Tag: Cat

Classical Kitty

Patches, our cat, would have felt right at home in ancient Rome. Specifically, she would have been a natural in the vomitoriums.

Yeah, that specially-designed-for-sensitive-stomachs cat food we’ve been giving her has really worked well. She only barfed twice yesterday, and the pile of puke the second time weighed nearly as much as she does.

G-R-oss.

Feline Guilt

Jen and I feel like we screwed up our cat, Patches, by trying to bring a second cat into the house. These feelings are irrational, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t real. We both said that we have the urge to try to make it up to Ms Patches by spoiling the holy hell out of her.

Today we bought:
A big cat tree.
A kitty bed.
A shelf thing to attach to a windowsill so she can perch on it.
Three different kinds of cat toys.
Two new types of treats.

The cat tree is up. She hasn’t climbed on it yet, but she did put her paws onto the lowest level. I tried two of the toys. They definitely caught her interest, but she ended up running away from both of them.

Patches is just crazy.

Sabrina

Here are the dirty details.

Patches was hissing and growling.  Sabrina was nervous and clearly scared.  We did what people suggested.  We put their food bowls on either side of Sabrina’s safe room’s door.  The idea is to associate the smell of the other cat with something positive, ie food.  Jen rubbed a clean sock on Sabrina and gave it to Patches.  When Patches didn’t freak out she got a treat.

All of that was going well, but today Patches started throwing herself into the safe room’s door, all while hissing and growling.  The fear of the two cats fighting and possibly hurting each other was compounded by the fear of Patches hurting herself.

Add to that, the kids were at their dad’s house through all of this.  Tonight was the first night they would have been home with Sabrina.  If we didn’t do it tonight, we would never be able to do it.  At least not without breaking the kids’ hearts along with mine and Jen’s.

So I took Sabrina back to the shelter today.  The staff at the shelter told me that we were doing the right thing.

I shall now drown my sadness in my Les Paul.