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      Wednesday, February 03, 2010


catstuff
09:34 AM - 02/03/2010

The topic: Life goes on….

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Well, so far the only thing I’ve noticed is that the bed is empty during the day.  I washed all the bed clothes yesterday, along with the pillows.  I washed the futon covers, too, since Bart would make his way over there after using the litterbox.  Most recently, his back paws would be soaking wet (he peed on the stool he was standing on), he’d jump in the litterbox (getting the wet leg nice and litter coated), then onto the end table, over to the futon.  Lots of litter on the futon cover. 

I seem to be calling every cat “Bart”.  I find this strange.  I don’t think I’ve ever done it before.  Cats that look or act nothing like Bart are being called Bart.  I’m sure this will resolve quickly. 

And we’ve still got the other special needs cats.  Ollie and Miss Elizabeth still get Calcitriol (and I’m going to be much better and giving them their daily doses).  Miss Elizabeth still gets fluids twice a week. Which brings me to this point.

She’s not easy to give fluids to. It’s not anything that she does, she doesn’t fight me or anything, but I guess I’m just so out of practice, that I’m having a difficult time with it.  She got them last Saturday and it hurt. The needles were sliding out and I had to keep resticking her.  I drew blood.  I didn’t give her all of the fluids she was supposed to get because I was just so shaken up.  I was worried about Bart (Saturday was the day he started the slide downhill) and then had problems with Miss.  When I decided I wasn’t going to finish, I put the caps on the needles and took her out and put her on Brian’s chest.  She loves Brian.

And today was the next day she was supposed to get fluids.  I guess it’s like getting on a horse after you’ve been bucked off. You’re nervous.  You’re afraid.  You’re reluctant to do it. But with Miss, she needs the fluids to help her kidneys, so they don’t have to work so hard.  I had to do it. Her life depends on it.  I know that sounds dramatic,  but it’s true.

So, with shaking hands, I got the bag of lactated ringers from the cupboard, got two syringes and two needles.  I heated up the fluids (I think one of the problems Saturday was that I didn’t warm them long enough) and got the syringes ready.  I was wishing I had some tranquilizers.  For me.  I didn’t want to upset her, so I just took my stuff into the family room, where she was laying on the end of the sofa.  I started petting her, put on my glasses, checked the orientation of the needle (point on the bottom so it would slide in) and did my first stick.  It went smoothly, but I didn’t have it in far enough and it slid out. I had to restick.  This time, when I pulled the needle out, there was a little pink.  I hate that pink.  My vet told me with DeeJay what a great job I’d been doing since he couldn’t feel any scar tissue under the skin where I’d been giving him fluids for years.  I don’t see that same luck with Miss.  The second syringe went the way it was supposed to.  A little slower that I’m used to, maybe because of the needle orientation. But she did get her full 120CC this morning and didn’t seem to be very upset with me.  I had her purring in a matter of minutes.

Other than that drama, things are getting back to normal.  I have to laugh that a couple of the cats are going out of their way to entertain me.  Skip is being the mighty mousie hunter. And Ross is climbing the walls, looking over his shoulder and smiling at me.  He only does it when I’m nearby so I can see him (he’s noisy when he does it, so I know he’s not doing it when I’m not right there). 

Even Lorelei is being more affectionate towards me (she has an issue with me because I was always yelling at her for getting in my water; now I don’t bring my water back here, I drink it in the other room).

Just sigh.


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lisaviolet is seventy something, married with no kids, takes care of lots of cats, likes taking photographs, loves Southern California weather and spends altogether too much time avoiding her responsibilities.

In her spare time, she makes pretty things to sell in her store.

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