There is some sitting next to/on my head with purring. He never feigns sleeping, he always jumps down off the bed and looks at me accusingly.

Cats therapy

Antidotes for the negativity to which I gave too much power in my life during the last two weeks: fun with Mr. Kitty. Here he is, helping with toilet repair a few months ago. I sent his photo to Cats in Sinks, but neglected to see if they ran it. Actually, that's not really accurate--I clicked the button "Show me another cat in a sink!" dozens of times, but his photo didn't come up. But it was soothing to see so many cats in so many sinks.

Leo has a lolcat

This lolmemehas contaminated the entire universe, as reported by Scott Beale over at Laughing Squid. One of my favorites is Loltheorists, but I have to say I also like Lolbrarians.

Sleeping with cats

Leo the large, my beloved cat, almost lost one of his nine lives last night. At about 1 AM, he decided it was time for me to wake up. Now, normally he accomplishes this goal by lurking in the hallway and meowing loudly, at which point I get up and put him out on the porch. Even if the porch door is open, he will not go out there until I put him out and close the door. I don't mind this usually because I always have to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. But last night, he decided to use a different wake-up method, the single claw to the big toe. He usually does this only in the morning, after I am already awake but not yet out of bed. He'll delicately extend a single claw and delicately poke a toe, never really hard, just enough to get my attention. Last night, however, I was awakened by an sharp pain to discover that the bleeping fur monster had jammed his claw into my big toe right on the edge of the toe nail, ripping a small chunk of skin and causing a surprising amount of bleeding. I had been lying on my stomach with my toes dangling off the bottom edge of the bed and he just couldn't resist. Some cursing ensued as I stumbled to the bathroom and applied pressure, wiped the blood off the bathtub, cleansed and bandaged the wound. I was too groggy to apply Neosporin, but I'll make sure I do that this morning because cat claw puncture wounds can get infected easily. I put him out on the porch. I am extremely proud of the fact that no animals were injured in this process even though I was tempted to eject him from the building with prejudicial force.
He knew he was a bad kitty, though. He may have a brain the size of a walnut, but he is a cat.

Leo in motion

Here's some exciting action footage of Leo the large, just being his big self.

Hazards of winter

A cat with static cling. Not happy.

My buddy

Another one of those cat rule: always help make the bed.
My cat was SO glad to see me when I got back. My neighbor had been taking care of him, so he hadn't gotten any slimmer, but he sure craved attention. While we were in Spain, we acquired a new guinea pig, named Muffin. We've all been surprised at how fond we've become of these guys. Muffin is only about half the size of Louis, pictured here. I just love Louis' haircut!
I would love to have a guinea pig at my place, but I'm afraid the last thing it would see would be something like this:

Poor Leo!

Not so sure about this snow stuff.

He tried so hard to fit into the toiletries case so he could come to Spain with us, but no luck.

Saturday morning favorites

We had lunch at Cupcake yesterday, where we saw their gingerbread rendition of their wonderful bakery-restaurant.
Things that make me happy on Saturday morning, cruising through my blogroll:

• Birdchick has more pages of rabbit disapproval! And her blog has the usual amazing photos of birds plus videos of starlings asking for kisses.
• Astronomy picture of the day shows the trail of the shuttle Discovery against the Orion nebula and Rigel glowing brightly.
• Dancing salsa On 1 or On 2: can you spot the difference? Even if you can't, the two videos are awesome.
• SF Mike gives me a dose of my hometown: the politics, the music, the beauty, the characters. Check out the gorgeous photos from Golden Gate Park.
• "Playground to posse: what's your quack-pack?" ZeFrank isn't just funny, although he's always funny, when he's talking about space and MyPlace.
• MPR reports that S.Dakota Senator Tim Johnson is recovering well from his brain surgery. No, he did not have the same condition as Blas, but we are all thinking of him in a new way and hoping his recovery is as complete as Blas's has been.
• La Scala aficionados booed the tenor singing Radames in Aida after a "rather labored Bflat" leaving the soprano to sing the duet alone, and was fired. Silvia Poggioli reports, and she always makes me happy.
• Hey, sometimes my "Miss Crabby Pants" letters to the STRIB editors pay off! Here's what they had to say about the City Council vote on the budget and the need to fully fund the Minneapolis Public Library system. No, I don't think they just heard from me, but I know that a lot of us bombarded them with letters, and it made a difference.
• Leo is learning to make the bed, but he hasn't figured out how to run the vaccuum yet.

Hmm, do I want a Christmas tree this year?

I know who would like to help me decorate.

Kitty rituals

My cat has me well trained to perform the following necessary rituals.

AM: If I linger in bed, the cat jumps on my pillow and purrs. If I don't get out of bed soon enough, he then will knock items off my bedside table. If I persist in my slothful attitude, he will stand outside in the hall and make the piteous meow noise. He will do this for as long as it takes to get me out of bed. His record is one hour.

Once I get up, he gallops ahead of me to the kitchen. Although my daughter has already put food in his bowl, it is necessary for me to touch the food before he will eat. A few pats are enough. Usually, I observe that he has positioned a few of his toys next to his bowl, or in his water dish, during the night. While I make my coffee, he eats, and then announces loudly that it is time for me to comb his fur with the special fur rake. I do this gladly because it is fun, and because the large amount of fur I remove each day will then not end up on the floor, couch or rug. At this point, my morning duties are over, and the cat is happy to join us while we get ready for the day.
Optional daytime ritual. Meow loudly at the door until I let him out so he can roll on the front steps, provoke the squirrels, or eat grass. Meow loudly at the front door about ten-twenty minutes later, until I let him back in.

PM: The cat has always accompanied us in our bedtime routines. When I read to my daughter, he would hang out in the bedroom. He would always jump on the bed and spend about five minutes, no more, purring with us. Then he would take up his guardian position ( crossed forepaws) at the door until my daughter went to sleep. Although I no longer read in bed with her, he still joins us when I say goodnight.

He always wants to spend the night on the back porch, but will only go there if we carry out the following routine. First, I must go to bed. Then he must station himself next to the living room couch and meow very loudly until I get out of bed. I walk in his direction, and he scampers past me to hide under the dining room table. It is required that I touch his behind to signal that it is time to scamper to the kitchen. Whether or not the door to the porch is open, I must then say, "go outside, cat" (or some version of this statement, sometimes less polite). He exits, I close the door, and go back to bed. If I do not do this before I go to sleep, he will be sure to wake me at 3AM so we can do it then.