tricked!

Everyone knows I'm an FHV+ kitteh and how a grain-free diet is best for us. But I refuse to eat really healthy food and I won't eat wet food.

Until lately. Mom found a new brand called Blue Buffalo and I like the crunchies and I like the wet food, but only if it's all mushed up and the consistency of human baby food. So far I like the turkey flavor best, but rumor is I'm going to get duck in a little while.

I like it enough Mom will slip my lysine into the food, and I lap it right up. Yum!

I got to go for a stroll!!!

Mom is trying to get herself back into shape after dealing with her back problem. She felt good enough today that she thought she might want to take one of us strolling! Then she learned a dear friend's kitty, a black and white longhaired kitty named Sprocket, went to the Bridge today. He had cancer in his jaw that was making it hard for him to open his mouth to eat, and the tumor put pressure on one of his ocular nerves and made him blind in one eye. He was 16 years old.

So Mom got sad and decided she wanted some kitty strolling time to clear her brain. She took out Big Pink and thought she'd take a tuxedo cat—Ryan or Cammi—in honor of Sprockey. But those two fools went poof! and I jumped into Big Pink all by myself and sat down, ready to go.

We didn't go super-far because Mom's hip hurts for some reason, but we were out for about 30 minutes. I love being pushed in the stroller—I sit up straight and tall and tabby, and like to look around at the birds, and squirrels, and even the people.

When we got back, Cammi was whining for food, and I got to tell everyone about our stroll. I had mom all to myself!

RIP dear Sprocket. Your mommy worked so hard to keep you happy and healthy, and she gave you the most difficult gift our humans can give us. When you run into Elliott, please tell him we all think about him lots, especially Mom.

I'm a great nurse!

Mom says I am a great nurse. I don't trip her when she goes to the bathroom and I stay nearby.
The only things I can't do are bring her something to drink and take her pain pills to her when she needs them. Still, she is grateful to have me nearby. She says I am a love ... I try :)

tabby nurse

My mom is having a minor procedure on her back tomorrow. She has asked me to be her tabby nurse.

As always, I will comply. I love taking care of her when she needs comfort. Mom says I am a better kitty nurse than Cammi!

sniffles better ...

After nearly a week on clavamox, I'm finally feeling better. I am sooooooooo angry at my mom for making me take that stuff! I hide from her most of the day & hang out with my human sister 'cause she won't give me medicine.

Mom was very worried about me on Monday; I hid from both she and my human sister; I refused to eat my Gerber baby meat, and mom didn't see me drink any water & I drooled after she gave me my morning clavamox. But last night I got even: I woke her up at 2 a.m. and asked for my Gerber ham (I know the lysine is in it, but that's okay) and would not go back to sleep until I got it.

Having FHV is challenging but no reason to NOT adopt a kitty. I have been mom's cat since I was born, was sick as a kitten, but she still loves me.

I'm back from the v-e-t!

I really don't mind going to the v-e-t. Everyone is so nice to me and they speak to me and say how cute I am in my sweater and the stroller.

But I don't like what I get at the v-e-t. I'm on clavamox for two weeks. I don't like that. It makes me a little queasy for the first couple of days, and I've barfed once already, right where mom could step on it! That will teach her.

Mom is bummed though... when we walked into the v-e-t's office, there was a big kitty cage right by the door and a pair of adorable tuxedo cats, a longhair and a shorhair, litter mates, who are two years old and because their humans are getting a divorce, whatever that is, they need a new home, together. Problem is, we are plenty of cats for mom already, and the pair are so closely bonded, they don't like other cats. Mom hopes a family comes along for them soon, she remarked how much the shorthair boy looked like Ryan.

I don't need to remind her that we don't need another Ryan. MOL

v-e-t

I've been fighting the sniffles off and on all winter, it's just part of being a FHV+ kitty. But mom is worried about me because it's been too long, and upping my lysine isn't getting the job done. Mom hates for me to have to take antibiotics, but it's time. The good thing is that Clavamox does work for me, even though I have to take two courses to be all clear.

So in the meantime, I get my Gerber baby meat three times a day, a steambath with either mom or my human sister, and I have to go to bed at night wearing my sweater. When I go to the v-e-t tomorrow afternoon, Mom will bring the stroller so I can be wheeled right into the v-e-t's office, and I have to wear my sweater and have plenty of snuggly blankies.

I hope it's not raining.

Mommy is so sad today!

Mom was having a pretty good day today, and she came here to Catster so we could participate in our ongoing Furry Federation mission.

For some reason, she scrolled down her corral and saw something so furry sad.

Our wonderful brave and well loved furriend Rocky Ann lost her battle with chronic renal failure and is at the Bridge with my brofur Elliott.

Elliott went to the Bridge nearly 3 years ago (his sad anniversary is March 16) and mom can still cry when she sees his photo, or looks at his memorial box where his ashes are.
Mom tells me she knows that kitties are designed to live hard and fast and leave here so other kitties can receive love. But it doesn't really help heal the hole a beloved cat leaves behind. It took two tuxedo cats to start to repair the hole Elliott left—those cats are Ryan and Cammi, each who have a little bit of Elliott (both were born after he went to the Bridge with Dr. Cristina Hoefer's help). Ryan is full of mischief just like E had when he was young, and Cammi is Mom's lovebug.

Well, I'm her lovebug too. One can never have too many lovebugs.

Our family hopes Rocky Ann's mom and dad find those two young girl kitties who call to them for love. They will be the luckiest kitties on Earth. Well... as lucky as we are, okay?

RA, please lick E's head for me. He used to love that from me when he got sick. You'll know him by his elegant tuxedo, very shiny black fur and his lopsided blaze. "Booted and blazed" is what Mom called him sometimes. He will come when you call him and one of his nicknames was "Vicious Killer" from the time he raided my human sister's collection of pet mice... Mom says she watched him pluck mice out and take 'em somewhere and eat 'em. We got rid of the mice soon after. He also went to cat shows but he was a bit too shy to play with the judges. All the judges said he had miracle spit because his coat was so shiny like a mirror ...

being Mr. Sniffles sucks ...

I am not crazy about winter at all! I end up getting lysine twice a day (I'm not necessarily hungry when Mom wants me to have my Gerber meat, so she makes me eat!) and I sleep a lot. So far, no antibiotics because my snot is not green, it's a healthy (if snot can be healthy!) white.

But I do have my human sister trained to take twice-a-day showers so I can get steam baths! Yay!

I really don't like winter!

I am more of a summer cat! My sniffles always get worse in the winter, even though I am on twice a day lysine. Thus far I've avoided a trip to the dreaded v-e-t for antibiotics.

Perhaps the worst thing is wearing a sweater at night. I pretend that I can't move in it. It's a different sweater from what Cammi wears. Cammi's sweaters have short sleeves. Mine are sleeveless, so I can clean my legs. But unlike Cammi, I feel humiliated wearing a sweater when the others don't.

What I do like: sleeping on fleece blankets and persuading Mom to turn the heater on in the bedroom so I can have a warm nap.