Things are calmer now

At least for the cats. Eddie saw our new vet last week and while he'll never be a fan of going to the vet, I was impressed with both the vet and the vet tech. They were really good with Eddie, so good in fact that he didn't freak out until about the last five minutes. I think by then he'd just had enough.

He had healed up quite well and was able to lose the donut of shame that day. Now, a week later, the hissing has mostly stopped. Kent thinks that when Wally does hiss, it's more because he developed a bad habit and less so from fear or anxiety.

And Wally is sleeping with us all again at night. When I say all, I mean all: Kent, me, Eddie and Chloe. Sometimes I think we should have gotten a king size bed.

Here's hoping none of the cats have that kind of anal gland issue again. It was most unpleasant for all involved and I'm not eager to repeat it.

Typical day sleeping positions. Wally likes to sleep
on my office desk, and gets it furred up.

A sweet story*

Last night, Kent ended up singing some lovely sinus songs (that's code for he snored) so around 11, I moved to the second bedroom. Wally hasn't been sleeping with us ever since Eddie got the cone of shame 11 days ago and last night was no exception. He's been sleeping on the guest bed by himself. So when I went in there, he was immediately thrilled and hovered over me as I got things situated. Once I got in bed, he curled up for a petting session . . . until he saw Eddie.

Eddie was sitting on the floor just watching us. Wally hissed a bit but seemed OK until Eddie jumped up on the bed, on the other side from me. At that point Wally draped himself over me and sort of grabbed on with all his paws, tensed up and started growling very softly at his brother.

I'm pretty sure he was telling Eddie to back off, to go back into the other bedroom and curl up with Kent, that this bed and this human were his tonight. It was kind of sweet, actually. Eddie was oblivious though, and I ended up nudging him off the bed. He stayed away the rest of the night, and Wally and I enjoyed our peaceful sleep.

Today on the file cabinet; yes there's fur.
We have three cats. Don't judge!

*Eddie probably doesn't think it's very sweet.

New collars for the cats

They're pheromone collars and are supposed to calm them all down. We'll see, I've gone through at least one full bottle of the spray to no effect.

Of course, Wally likes to be contrary so I just now got this video of him:

Of hidey-holes and accommodations

First, the hidey-hole. Wally has struggled to find his super secret safe hiding place here in the Little Yellow House. He's a cat who truly needs that spot where he can go to collect his kitty thoughts. In Boston, he had a couple of places in closets way up high, where the other two cats couldn't/wouldn't venture. In our apartment, he loved to get in the under the sink cabinet in our bathroom. He's tried a couple of spots here, mostly the cabinet under the kitchen sink (and believe me, it's rather startling when a cat pushes open a cabinet door at your feet and leaps out).

Today he found a spot he clearly likes in the second bedroom closet. He doesn't know yet that this won't be his safe place because we keep those closet doors shut. I just haven't had the heart to make him move yet.

As far as accommodations go, well I hesitate to post this but I will anyway. To help reduce the growling and hissing, we've had to move the litter boxes out of the sideboard I showed you a couple of weeks ago and even go so far as to put them in separate rooms. If we didn't do that, poor Eddie would never have been able to use the litter box because Wally tried his darndest to block him from getting to them.

Right now, one is on the floor in the office, so it's pretty close to where we had it before. The other one? Is in the tub in the guest bathroom. Apparently the cats like the pink tile in there too, because that box is the one they're using the most. Don't worry, Mom and Dad -- I promise we'll disinfect that tub before you come visit.

Tinkerbell is gone

Kent filled all the nail holes throughout the house today, which was a lot of work. He estimates he filled in between 40 and 50 holes. He also finished scraping Tinkerbell off the office wall. We liked Tinkerbell, only the previous owner had pretty clearly tried and failed to peel her off and (presumably) use it in her new place. So only half of Tinkerbell's head survived and she just looked malformed.

While he did that, I amused myself by working on things in the kitchen. One of the nice things about the kitchen is that the cabinets are the original hardwood. Alas, the shelves are built in and not movable so I did my best to bring order to cabinets of chaos.

Now you see her

Now you don't

Update on Eddie

He's healing but still has to wear his donut so he doesn't groom the wound. Wally is still hissing and growling and chasing him away if Eddie gets too close. Chloe's joined in on the hissing too and I think at this point, it's not the vet smell. I think they are bothered by how the donut looks on Eddie.

We take him for a follow up visit next Wednesday (not to the place we went to on Sunday, no way) and my fear is that the Hissing Wars will redouble in noise and aggression because he'll stink of the vet's clinic again. And my really big fear is that he'll have to wear the donut longer.

In the meantime, for the last three nights I've wiped all cats down with a washcloth dipped in water that's got a tiny amount of their kitty shampoo in it. This is in hopes of making them all smell the same and thus eliminating the source of the hissing. I can only report limited success i.e. Wally still hisses but isn't always outright growling.

So that's the latest. It would be funny only if it weren't so sad.

Not for the squeamish

Or Eddie's very bad, no good day.

Yesterday, Kent noticed a big open wound on Eddie's back leg, up near his bits. Long story not so long, we took him to a vet clinic in a pet store (not the best choice but it was Sunday) and it turned out his right anal gland blew out and his left one was close to doing the same. Three hours and $225 later, we took home our drugged out kitty in a cone of shame.

Only the cone was actually too big and whoever put it on cinched it much too tight. Poor Eddie couldn't swallow his own saliva and could barely (no joke) breathe. So Kent ran back out to a different pet place and came home with the inflatable donut of shame instead.

He's not supposed to groom his open wound for 10 days, and the vet infused it with all sorts of antibiotic stuff. Between the donut of shame and the oozing ointment stuff, I'm sure Eddie stinks exactly like the vet's clinic. As you may recall, Wally hisses and growls at anything smelling of the vet (even himself). So for the last 24 hours, it's been a growl/hiss fest around here.

Poor Eddie is miserable, his brother is a growly mess and even Chloe is getting in on the cranky cat act. As for me, all I really want is no growling tonight. That's just not a pleasant way to wake up.