And we're back!

It has been a looooong time since I've updated this blog.  Why is that good news?  Because there have been little to no behavior problems at Casa Marro!  Hooray!
So, today I just want to share a story about INKY.  He had a medical emergency last month.  You can read about it HERE: http://hollywoodanimalhospital.blogspot.com/2015/11/november-patient-of-month-inky.html

Why My 19 Year Old Cat Runs Around Like a Kitten

When people see my Spike they are always shocked to discover that he is 19 years old.  His fur looks and feels great, his weight is good, eyes clear and he runs around like a kitten!

How does he do it?

"Good clean living" I always say. 

First of all, Spike has always been an indoor only cat.  He remains safe from other critters, cars, viruses, bacteria, children, meanies and other evils of the outdoor world. One friend used to always comment on how clean and pink his paw pads are.  

Spike eats a very high quality species appropriate diet which includes organic and human grade ingredients.  I won't get into much detail or endorse specific products here.  If you are interested in feeding the best foods to your cat and providing the healthiest holistic environment and care, do what I did and consult Holistic Healthy Pets by Jodi Z.  She taught us how to make and feed nutritious meals for all our cats which include raw foods plus she taught us a ton about environmental toxins and what options we have for our clowder (including where to find what we need).

But what else keeps Spike running around like a crazy kitten (especially in the early AM when I'm trying to sleep of course)?  Subcutaneous fluids, for one.  Many cats of Spikes general age benefit from the extra hydration of Sodium Chloride or Lactated Ringers fluids.  Like many cats who have been fed dry food for so long (Spike used to eat this garbage before I became enlightened), Spike is starting to show the beginnings of kidney issues in his bloodwork.  Rather than wait until he has full-blown kidney problems, our wonderful holistic vet Dr. Larry Bernstein showed me how to administer the fluids, via IV at home a couple times a week.  This helps him pee healthily, keep food down and generally feel like the crazy kitten he once was.  I highly suggest people look into this for cats over a certain age (no I wont give a number!  You know if your cat is acting "OLD").  Talk to your vet. 

Some other things I do for Spike to keep him full of life: include probiotics and enzymes in his meals, provide lots of fresh filtered or spring water and add a couple of other natural supplements to his diet to help balance blood levels and keep his joints feeling good.  Again, I don't want to name exact products here but encourage you to do some thorough sleuthing to find the right combo for your critter.

And by the way, 19 isn't OLD!

On the Road Again

JP and I ventured down to Kendall again today to see Dr. Colker. They were every bit as nice today as they were on Tuesday. It wasn't a fluke! JP didn't cry too much in the car this time (though he was hiding behind the bed when he heard the carrier in the other room initially). They promptly escorted us in to what I now realized is a more dog-a-ly-decorated exam room and took a tiny bit of blood from his back leg. He was being such a good boy! His glucose level had dropped from 209 to 107!! Yay! So, Dr. Colker decided not to give him an insulin shot today. I will keep an eye on him over the weekend to see if he is still peeing out of the box and/or drinking a lot of water, etc. Then I will bring him back Tuesday for another blood test. JP was quiet on the way home and settled in pretty quickly. He did not pee on himself, even though I did a classic Cathi move and spaced out on the Turnpike, missing my exit causing me to drive all the way up to Broward County before turning and fighting a bunch of traffic home on Red Road and on 441. There was no problem assimilating back into the clowder. I did a little allogrooming then took a nap with INKY. Dr. Colker doesn't want to call JP's diagnosis DIABETES because really he is not a sick cat. He has healthy skin, eyes, ears, BLADDER!(I won't get into that now) etc. I'm gonna leave it brief today so I can go research WALKING PNEUMONIA...just cuz my lungs are hurting lately.

Bowl Bullying

What I've noticed is that CC comes down from her spiral staircase in the AM to eat breakfast with me. Then INKY comes over to the feeding station and CC cries and walks away. Then INKY "needs" to eat. When he finishes, CC goes back to eating and drinking. Then INKY "needs" to go right back and eat AGAIN! This goes on and on...as if they are each trying to claim the feeding station. Sometimes they do eat together (we have 2 bowls near each other) but I still can't help but think this is some kind of food intimidation game. There is another feeding station located elsewhere in the house where they all eat from time to time. But I'm thinking we could use ANOTHER separate feeding station. Problem is, in South Florida we have so many bugs it is difficult to monitor so many bowls for ants etc. The only other convenient place I can think to set up another station is not far from the front door (where I often see ants coming in!). I know that food should not be placed near litter boxes. When I feed them their wet food (once a day) I make sure to spread the bowls out all over the house so there is no competition. CC usually doesn't even come down for that and JP doesn't like to eat until much later when he can try to lick the crusted on crumbs from the bottom of the bowls. Our house is already under the control of the cats: litterboxes everywhere (from previous SPRAYING incidents a few years back) and cat trees, toys, structures ETC! allover the place! This is more strange feline behavior!

cold weather

Ever notice how cats go crazy in the cold? First of all, I had 45 lbs of cat sleeping on me last night. No, not one superfat cat, just 3 chubbers that add up to 45 lbs. That was cute and comforting but it leaves my body feeling like I got hit by a truck for a day or two after. Then this morning I wanted to bike to Starbucks (in 50 degree weather or so! brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Pretty cold for Miami!) and INKY was going after CC and Scooter and CC was going after Scooter (redirected aggression?), so I had to linger long enough until the tension dissipated. When I returned home from my chilly breakfast adventure, INKY wanted to play. I played silly stick (also known as silly string - it's a fishing rod type toy that has been chewed down so that only about 3 inches of string hang off it. INKY love love loves this toy!!!) a little, but didn't have the patience to really play PREY with him...so, he started going for Scooter Mercilessly. I had to lock Scooter in the studio for her own safety. I sprayed Felliway around so that INKY wouldn't mark the spots where the girls had been. Then INKY started going for Spike under the bed and poor Spikey was crying so I went and got him to save him from my ebony terror!
CC spent some time on my lap today. She does most days. She's become quite a lap cat and a mammas girl.
Then....I spent some time this afternoon trying to clean up the pee from where JP (and INKY, of course!) got upset about the roofers. I can't wait to get rid of this nasty carpet altogether! I want to go down to the Cement floors. That'd be way cool. I'm so sick of smelling PEE! I never had this problem before INKY!!! Good thing he's cute and smart and gorgeous and I love him to death!
Anyone out there on facebook? I just joined (not exactly sure why yet...). Please friend me - and my cats. Thanks.

Long Paws

It has been a long long time since I have posted. I thought maybe y'all were getting tired of hearing about the same antics, shenanigans and tom foolery of my clowder. Here's the condensed update:
I thought Inky was getting a little better with CC...but he still chases her and they continue to hiss at each other and CC tries to avoid him. I guess that is a little better. Certainly better than when the problem started ONE YEAR AGO!!!
CC has become quite a chubber because all she does is eat, sleep and hide from INKY! I am considering removing free feeding for all cats.
Early on in January, at about 5 AM (the hour that INKY generally wakes up and wreaks havoc one way or another) INKY was smashing the wooden blinds on the bedroom windows and hyperventilating. I panicked, thinking he was seeing a cat in the yard...which would most likely result in INKY getting paranoid about his territory and recommencing the spraying of the home! Turns out it was Rocky Raccoon. I turned on the outside light to scare him away. Didn't work. I ran outside to chase him away...all the while INKY is on the windowsill hyperventilating and pacing. Rocky is not a skiddish raccoon. He just kept about his business in our backyard...nosing around and such. I tried spraying him with the squirter I use to deter bad kitty behavior. He just retreated into the shrubbery, but wouldnt leave the yard. I'm real glad my husband made friends with this critter earlier in the week when I specifically told him he was not to hang around with wildlife! Finally, I threw a small stone NEXT TO Rocky. NO, I wouldn't throw anything AT ANY ANIMAL!! And I ran screaming towards him. Finally he got out of the yard and INKY could breathe normally again. Luckily, I have not seen Rocky back in the yard since!
INKY and JP are both peeing/spraying around the house because (I think) they are not happy with all the renovations we have been doing. I try desperately to clean it up every day! Hopefully the Solar Panels and all that good stuff will be done soon and we will have extra money (from Federal rebate) to remove disgusting dirty carpet and put in pee-proof flooring!
Scooter is still quite...shy, but she loves to sit on my lap and purr and has even been hanging around the bedroom often. She still runs from INKY and caught a loud beating from him last week (no detectable injuries).
Spike lost most of the whiskers on the right side of his face and...as I feared, had a couple fleas which bit me up pretty good before I could get the flea meds on all the kitties. Hopefully, the fleas were the problem with his whiskers and sores on his head (too much scratching, I'm thinking).
I'll try to post again soon (no more long pauses in blogging) about the new bedding and toys etc. that the kitties got for Chranukkah. Please feel free to leave comments, questions, link to my blog etc! -Cathi

Back To Square One?

CC hates the tarps we had to put all over the house while they destroyed our roof (so's we can gets a new roof and then solar panels!!). Those tarps smell BAD! Also, there was all kinds of crap falling on everything making a huge mess. I ended up messing up my neck and back too. The roof people really should have warned us to evacuate. This has been very traumatic...but I will actually spare you the details.

The big bad news is that I went out of town for gigs this weekend and when I returned...I was told the kitties were not fighting (statement naive at best). They weren't getting their Bach Flower Essences either! This afternoon, INKY was after CC with a vengeance! He chased her up the spiral staircase and actually caught her and pulled out chunks of fur. There was screaming and hissing from all 3 of us and I had to run over and smack the TV so many times to scare him off her that I hurt my hand. Then he started hyperventilating and making awful sounds. This is the worst I've seen him in months. Seems like we may be back to square one.

JP

Here's a pic of JP hitting the Ouzo I brought back from my concert tour of Greece!
JP joined my clowder (look it up!) in 1999. I must have just broken up with a boyfriend and decided he could easily be replaced with a kitten (I shall refrain from any further commentary on this subject at this time). I contacted the Cat Network http://www.thecatnetwork.org/ (still don't know how to link to a word!! Der!) and went to a home in Miami Shores to pick myself a lovely kitty. At the time I had Spike (shorthair white with dark gray splotches (one shaped like a hidden mickey!!), Jazz (Spike's brother...long grey fur) and Zebe (foster child, dark longhaired... uhhh.. tabby kinda thing? I'm not too good with breed ID's. I'm not into breeding at all!). Anyhow...I wanted a different looking cat...like, an orange kitty or siamese or something I didn't already have. I've always wanted a black cat, but I actually had a black haired Mufasa a few years earlier.
Well, at this home of a cat network person (I believe it was 2 women that lived there as well as the cats and dogs)...there were many cages filled with many kittens. Any one of them would have been wonderful...but most of them looked like the cats I already had at home. I was harboring a pretty good cross section of cat breeds. Then I met little JP. He was mostly white with grey and black. He looks a lot like Spike...so I kept passing by him. But he wasnt having it! He kept crying and crying for me. He wanted out of the cage full of black monkey-kittens (they were the most insane kittens I had ever met. They frightened me a little). Well, I finally picked him up and instantly fell in love. I really didnt want a repeat of the white with grey theme....but everytime I put him down he cried hysterically until I picked him back up. Then the woman let her wolf dog in the house (yes, the dog was part wolf). He was beautiful. And HUGE. The dog went up to little JP and sniffed him. I though JP was a gonner...but NO! That randy little kitten smacked the wolf in the face and scared him away. That sealed the deal. I signed the adoption paperwork.
The next few days were TORTURE waiting for the women to get JP neutered and physically checked out. I wanted that little kitten in my home so bad. The day I was supposed to adopt him, I went real early to the Luna Star Cafe in North Miami (I figured out the link thing!!) to wait for the call.
They called, I chugged my beer (maybe it was actually coffee?) and bolted over to pick up my little angel. I made my friend drive so I could pet kitten all the way home.
Why JP? Well, being a single private-school teacher (read...poor old maid)living in the big city with no family around...my mom was constantly telling me I shouldnt have cats. I can't afford them etc. So...I wanted to name the kitten after my mom. But it was a boy. My mom's middle name is Jean. That sounds like Jean to me. (this loses something in the translation...Jean could be like GEEEEEN for a girl or John for a haitian/french boy) and my dad's name is Paul. Well, dad is Italian so I don't know why his momma didn't name him Paolo in the first place...thus...my kitty got the continental name of Jean-Paolo or JP or...well, we have many variations around here.
AND HE IS STILL CRYING TODAY! He never shuts up! I love him. He's cute. He's sweet and loyal. In a future post I will tell you about baby JP coming home to see his new big brother Spike. I have a great picture of the 2 of them! But I'll have to scan it...that was in the before times when I didn't know nothin' about no digital cameras. I didn't even have a computer then!! Whaaaat

Cat Wrangling

Last night CC was up on her perch atop the spiral staircase (built for kitties only) and INKY was below STARING at her for hours. She began to descend and INKY was getting chatty. Since CC would have to walk (or run) past INKY to get food, water or bathroom) I made an executive decision to transport her via my arms past the dreaded INKY and to her food bowl. Dunno if that was smart or not. I ended up with a couple scratches. But I think CC is too scared to go near him sometimes. Saw a video yesterday that talked about, among other things, signs of a stressed cat and I think CC is stressed: compulsive drinking, sleeping A LOT!!! and hiding and she may even be losing fur. Spike(husband) and I even talked about rehoming CC (easier to do than the obvious rehoming INKY).

This AM CC was still up on the perch and INKY still stalking her below. I managed to entice INKY with a toy into the guest bedroom and play with him and hang out for a long time so CC could come down and eat etc. INKY enjoyed his "Mommy-INKY time" today.

So...I have heard no screaming, hissing or fighting since .... ooooh, 11 AM...what day was that? Yesterday? Yeah! New record...but, I was away from home most of today. Doing some work for the Miami Shores Flute Ensemble. When I stopped by the house to feed them at 4:30, INKY and CC were sitting suspiciously close together. I checked INKY's claws and he didn't have any CC fur stuck in them!

I hope you enjoy this closeup picture of CC hiding in INKY's tent. Inky likes to go crazy camping! She's really pretty. Don't you think? I got my Cat Wrangling book yesterday. I'll let y'all know if it is any good. Pettiquette by Amy Shojai is awesome!

Had fun swimming with Tab and her kids today. Came home starving waiting for Spike to come home. Guess it's just me and my quality television programming this evening.

Bell

So...I gave INKY a new collar with a bell on it. Now CC can hear him sneaking up on her. I know it is irritating for him to have that ringing in his ears all the time (he already started chasing his tail!!) but it's a little safer for CC and the others now. Eventually, the bell will be removed. It's dinnertime. Wish us luck.

Long story short...
My husband and I have 5 cats and 1 house (no dogs, children or other animals). As of January 2008, 4 cats stay inside (Spike, JP, Scooter and INKY) and CC goes in and out as she pleases.
Everything was fine and dandy until the youngest kitty, INKY started to come into maturity (around 18 months of age) and became very territorial. He would spray around the house and attack the other kitties (especially the oldest, Spike, who often can be seen with scratches around his ears). Combine that with JP's urinary problems - stones in his bladder - and we had ourselves an all out pissing war! The vet prescribed amitriptyline and even had to "up" the dosage of that, probably because INKY is a hugantic cat. Well, the meds made INKY gain weight, act lethargic, and made him hate us because we were the pill givers. Let me tell you!!! I have pilled many a cat and I know all the tricks: treats (yeah, right...INKY now will not go near any treat that we tried to hide pills in), devices to shove pills down throats (not having it), holding heads in the right angle, always being quick and confident etc. yeah....INKY is just not into pills. My husband claims he has the neck of Arnold Schwartzenegger - he can avoid any attempt to get pill in mouth and will spit it back up no matter how far down you think you shoved that pill. Don't you love the foamy half digested pills all around the house? EEEEWWW! Oh... and did I mention INKY was still spraying/peeing and attacking the other cats?
But before I forget to mention...INKY is GORGEOUS all black and shiny like a panther. He is super smart. He will do tricks (high five etc) and is very snuggly and affectionate. I adore this cat. OK...so...after several return trips to the vet and being told to put the cat outside (to beat the crap out of neighborhood cats I suppose)...the vet begrudgingly prescribed hormones to make my "bully" (his words, not mine) cat more feminine. So...instead of destroying my cats health with hormones I decided, against the advice of my vet, to find a cat behaviorist to help. I just knew this problem could be solved some other way!
I will skip the details righ now...but, I FINALLY managed to find the most wonderful woman in the cat world: Mieshelle Nagelschneider http://www.thecatbehaviorclinic.com/. She is in Oregon and I am in Miami, but lets just say she is brilliant and dedicated and almost like magic she solved that problem. I will write more about THAT and her in other posts I'm sure. But I tell you right here and right now...if you have a cat behavior problem anywhere in the US or Canada...contact her immediately!!
Skip to January 2008. CC had an abscess on her back and had to go to the hospital overnight. I could put a lot of blame on a lot of things (and people..including myself)...but....basically what happened is...after being quarantined in the bathroom then the guest bedroom (had to kick my houseguest out even), INKY would not accept CC back into the pride. Perhaps she smelled too much like the dreaded vet...and INKY had a totally flip out on CC. Not just growling and hissing. We're talking crazy moaning, screaming, spitting, howling.....it reminded me of the time a year ago when taking him back to the vet - probably to get his hormone prescription (which I never filled, thank you very much) and he was making such crazy noises it sounded to me like a 3 year old human being bludgeoned to death. Or at least...I immagine that's what THAT would sound like. Havent tried it or witnessed it myself. I digress.
So....we are almost up to date here. I'll try to spare you more details again...but...I've read several cat behavior books and seen videos and done a lot of research online about this. I know I have to do a slow reintroduction as though CC is a new cat. All the obvious tricks werent working as quickly and well as I had read they would...so...what did I do? I hired Mieshelle again. SHE ROCKS! She basically said the same thing: slow reintroduction. I dont feel like putting all the details down here since I already have written WAY too much...but I fear posters will start posting advice with obvious garbage like, you have to share the scents of the cat. DUH! yeah.
I tried to make every meeting between the 2 of them positive (yummy stinky wet food) and did some allogrooming. Go look that up. Most vets dont even know what that means. After several months I had to resort to adding medication to the routine. INKY is just so high strung and nervous etc. My vet really didnt want to medicate him again and knew nothing about compounding meds so I dont have to risk losing a finger (HELLO! I'm a musician...I kinda need all the digits intact!). I thought I was doing him a favour educating him about the compounding. I dont think he saw it that way. To this day we dont seem to be on the same page with INKY. But at least he did give in and get me my amitriptyline gel for INKY's ears. Of course, once again the meds didn't do anything except make him gain weight. Now we are on Buspar (no, just INKY, I'm on other meds. I have different problems). It seems to be taking the edge off...but I am not totally satisfied and I think I need to stop begging this vet to give me different drugs.
Where are we today? Well, INKY is on 7.5 mg of Buspar 2 times a day transdermally (in the ear). All 5 cats have free roam of the house (I have ommitted a big story of how we got THERE). INKY spends a good amount of his day stalking CC who has become more frightened than ever. She hides up high and in places where INKY can't reach her. She can spend 12 hours straight in one place with no food, water or litterbox. At least once a day INKY has an interaction with her which I usually don't see, I only hear a scream. Noone has gotten hurt yet. CC tends to come out to eat when I am around because she knows I will try my best to keep INKY at bay.
I am fascinated by feline behavior. Please stay tuned to hear more about the antics in our home. I would love to hear what you have to say...especially if you happen to be in the biz. I wish I could find a reputable cat behaviorist in the area to come to my house (on the cheap would be best as I AM a musician)...anyhow...more to come.