Introducing Betty White

[daftcat75]

Poor Betty! When will she forget the vet visit? She has been hiding under the bookcase several times over the last few days when she thinks I should have left already but I’m still puttering about. Because ADHD. Which I have recently learned stands for Attention Deficit Hey Donuts! I pat her furry elevator Betty booty hanging out. She’s not very good at hiding under the bookcase. And I tell her you’re not going to the vet. You’re safe. And then I get the fluff out of there. When the coast is clear, she will return to her cave. I verified this on the camera after I left just now. Here’s hoping she’ll trust me again soon.

 

[tarasgirl06]

Poor Betty! When will she forget the vet visit? She has been hiding under the bookcase several times over the last few days when she thinks I should have left already but I’m still puttering about. Because ADHD. Which I have recently learned stands for Attention Deficit Hey Donuts! I pat her furry elevator Betty booty hanging out. She’s not very good at hiding under the bookcase. And I tell her you’re not going to the vet. You’re safe. And then I get the fluff out of there. When the coast is clear, she will return to her cave. I verified this on the camera after I left just now. Here’s hoping she’ll trust me again soon.

Sometimes I think cats have longer memories than humans.
Most times I'm sure of it.

 

[daftcat75]

Sometimes I think cats have longer memories than humans.
Most times I'm sure of it.

Does that mean she may still have memories of the shelter or her home before me? Sometimes I wonder that, usually as I'm mounting her to squirt her medicine into her. I bet they didn't do this to you at your old home. But then, I remind myself that whatever her old home was like, that became a dead-end when she ended up at the shelter. I know she's happier here than in the shelter. Her old home is irrelevant now. This morning, the syringe slipped a little and I got her medicine deeper into her than either of us would have preferred. I'm not entirely certain that she didn't inhale some of it. She huffed, wheezed, and tried to cough it back up. I sat with her and gently stroked her neck and she flopped over to full Betty banana stretch. Then we made it back to bed for third sleep, and she laid right there on my shoulder and chest like she always does, like I didn't almost choke her with her medicine ten minutes ago.

 

[tarasgirl06]

Does that mean she may still have memories of the shelter or her home before me? Sometimes I wonder that, usually as I'm mounting her to squirt her medicine into her. I bet they didn't do this to you at your old home. But then, I remind myself that whatever her old home was like, that became a dead-end when she ended up at the shelter. I know she's happier here than in the shelter. Her old home is irrelevant now. This morning, the syringe slipped a little and I got her medicine deeper into her than either of us would have preferred. I'm not entirely certain that she didn't inhale some of it. She huffed, wheezed, and tried to cough it back up. I sat with her and gently stroked her neck and she flopped over to full Betty banana stretch. Then we made it back to bed for third sleep, and she laid right there on my shoulder and chest like she always does, like I didn't almost choke her with her medicine ten minutes ago.

Swallowing the wrong way, as I call it, is awful! and it happens to us all, I guess. But yes, Betty is very forgiving and loving, as all cats are given half a chance.
I'm pretty sure cats remember their pasts, especially trauma. That's quite obvious from the behavior of many cats in the shelter system.
But Betty's life with you makes whatever happened in her past pale in comparison. We can't change anything in the past. But we can go forward and give our loved ones the best, as they so deserve.

 

[daftcat75]

It's been awhile since we've had a hairball proper. In fact, if my search is correct, it seems July 31 was the last time she brought up hair. There may have been a sour stomach spit in there somewhere. But that was the last chunk of hair to come out of her tummy onto the carpet. Until today. At least, for all the trouble, it was a hefty one. Not making me clean up a three site spit for nothing.

She seems no worse for the wear. But I picked up the remainder of her lunch anyway.

Three things have changed recently. I ditched the digestive enzymes. I juiced up the A/D mix. And she's been finishing her overnight the last few nights. So I'm thinking maybe I cut that overnight in half and let her go a little hungry overnight to help pass any hair in her belly. It seemed like we got a weight gain out of 3.5 meals last week. I'll trim her overnight meal from tonight and we'll check on the scale if that's going to be okay.

 

[tarasgirl06]

It's been awhile since we've had a hairball proper. In fact, if my search is correct, it seems July 31 was the last time she brought up hair. There may have been a sour stomach spit in there somewhere. But that was the last chunk of hair to come out of her tummy onto the carpet. Until today. At least, for all the trouble, it was a hefty one. Not making me clean up a three site spit for nothing.

She seems no worse for the wear. But I picked up the remainder of her lunch anyway.

Three things have changed recently. I ditched the digestive enzymes. I juiced up the A/D mix. And she's been finishing her overnight the last few nights. So I'm thinking maybe I cut that overnight in half and let her go a little hungry overnight to help pass any hair in her belly. It seemed like we got a weight gain out of 3.5 meals last week. I'll trim her overnight meal from tonight and we'll check on the scale if that's going to be okay.

Sounds like a good plan.
Sure enough Fluff had a (very small, very juicy) furball sometime last night, to greet me this morning. I'm feeling good about it because his absolutely gargantuan and very frequent furballs aren't happening now. The combing and brushing is obviously having a good effect. His foster brushed him too, but maybe he's getting more frequent/thorough brushings here. IDK. It's 100F now, and he's not enthusiastic about finishing the last 1/4 can of trout. I'll offer it a third time from the refrigerator, and call it a draw. Or a Mexican standoff. (Is that still used?) Maybe we'll play "Where's the beef?" next.

 

[daftcat75]

Hungry Betty finished dinner in record time last night. I shaved a bit off the plate as I always do when she gives back a meal. I wish I had set that extra aside for when I started my own dinner and she was long finished on hers. I gave her her dental Greenie anyway. Then I finished my dinner and beer earlier than usual so I could get started sooner on her second dinner. Well, not soon enough. Just as I was about to bring the plate out, here come the sad mrows. "Again?" This time it was just a couple of spits. No hair or food. It must have just been sour stomach spits from not having enough to eat or not having it soon enough. She didn't seem any worse for the wear so I set down her second dinner anyway. Because she tossed her lunch and got a reduced dinner, I gave her a full second dinner and plan to reduce that tonight. She ate most of second dinner last night. That'll do, Donkey.

Breakfast is in the books already and it looks like she's going to take her time with lunch today. I have been plating equal piles of rabbit and chicken (her A/D:I/D mix.) Most days she eats one pile pretty close to when I plate it and then comes back for the other. Today both piles still remain. Seems like she's going to sleep another shift before tackling one or both.

The hairball she coughed up yesterday may not have been the only one. I cleaned up a good messy poop yesterday that I assume but did not verify was also composed of hair. Despite missing a meal and a half yesterday, her lunch time poop was also of impressive size--length anyway. Composition looked about normal. So it seems like she was full of it and is getting over herself now.

 

[tarasgirl06]

Hungry Betty finished dinner in record time last night. I shaved a bit off the plate as I always do when she gives back a meal. I wish I had set that extra aside for when I started my own dinner and she was long finished on hers. I gave her her dental Greenie anyway. Then I finished my dinner and beer earlier than usual so I could get started sooner on her second dinner. Well, not soon enough. Just as I was about to bring the plate out, here come the sad mrows. "Again?" This time it was just a couple of spits. No hair or food. It must have just been sour stomach spits from not having enough to eat or not having it soon enough. She didn't seem any worse for the wear so I set down her second dinner anyway. Because she tossed her lunch and got a reduced dinner, I gave her a full second dinner and plan to reduce that tonight. She ate most of second dinner last night. That'll do, Donkey.

Breakfast is in the books already and it looks like she's going to take her time with lunch today. I have been plating equal piles of rabbit and chicken (her A/D:I/D mix.) Most days she eats one pile pretty close to when I plate it and then comes back for the other. Today both piles still remain. Seems like she's going to sleep another shift before tackling one or both.

The hairball she coughed up yesterday may not have been the only one. I cleaned up a good messy poop yesterday that I assume but did not verify was also composed of hair. Despite missing a meal and a half yesterday, her lunch time poop was also of impressive size--length anyway. Composition looked about normal. So it seems like she was full of it and is getting over herself now.

Well, I guess it isn't the heat because it looks pretty comfortable in your general location. Down here, on the other paw, it's a nice "warm" 107F at 1:16 pm. I've been quartering the 5.5 oz tins and giving a quarter at a time, trying for 3/4 tin per day per Fluffy. He's already done most of that so far. The other really imporant thing I'm doing is keeping the food in the fridge and serving it at that cool temperature. Fluffy plows right into the food, so he seems to like it on these "warm" days. And we're both happy we're not outside and up a tree, like 2 guys in the yard behind us, chainsawing a poor tree that I guess is history now. I wouldn't think they'd even be allowed to be doing this in this weather. Their employer shouldn't. But maybe they're self-employed. Anyway.

 

[daftcat75]

Yeah. It’s like the weather saw the calendar and said, oh Labor Day. I guess you’re done with summer then. Actually it is still getting up into the 80’s and sometimes low 90’s. But the mornings are colder for longer.

Betty is obsessed with the office closet. When she hears me open the door, she likes to go inside and rest inside my backpack on the floor. In her defense, it does look like a cozy spot for a cat. I briefly went in there for something just now and sure enough, Betty showed up and was like, wait. I thought…? Sorry Betty. You missed it. I gave her a few strokes and then had to go back to work. She slinked off and ate a mound off her plate.

She really is a patient one for a work-from-home cat. Krista would literally get into my business whenever she needed some loving.


Betty will sit just inside the office. Usually in a spot where I cannot see her unless I peek above or below the hobby table next to the desk. Spotted! "I see you!"

Ha! Caught her mid yawn 🥱

 

[daftcat75]

And when that doesn’t work, she’ll show up at my feet with all the voices she knows. She starts sweet but then she has sharp, loud, or groaning/grunting noises like an exasperated trill. Quite the vocabulary!

 

[daftcat75]

Two hairballs in two days. Is this the continuation of yesterday's hairball or did she cook up a new one already?

For what it's worth, it came up like a wet, hairy cough and there wasn't any yowling before it or extra spits after. I think it may have caught her by surprise, too. Thankfully, it wasn't a spinning helicopter event like yesterday and I got to use the hose tool instead of making a big wet Bissell stripe. She doesn't seem any worse for the wear so I didn't pick up her plate and I don't plan on changing her meal sizes or schedules. Because we did go a month between them, I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt on these two. But the next one will start her back on those digestive enzymes whether she likes them or not.

 

[tarasgirl06]

Yeah. It’s like the weather saw the calendar and said, oh Labor Day. I guess you’re done with summer then. Actually it is still getting up into the 80’s and sometimes low 90’s. But the mornings are colder for longer.

Betty is obsessed with the office closet. When she hears me open the door, she likes to go inside and rest inside my backpack on the floor. In her defense, it does look like a cozy spot for a cat. I briefly went in there for something just now and sure enough, Betty showed up and was like, wait. I thought…? Sorry Betty. You missed it. I gave her a few strokes and then had to go back to work. She slinked off and ate a mound off her plate.

She really is a patient one for a work-from-home cat. Krista would literally get into my business whenever she needed some loving.
View attachment 483992View attachment 483993

Betty will sit just inside the office. Usually in a spot where I cannot see her unless I peek above or below the hobby table next to the desk. Spotted! "I see you!"

Ha! Caught her mid yawn 🥱
View attachment 483994

Well, you didn't expect Krista not to take an interest in the goods on Chewy, did you? I'm sure your folks didn't raise no fool She looked concerned about the updates to the privacy agreement, too. I'd share that concern. It's never in our favor, is it?
Betty looks like she's laughing there. Which she probably is.
It's said that cats have around 100 vocalizations. I believe it. Highly intelligent and highly expressive. Those are just a couple of reasons why they're the chosen companions of so many high-IQ creatives.
Hoping the furball is all out and that Betty is back to normal.

 

[daftcat75]

It’s Krista who updated the privacy agreement. The only pop-ups I enjoy.

Betty bounced back. I’ve started sneaking the digestive enzymes back into her food at about half the dose. Let’s see if we can get another month between hairballs.

 

[tarasgirl06]

It’s Krista who updated the privacy agreement. The only pop-ups I enjoy.
View attachment 484021
Betty bounced back. I’ve started sneaking the digestive enzymes back into her food at about half the dose. Let’s see if we can get another month between hairballs.

I can see why those are "the only pop-ups I enjoy"
Is Betty getting daily brushings?

 

[daftcat75]

I can see why those are "the only pop-ups I enjoy"
Is Betty getting daily brushings?

Yes. Betty really enjoys brushing. She gets her brushings after evening meds to "shake it off." We only use two kinds of brushes now. One is more like a hairbrush and the other like a comb. Nothing too extreme like the glove or Zoom Groom or slicker brushes. Seems like those pull off too much hair leaving her to ingest what the brush did not pick up. The last time she brought up a hairball before this was when I used a slicker brush on her. I think the digestive enzymes were helping more than I realized and their abrupt cessation likely the reason for the last two days of hairballs. But I also think she was getting too much of the enzymes. The dose is 1/4 tsp per cup of food. But she doesn't ever get a cup of food. I'm halving that and seeing if I can still keep her eating while also keeping her hairball free.

 

[tarasgirl06]

Yes. Betty really enjoys brushing. She gets her brushings after evening meds to "shake it off." We only use two kinds of brushes now. One is more like a hairbrush and the other like a comb. Nothing too extreme like the glove or Zoom Groom or slicker brushes. Seems like those pull off too much hair leaving her to ingest what the brush did not pick up. The last time she brought up a hairball before this was when I used a slicker brush on her. I think the digestive enzymes were helping more than I realized and their abrupt cessation likely the reason for the last two days of hairballs. But I also think she was getting too much of the enzymes. The dose is 1/4 tsp per cup of food. But she doesn't ever get a cup of food. I'm halving that and seeing if I can still keep her eating while also keeping her hairball free.

Yeah, fractionating can be complicated. I told someone Fluff had had 7/12 of a 5.5 oz tin so far in the morning. He did a bit more at lunch. He may be up to about 3/4 of that tin now. I have to be really careful in 107F to pick up his food right away when he seems sated and put it back in the fridge. He seems to really enjoy the cool food right now. Because he has long, fine fur, the slicker brush seems to be best for him; I flea comb him prior to his brushies, just to be sure, because the Advantage doesn't work like it used to.

 

[daftcat75]

Seems like she’s back to the paw scraping. I don’t really want to risk a hairball to test this theory. But it does seem like she wasn’t paw scraping when I wasn’t tainting her food. It could be the heat. It’s not terrible. But we do warm up and retain it.

I started to head to the kitchen with my dishes from lunch and met eyes with a paw scraping Betty when I rounded the corner from office to front room. “Alright. You do your meal. I’ll take my dishes back later.”

 

[Margot Lane]

Maybe you could test your theory by having 1 tiny portion with a smidgen of digestive enzymes and one without. See if one gets scraped and one gets eaten!

 

[daftcat75]

Maybe you could test your theory by having 1 tiny portion with a smidgen of digestive enzymes and one without. See if one gets scraped and one gets eaten!

Yeah. I sort of was doing that earlier. The Rawz rabbit never got the digestive enzymes. When I had the two piles side by side, she used to hit the rabbit pile first. When I paused the enzymes in both piles, she would prefer the chicken pile. Not quite the same trial. I could try on a lunch. But with the weekend coming up, I'm not going to be around for a lunch until Monday. Speaking of lunch, even with the enzymes and even with the paw scraping, lunch is in the books. Usually don't have an issue with dinner or breakfast and second dinner is going to be a reduced portion. The rabbit novelty seems to have worn off and now it's the second pile she visits, if at all. So I'm pausing on rabbit to see if she can and will eat enough with just chicken.

Once a food is in rotation, how many days can it be out of rotation before it has to be slowly reintroduced?

 

[daftcat75]

My gray Garfield long legging it. She looks so comfy, I want to climb in with her. Instead, I had to scoop her out so I could shoot her with evening foul (meds.)

I decided at the last minute to try the two pile experiment at dinner. But I didn’t adjust the enzymes proportion appropriately. So it’s a half dose in half the volume for a full strength dose. The difference is quite noticeable. I fully expect the left pile to be eaten first and the right pile to be a paw scraped mess.