Sunday, June 28, 2009

Hyperventilation

I'm sitting on my bed watching TV and eating breakfast the other day when I hear the familiar sound of INKY hyperventilating on the window sill. Not again! I can't get any peace and quiet in this house. I know what's up and I know I have to act fast! I look out the window expecting to see a raccoon in the yard...but this time it's an actual CAT! I haven't seen another cat in the yard for a very long time. So, I run outside in my jammies with my water bottle squirting and yelling to scare the cat out of the yard before INKY goes into total MADmode and starts spraying and otherwise completely freaking out.
I managed to calm INKY down right away (luckily he didn't have time to get too agitated) and immediately put on my "To Do" list: buy scarecrow.
Sorry I have no picture today. I though you might be sick of seeing my Stinky Inky.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Attax!

Yes, Inky is having a nap attack here, but just the night before he made a terrifying attack on poor little Scooter! The screaming (from all 3 of us) went on for what seemed like an awful long time. Long enough for me to get a couple breath breaks in even! By the time I got out of bed to investigate, all that was left was piles of Scooter fur blowing in the AC breeze (I now wish I had pix of that instead of yet another cute photo of INKY!!). Inky had a couple of tufts of fur in his claws. There were no traces of blood and when I finally found Scooter, several minutes later-chilling on her little structure as if nothing had happened, she didn't appear to have any scratches or bleeding - just some loose pieces of fur falling off her backside.
Just last week I was thinking to myself, "wow, Inky really has calmed down lately! Must be all the wrangling I do plus the Bach Flower Essences added to his water. We even ran out of Bach's but Inky seems fine!" Then...one morning my husband was working from home. We were both in bed - him with laptop me with digital cable and CC decided to come sleep on the bed with us. I think JP and Spike may have been there too. It was one big happy family for a while...
Until INKY decided to snoop around. Normally I would block him so he cannot jump up on the bed with CC there...but for some reason, I let him jump up and...of course...CC hissed and tried to run. I tried to grab her and hold her so she wouldn't run. I was thinking that her running would incite INKY's prey drive and surely make him chase her and that would be BAD! Well, I couldn't get a good grip on the wiggly girl and I ended up inadvertantly holding her down so INKY could attack her. Nice mother I am. There was a scream or two (one from CC, one from me probably) and she ran accross my husband to get the hell out of there! And, I got scratched by INKY.
So, basically, what is happening now is that INKY is having more and more traumatic experiences with the girls again which confirms his opinion that they are no good. Granted, he is causing these interactions....
Just today I heard another scream and found CC hiding under a chair with a piece of fur sticking out of her backside where INKY had, evidently, grabbed her. The violent episodes tend to breed more contention and more violence and fear.
I did buy them more Bach's (Willow and Cherry Plum) and am trying to remember to spray felliway more often. We have 2 felliway plug ins right now too. I'm going to have to be more vigilant with the wrangling for a while to rebuild more positive interactions so they associate good feelings with eachother. And yes, I do a pretty good job of keeping everyones nails trimmed on a regular basis.
I saw Dr. Yao today and he asked how all the kitties are doing. I told him INKY is still kinda crazy. He said we probably wont be able to change that really, even with medication. I reminded him that the meds didn't really work.
I hope and pray the attacks stop!!!