Mr. Picky Pants

We are now in mid August, almost to September, I'm not sure who is eating up all of my time. Perhaps its Smokey, since, he's being so picky and not eating anything else. Except the occasional juice from his canned food ( we waste way too much ) and some dry food after picking out what he dislikes. Which is actually quite amusing to watch.

Smokey fished his initial regiment of steroids for his throat and was doing much better, but it was obvious that as soon as they wore off, he reverted to lack of vocalization and appetite. After spending with his vet, Dr. Michael, she decided that it was best to keep him on the half a pill daily, indefinably. Which, in Smokey's case, really just sucks. While we were using Greenie Pill Pockets©, those only worked for so long. Smokey quickly caught on what happened to be in these tasty treats. Now we're on a manual, shove the pill down his throat method.

Smokey riding shotgun home from the vet

Its scary having him on the steroids due to his diabetes. He just went into the vet to have his blood monitored (he'll have to go once a month as long as he's on the meds). When he saw Dr. Sigmund on Friday, he has put on 2lbs. Which normally wouldn't be too big of a deal, but the weight could lead to the diabetes again. Now he's back on his strict low cal, etc diet (which he hates). I'm sure we'll all make it through it though.

Guess he didn't like my driving

My mom and I are planning a trip to TN, possibly, and we'd be taking Smokey up with us. It might be fun for him, besides the new surroundings, my uncle currently has 3 kittens at his home. Its been a long time since he's been around other cats. We'll see how it goes, I'm hoping to bring one of them home with us, maybe. I think Smokey might enjoy a playmate.

These are the three kittens at my uncle's place. Sadly, the 4th kitten disappeared (lots of racoons and coyotes about), and just recently their mother, Pickles, went missing as well. So my uncle has taken them in and now has three new cats. I'm still not sure their genders, but love the little black kitten. I haven't had a black kitten since my cat Lollipop left. And the stripe twins look a lot like Smokey's sister, Dusty. But we'll see what happens, or if we even visit. I'm sure my uncle could use some help with 3 little kittens.

Vet Visit

Finally took Smokey to the specialty vet on Thursday to get him checked out. I was nervous taking him because I was sure he'd need to be sedated for them to get a good look in his throat. And that's always scarey no matter what the reasons. Especially with his heart condition and his diabetes, it put him at a higher risk of something happening. But once I was there, the staff was so nice. I knew he would be in good hands.
We did choose to leave him there over night so that by the morning he would at least feel a little more comfortable being there and wouldn't have to go through another car ride. Even knowing they'd be taking good care of him, it was still hard to say goodbye, knowing he wouldn't be sleeping with me that night.

The next day they did the 'evaluation' on him. Good news is, his heart is still doing just fine and he's still down 5-6lbs since last summer. When they did the scope of his throat they did find some abnormalities. I think the doctor described it as 'cobble stone' like in nature, but it was symmetrical on both sides. Which she said strongly suggested that it probably isn't anything life threatening, like Lymphoma. Though there is still a slim chance it could be. Since she wasn't sure of its 'origin' they did a biopsy and sent it to the lab for testing. They just sent it out today, so we won't know for a few days what it could be. However, there is a chance he may not be able to meow anymore. :(
We picked him up around 5PM Friday, and needless to say he was very excited to be going home. Even if he did get the 'royal sweet' for his stay. He is bigger than the average cat you know.

He's been home a few days now, and I think is still recuperating. Friday when we got him home, he was surprisingly chatting and active. Looking back it may have been due to the pain medicine they gave him to help after the 'exam'. Likely its not completely pleasant for him to try and meow. My suspicions come from the fact that since Friday he has hardly made a peep. It makes me worry a bit since before we took him he was talking a little, and now... nothing. He's also been quite sluggish, sort of. He spends 90% of his time sleeping on the chair in my living-room. Otherwise he's eating (good sign) and going outside for a little air. I'm hoping things get back to normal soon, and he's perky again. I'm also hoping his results come back negative of anything ... bad, and that maybe this is something we can treat.

 My advice for anyone who's cat suddenly stops meowing, get them to a vet ASAP. Its best to make sure its nothing serious as quickly as possible, so you avoid the worry. Or so that it can be treated before turning into something that you would need to worry about.

Highs & Lows

Its coming up to one month now since Smokey has mysteriously lost his voice. Strangely some of his behavior has also changed, he sleeps more than usual, and has taken up spending times in places not common for him. I have been waiting to see how things will proceed with him, as I hate to take him to the vet for another visit. His vet had suggested we take him to a specialist since his x-rays came up clear. But doing so would mean putting him under so they could scope him. I'm trying to avoid this stress on him. With his congestive heart disease, anesthesia could be risky. So right now I'm trying to see if maybe his excessive time in our garage could be part of the cause.

He's been kept out of the garage for about a week now and I feel he's improving some. This morning he greeted me with a meow, and has been howling at my door a time or two. But my mom still doesn't see the improvement. I'm hoping that given a little more time he will be back to himself. You start to miss the constant meowing and nagging when you don't hear it anymore.

I know there are spoiled cats out there, but some... I sometimes wish I could get inside his head and figure out what on earth he could possibly be thinking. Since he hasn't been quite himself lately, we decided to bend a little more to his wants. On the 9th, my brother's birthday, he was laying low. In other words he was sleeping in my room to avoid the commotion upstairs...so my mom gave him some food down in my apartment.
This was a bad idea from the start. Now he has decided that downstairs in the only possible place he will be able to eat. And drink. And sleep. Who knows, maybe that's what he's been trying to spell out all this time?

Another of his food creations

The orange blanket I posted him with last week, was one I was making for my brother for his birthday. It took a good bit longer than I had planned, even with all of Smokey's help. I've still got several others I'm currently working on (including the very first one for myself), and he's still helping me out with them. Regardless of there being a plethora of yarn and half made blankets around, he seems to really miss that neon orange one. Can't hardly image why, it was no different than the others. Lucky for him I have some left over orange and will likely whip up a little blanket just for him.
The problem of course being that when a cat knows something is theirs they more often than not, no longer want anything to do with it.

 

WIP, Smokey being big help

 For anyone interested, I do make blankets to sell. Both for humans and non humans. Anyone interested, feel free to contact me. Depending on size, I can often have them completed within 30 days.

A Loss For Meows

Its been two months since I've had a chance to get an update on here. Was busy with work and have recently started a psychology course. However now I've got a little more free time due to the loss of my job. While I'm POed at my boss, I'm really glad that I'll never have to see her again. Worst person to work for. A total bully, likes to mentally abuse the people around her.

Anyway, over the past week I have also been taking care of my little Smokey (he's down to 19.4lbs!). As of last Thursday he has suddenly lost his 'meow'. All weekend was painful watching him open his little mouth to say 'hello' but nothing would come out. So like any mother, I Googled to try and discover what might be the cause of his problem. Of course this is not often a wise idea as I worried like crazy after doing so. All I got were 'take them to the vet ASAP!' and all these terrible things that could be the cause of his issue. So yesterday when I took him to the vet, I was thoroughly re-leaved when she told me that it seemed he just had an irritated 'sore' throat.

Who knew cats were able to get sore throats and lose their voices just like we can? Of course Google didn't tell me this. So now he is taking antacids and some other medications for the next week. The sad part is she said it may be 2-3 weeks before he starts to get his meow back. This is sad for him before he can't tell me what he wants. Its also bad for me as its made him much more silent and sneaky. He just pops up at my feet and has managed to startle me more than once. Quite as a mouse he is.

But it also means he'll complain less when I put him in silly hats!

Keep Up!

Life is good for Smokey. His health is doing awesome, he's even lost 5lbs! Which is great news for his Diabetes. He thinks he's a kitten again, and is getting into everything. Which, isn't the best, but some how he makes it cute. When he's not out and about, he spends his time napping on my bed.

Its good to have him around, because while it might look like he's sleeping, he's also helping me brainstorm ideas for now things to work on. As the greeting cards were starting to wear me down, I've decided to put them on the back burner for a little while. Smokey has suggested I perhaps do some work to help raise money and awareness for animal charities. Such as the Humane Society, ASPCA, and other local, smaller animal rescue agencies.  I'm happy to hear any ideas, or if anyone has a non-profit they'd like help getting the word out about, please let me know. We're happy to help!

Some of these things will be going a completely new direction, such as my new business card:

Smokey likes the way he looks in silhouette. So right now I'm leaning towards this for possible stickers, bumper sticker, car magnets, etc. He really wants me to start with an awareness ribbon for feline diabetes. I have that one in the works now. We make them for ourselves, we should have them for our furry family members too. Everything else is still a work in progress, hopefully I'll be able to get some work up soon.

Right now I'm applying to go back to college for Psychology. Maybe I'll go into pet psychology. People aren't the only ones with problems.

As a final word, I wanted to share a story about Smokey's friend (my aunt's cat), Pepe. He's just recently taken to eating bread, and lots of it! Now while I always knew Smokey enjoys a table scrap now and then, I'd never heard of cats going after bread. At least not to the extent of ripping open bags, getting on counters, etc. So I looked into it and apparently its a much more common thing than you might think.

Here are a few threads about it: Bread Eatting, Where's My Bread?, International