Krista's Care

[daftcat75]

You know how I know Krista loves me?

So she's got something going on in her left ear. That was the middle ear infection with the ruptured eardrum and the Horners Syndrome (long since cleared up!) from the start of this thread. One of the vets described it as "a whole lot of angry going on." I have come to believe, through trial and error (mostly error) and observation that at least a portion of it is food allergy mediated. Next time she goes in for a dental (soon, hopefully I can get one of my own in first), I'll have them re-look at that ear.

But I basically can't touch that ear anymore. She tells me so. She likes her right ear stroked from base to tip. But if I approach her left ear to do the same, she swivels that ear shut. Closed for business! Noted. I usually remember and respect that.

Now here's how I know she loves me.

You know how you greet dogs with a hand to sniff? I greet her with a knuckle, crooked like the nose of another cat so she can have a nose-to-knuckle nose greeting. This invariably turns into a knuckle nose to cheek, to eyebrow, to her ear greeting. She knows which ear bothers her and she still greets me with that motion nearly every time. She must be left-handed. And it never fails to set off a little head shake.

She loves me more than that ear bothers her!

 

[daftcat75]

9 lbs!

Many times I never thought we'd see the day. She's back up to 9 lbs. At her lowest during pancreatitis last year, she fell all the way down to 6.2 lbs.

The timed feeder bits should be coming in this week. If I can get out of the 2am and 2pm meals, that alone would be a huge game changer. It means I can return to the office and sleep through the night.

 

[daftcat75]

My goofy little pudge. How does she celebrate her 9 lbs meal? By pulling up short. Fortunately, I've seen this 100 times. She walked off. Went to the window to check if the squirrel channel had come back "on the air." She came up on the bed to begin a groom next to me. And then she spotted it. "Oooh look! Food!" That's why the bed is in front room and her plate is visible from the bed. That's not the real reason why the bed is in the front room but it's definitely why her plate is in the living room and not the kitchen. Sometimes just seeing a plate with food on it gives her the extra charge to go back and finish what she didn't before.

 

[daftcat75]

Cat Dad of the Year Moment Tonight

Krista poops in one box. Pees in another. Except she missed and right out onto the floor it went. She doesn't do this often so, "oops! I'll clean it up." Except I hear the scratch, scratch of an impending carpet bombing campaign. She's waiting. She wants me to see it. So I get up and come to the room and crouching dragon began to assume pooping tiger. I chase her out of it from one end of the apartment to the other until she decides to submit on top of a bench. "Thanks, girl! Daddy's got a sore back and appreciates not having to bend over for you." And off to cat jail we go as she protests that I'm killing her and crying for the SPCA. I have kitchen shelving I used to create a cat gate. It doesn't contain a healthy cat, but poopy cats and barfing cats will hesitate that hop. So in she goes. One box is clean and the pee floor is almost clean and ready for the other box. That certainly reduces her choices. So in the clean box she goes. "There you go! Your butt exploded and the carpets live another night. We'll all get through this." And just like that, the moment passed, the situation was defused, and the damage in the first box was still far less worse than it could have been. I think she just wanted to make a show of it for me. "See this?! Twice in a shift. You did this to me!" Never a dull moment with this one.

I "programmed" (it's a dial that maybe spins the goofy direction in half hour increments) the "shoe" for 9:30. The WOPets timed feeder looks like a shoe. I want to be awake the first time it scares the poop out of her. She'll either forgive it because it has food inside or she'll hate me for putting an exploding shoe near her food dish. My money is on the former.

 

[daftcat75]

The shoe finally opened. She’s not impressed. But I don’t think she knows what’s in there yet. “Go check it out, girl!”

 

[daftcat75]

She did not take to the shoe immediately. I think she’s spoiled. “As long as you’re up to show me this cold food, can you make me a warm plate?”

Sure. But it’s a shorter portion because I still want you eating from the shoe.

She’ll figure this out. Food is food.

 

[daftcat75]

Turns out I only get one chance to scare my cat with a thing I secured to the wall inadequately. That white box is the WOPets feeder. Or the “shoe” as I’ve taken to calling it. I think she did eat a few bites from it. Unfortunately, once she started, I walked away thinking she wouldn’t pull up until she finished. I don’t think she took more than a few bites. The food looked alright, not too cold and certainly not too old. She’s had both (too old and too cold) off paper plates when she was recuperating earlier this year. To be honest, that she ate even a few bites on the first go is somewhat encouraging for a creature of habit. We’ll try it again. I think I gave in too easily and should have let hunger guide her back to the shoe.

 

[WinniesMomma]

9 lbs!

Many times I never thought we'd see the day. She's back up to 9 lbs. At her lowest during pancreatitis last year, she fell all the way down to 6.2 lbs.

The timed feeder bits should be coming in this week. If I can get out of the 2am and 2pm meals, that alone would be a huge game changer. It means I can return to the office and sleep through the night.

 

[daftcat75]

I think I'm going to try the shoe again tonight for the 2am meal. I also think I will turn off the "sunrise" for that meal.

How do you teach a cat a schedule? I program my smart lights to fade on like an artifical sunrise. If she tries to pester me before her meal time, I point at the lights and say, "sorry. Sun's not up yet." That also helps me when I'm waking up before her next meal and confused on whether it's am or pm and which meal we're on. If the lights are up, I guess I should be too. The lights turn out 45 minutes later or I'll put them out sooner if we're done with our eating and bathroom busines of the shift. Then the next sleep sprint begins until the next sunrise. If I can get out of a 2am sunrise and feed, that would be a game changer for me.

 

[daftcat75]

The shoe is loaded. I took away her clean plate from the 10 pm meal. I have turned off the 2am sunrise (the smart light routine.) Wish us luck that she figures out the shoe and accepts her 2am meal from it. I am keeping the laser pointer on the bedside table just in case.

 

[daftcat75]

It took some convincing and nudging. She’s not finishing it. She wants fresh. You’re not getting fresh this meal. You can go back to that meal as many times as you want to finish it. I’m not serving anything else until 5am.

 

[daftcat75]

It took some convincing but she’s nibbling away. I don’t think she likes it with the ice pack. We’ll try again tomorrow night without the ice pack. Also, I think she pooped the box which presents a dilemma. Do I get up and clean it and thus defeat the whole purpose of this? To not have to get out of bed in the middle of the night. Or do I let it sit until next shift. I don’t smell it (thank you, dirt!) and she has another box. The longer I sit here wondering the more I have to get up and pee anyway. Doh! We’ll keep working on this feeder and sleeping through the night.

 

[daftcat75]

She did eventually finish the portion in the shoe. But she also got me out of bed for two box cleanup (one of each) and she climbed on me for a scritches session. And she woke me two hours later for her 5am meal. Still. Not bad that she did take to it the first night. I think tonight I’ll set it for 1am rather than 2am. We’ll keep working this. It sure was nice not to have to prepare a 2am meal even if I didn’t get all that much more sleep than I would have if I didn’t have to convince her that there was food down there. Now that she knows, tonight should be smoother. I hope.

 

[daftcat75]

I ended up feeding her an earlier lunch than usual. Today is my one office day of the week and it always takes too long to drive home. I decided to pack a snack (half portion) into the shoe for approximately 3:30 or 4. That's the one thing I don't like about it. The dial is just 0.5 hour increments from now rather than exact times. Thankfully, she's not spending the day parked in front of it. She seems to be sleeping on the bed and I'm sure she'll go check it out when she wakes up. It would not surprise me if she just makes regular rounds, "are you open yet? okay. well, see you next time then."

This one I decided to leave off the ice pack. So this is a two-fer experiment. How will she do without me pointing it out? I think she knows what it is now. Will she take to the food quicker without the ice pack? That we'll have to find out. Hopefully I'll still be in my team meeting to steal a peek on the camera rather than the drive home.

 

[daftcat75]

The feeder was 20 minutes late to open. I don’t understand why it’s so unpredictable. But funny enough. Krista was right there when it opened this time. No convincing necessary. She cleaned it out. And then she’s going to poop me out of bed. Couldn’t you have done this earlier? This should take far less effort than a normal feed. Scoop her poop. Take a pee. Back in bed in 5 minutes.

 

[WinniesMomma]

Glad it's going well and she's getting used to the shoe!

 

[daftcat75]

Third night of the shoe went really well. Until...

My cat's a sweetheart. She finished up her plate and then came back to bed and started purring her head off. One touch was all it took to set off the love bomb.

"Oh you are awake? Let me show you how much I love you right now."


Thanks girl, but I was sleeping. I'm sure I just sleep stroked you and now really, I'm too sleepy for this. I managed to roll over on my side and discourage a sphinix session on my chest. I had taken Advil PM for sore running muscles and knowing I wouldn't have to get out of bed until the 5am meal. I thought about Looping her. But I never would have stayed awake another 15 minutes to take it off of her.

But yeah. I am impressed at how quick and easy she took to the timed feeder. I thought we'd be arguing about this 2am meal for weeks. Now that I don't have to get up for it, I set it to 1am to give it time to be late and give her time to nibble and give me another proper four hours until breakfast if I need to get up and scoop a poop.

I may drive to the coast this weekend since I'm not tethered to her every four hours now.
As long as I'm back in 8 hours...

 

[daftcat75]

Do I think the Loop is working? She's chasing her toys across the apartment once more. I saw her do a wiggle stalk of a catnip mouse and then boom! goes the cat cannon. She exploded and pounced it, took it for a death roll, then tore across the apartment like a delayed poop zoom.

Yeah, I think the Loop might be helping her.

 

[CL56]

Do I think the Loop is working? She's chasing her toys across the apartment once more. I saw her do a wiggle stalk of a catnip mouse and then boom! goes the cat cannon. She exploded and pounced it, took it for a death roll, then tore across the apartment like a delayed poop zoom.

Yeah, I think the Loop might be helping her.

This is so exciting to hear !
Go Krista !!

 

[daftcat75]

This is so weird. I actually have her next meal loaded in the shoe already. I was done feeding her at 9am. I'm off the hook until 6pm. So why am I still puttering around at home like I have to stick around for a 1pm feed? Old habits die hard.