Poopies be gone!

Whew! My diarrhea is gone! But my furmily is not too happy with me, because they've ALL been having to take the nasty Flagyl every day while the vet figured out what my problem was. My poopie sample was negative for all parasites, including giardia. It was negative for all that in January, too, but the Flagyl made me better anyway.

The vet doesn't know what's causing my backyard trots, but she thinks it must be infectious because Bear got it too. (He's all better now, too.)

Mom is feeling very broke. In addition to my vet visit, Onyx had a tooth extraction and cleaning, and Severian went in for his annual workup. My, my. Vet visits are expensive.

Another vet visit

Three days of Pepcid and bland diet, and my pants are still poopy. So Mom took me to the vet today instead of Severian, who was supposed to have his annual checkup. I heard him say "So long, sucker," as I was being carried out the door.

I got TWO shots in my tush. Xanax to settle my stomach and an anti-diarrhea medicine. And we came home with LOTS of Flagyl, because before we left for the vet, Mom walked past the laundry room litter box just as Bear was doing his business, and HE had diarrhea too. A round of Flagyl for everybody, bartender!

Sev, Jasper and Onyx think this is VERY unfair. They have perfectly fine poopies.

Ailing again (sniff!)

Oh, nooooo! I had the poopy pants again this morning, and the upchucks, too.

Mom did the demi-bath thing. That was helpful for my self-esteem, but I still spent most of the day off to myself. No fever, and when Mom got home I was there to greet her and join the parade to the food court. So she's waiting to see how I feel tomorrow before getting too agitated.

Mom's thinking that maybe poopy pants just goes with the territory when cats have fluffy britches. Bear has had a few "Klingon" episodes, too. Humans, I am reliably told, also have some, um, inconsistency in output depending on what they have ingested.

Mom's never had long-haired cats before. We are teaching her.

My turn to shine!

I went to a cat show with Bear and the peeps last weekend, and guess what? Bear struck out big time -- NO ribbons at all!! OK, it was an all-breed show with no longhair specialty ring, he's out of the Open class and into Premier, and he was up against a lot of really spectacular cats. Mom says he'll do better as he matures. And he "showed" a lot better this time, stretching up the scratching pole like a pro.

But I came home with a boatload of ribbons! I was in the household pet category, and that one has NO breed standards to meet and no need for pedigree papers. All you have to do is be in good health and good condition, and adorable. Well, I'm all that!!

And you know what else? They've opened the household pet category to disabled cats! There was this gorgeous Persian-y cat with two-tone brown hair who was blind. And the judge was surprised when she immediately reacted to the feather wand. Grabbed it in a second. C'mon, judge. She's still got cat ears. If a cat can hear a bug moving through the grass, a cat can hear a feather wand swishing through the air. Even over the loudspeakers in the show hall. We know how to concentrate.

There was a gray mackerel tabby with three legs. Handsome guy. A foster who found his forever home with his foster parents. And a perfect gentleman with the judges.

There was a tuxedo who charmed one judge utterly -- rolled right over on his side and demanded a belly rub, which the judge granted. You knew immediately that that cat would be walking out with first place in the ring. Charm, baby! And there was a sweet, sweet red tabby who, upon being named best cat in one ring, acknowledged the applause with a graceful arch and stretch, looking every inch a queen.

I understand why the peeps love cat shows, and why Mom especially likes the HHP rings. But I'm happy with my ribbons, and will be pleased to let Bear do the show stuff from now on.

C'mon, Mom. Get my pictures with the ribbons. This show-cat bath won't last forever.

Bath? Not so bad.

So I got the dreaded bath. Wasn't that bad. First Mom gave me a four-paw pedicure. I loooove pedicures. They come with paw massages and lots of snuggles.

Then she drew my bath and lifted me into it. I was a little startled that it was, like, WET. But it was warm, and I got a full-body massage with bubbles. Three times, actually, which was more rinse and repeat than I really had the patience for. Still, I only struggled twice to get free, and never ONCE uttered a meow of protest.

The dryer was OK. Again, the patience ran out. But Mom gave me breaks every 20 minutes or so, to feed me a treat, before cranking up the warm-air machine again.

I smell very flowery, and I am even poofier than usual. Also I have very pronounced and fluffy pantaloons. I feel pretty, oh so pretty. But that didn't stop me from a rousing game of bat-the-mouse with Bear tonight.

I am already beeyootiful, thank you furry much

Bear told me today that he thinks Mom and Dad are going to take me to a cat show in a couple of weeks and enter me as a household pet. Hmmph! I will not go unless I can be entered as household QUEEN!! Or at least princess. Or maybe president. Whatever.

And Bear also said that I would be getting a bath. Oooohhh, noooo!!!! Now he'll be able to sit on the kitchen stool and snicker at me like I've been doing at him.

No toys in bed? Why not?

This morning, Mom woke up kinda early, on account of something was poking her. She felt around and discovered my favorite feather wand, sticking her in the leg.

She picked it up, with that look that people get just before they say "Whut the....?" And of course I immediately leaped for it, and landed right on her face.

See, I was thinking that I need to be more pro-active about the feather wand. It's usually behind the downstairs commode, because that's where I put it for safekeeping. I thought maybe if I brought it upstairs to bed with me, it would be handier for Mom. Just keeping Mom's best interests in mind, y'know.

She seemed ungrateful. Can't figure out why.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

My friend Charlie invited me to describe my day, so here goes:

I sleep next to Mom's feet, so my day begins when Mom's does. It's Bear's job to wake her up, though. He knows exactly when she's supposed to get up, and he doesn't like it when it's weekend and she pulls the covers over her head.

When she's finally awake, she leans down to pet me, and I do my stretch-and-roll morning exercise. Then I jump to the floor and do some yoga -- I like the loooong cat with butt in air position. Then I run over to the bedroom scratching post and buff up the claws.

Then we all run downstairs. I run ahead of everybody. Bear likes to give Mom a head start and then, when she has only a couple of steps to go, he runs down and beats her to the bottom. Then we all serenade Mom while she gets breakfast ready. I love breakfast!

After breakfast, I like to chase Severian around while the humans read the paper. When they're done, Mom brings out the laser pointer or the feather wand and Bear and I play with her for a while. It's important that she get a little playtime every day. My favorite is the feather wand. I like to grab it and play tug of war with Mom until she gives up, then I drag it away with the stick trailing after me and hide it in the downstairs bath, behind the toilet.

Then Mom cleans the litter boxes (I like to jump in and use them while they're nice and fresh, too, Charlie!).

While Mom makes Dad's dinner and gets ready for work, we go into the office and bug Dad. He works at home, and sometimes he puts us outside the office and closes the door. Hmmph!

When Mom goes to work and Dad is working, it's pretty boring around the house, so I go find a soft place to sleep, preferably in the sun. After a long nap, I play with Bear and Severian, or harass Onyx and Jasper. There's a squirrel that visits us every day. He sits on the deck and we stare at him. Usually there's some bird action, too. We have lots of windows and glass doors to look through.

In the evening, Mom is still at work, so Dad gets his dinner out of the fridge and feeds us our dinner (I love dinner!) and then we watch TV with him and sometimes give him a workout with the laser pointer. He likes to see me go up the wall after that little red dot.

Mom gets home around 11 p.m. I'm always first at the door to greet her, 'cause I heard her car coming into the drive. Bear is usually asleep in the cat tree upstairs where Dad is playing on the computer, and he runs down too. And we get a nighty-night snack (I love snacks!).

Mom goes upstairs and plays on her computer for a while (usually she's on Catster), and then we go to bed. Whew! I'm tired. But I usually go downstairs for a bite of kitty kibble first. It's a long time until breakfast!

I learn from my humans

I want to be an accomplished cat, and I observe my siblings and my humans carefully. Tonight Dad was in the bathroom, and I decided to show him what I had learned.

As he dried off from the shower, I jumped onto the countertop, got into the sink and peed down the drain! And then I scratched around the basin, 'cause it seemed like I should do that. Daddy seemed more surprised than pleased, however.

Well, isn't that what he does? Pee into the porcelain? What's sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose, buddy!

Honor for the winner, comfort for the defeated

"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding." (Albert Einstein)

I know the guys think I'm a bubble-headed blonde. But I read, too, just not all that political and warfare and strategy stuff. I'm kind of a Camus cat. And a true pacifist. I live to make my humans feel good, and they return the favor. That's how it oughta be.

So the mencats in the household had a dust-up today. I think Sev lost, but I'm not sure. He seems to be the most sorrowful of the bunch -- kind of hang-dog, if you can use that term for a cat. So I will go do my understanding and loving thing. It's a heck of a lot more powerful than fighting, if you ask me.