13 week old kitten 13 year old cat

[Furrywurrypurry]

Hellenww I can imagine, or rather I can’t, it’s not a job I would be strong enough to do.


So it’s a vet visit again tomorrow for precious, time for the further blood work and urinalysis.

I realise that without further biopsies accurate prognosis isn’t going to be that forthcoming and I think the tests are primarily to assess suitability for steroids? However i think the vet did mention that if metastases had occurred it would likely be in the brain, lungs or heart given the location of the tumour so I’m hoping to just get a better idea of her overall well-being. If everything else is functioning as it should be despite the lump that has to be a huge positive right?

I will post an update on gollums progress with her soon since that was after all why I started this thread

 

[Furrywurrypurry]

As promised an update on the progress between Gollum and precious. Gollum was 18 weeks old today and things are progressing really well. He’s in for neutering, microchipping and a nail trim on Friday. He has continued to settle in nicely, the intensity and frequency of him mauling and tackling precious has continued to decline. When I know he’s in crazy mode I concentrate on distracting him from her because that’s pretty much the only time now that he will overstep and go too far with her, and at times like now when I know she wants to sleep I’ll just close her bedroom door. But they sniff each other, he approaches her a lot without any attempts at biting and bothering her, sometimes she will growl to warn him not to start his antics. They are comfortable eating around one another although at times I have to feed them separately so as not to have swapsies, and she is as guilty of that as him, but they are eating different foods. Gollum is getting much better at actually settling and going into a proper restful sleep in the rest of the house now instead of just his own room and precious seems aware of that as she has started to wait for him to settle and then she’s happy to go take a nap close by him. A few weeks ago Gollum would not have been able to stay still, he would’ve jumped on her and she would have left. So to me that is a huge milestone, seeing them sleeping close by each other really warms my heart, considering just a few short weeks ago it seemed like a complete impossibility.

We definitely aren’t at a place of total harmony and given precious recent diagnoses, I am definitely not comfortable with giving them free rein with one another 24/7. But the difference between now and when I first started this thread just 5 short weeks ago is huge.

we don’t know how long precious is going to be with us at this point, but it’s unlikely to be anything more than months. It breaks my heart of course but even more so watching the two of them develop their relationship and find their way together, knowing that he won’t have her for long.

Despite that we are making the most of every single day together and I’d most definitely consider them friends at this point. And I am no longer existing on 4-5 hours sleep per night and trying to be in two places at once, Gollum now only goes to his room when I go out for more than a few minutes and at night when we sleep. This isn’t just for precious, this is for his safety also, as much as I’ve kitten proofed until the cows come home I’m still uneasy about letting him have access to everything unsupervised.

I think Gollum continuing to have his own room through this process has been absolutely invaluable. He began his first weeks with us in the small utility room, but when we realised he would likely need to be separated from precious for longer than we anticipated, we moved him up to the spare bedroom, it’s one of the largest rooms in the house and has French doors out on to the roof so he gets a lot to watch. we had also just began the process of redoing that room before his arrival, we’ve put that on hold, the carpets and wall coverings will all be changed meaning it really doesn’t matter if he trashes It. It’s referred to as gollums bedroom and my family find it hilarious that my kitten has his own bedroom.I would advise anyone that was or is in my position, with a bit of an awkward introductory stage, if you have the space to do it, don’t give up the base camp room for the new kitty right away. I believe it has been pivotal in the gradual emergence of harmony between my two.
A strange thing that people might not agree with, I don’t know if I played with Gollum too much initially. That may sound counter intuitive, because kittens love play. But I think having read all the advice online about trying to wear him out, I possibly went overboard and was overstimulating him. There was a day several weeks back when my back condition flared up and I was only able to play with him in short bursts, rather than trying to exhaust him every second he was awake and he was actually much calmer with precious. Don’t get me wrong, we play lots and lots but I was focusing intently on playing with him every second he was around precious to tire him out and distract him and it seemed the second I stopped he would then target her. But now I give breaks between play and he no longer zeroes straight in on her, it could just be coincidence, and he could just be settling down but I just thought I’d share the observation.

I have begun another thread regarding precious condition primarily in an effort to see if anyone has similar experiences but also to keep this thread on the topic I began it with. I really hope that I can continue to update on Gollum and precious relationship for some time to come yet.