I haven't written a gratefulness post lately, and today I'm actually feeling grateful for quite a few things, so here we go. I think the list might get quite long:
1. My house. I LOVE my house. It's like living in a mid-century modern resort. It's awesome. It's beautiful. It's wonderful. Granted there are a few things I'd like to change about it (new windows, new kitchen cabinets, new bathrooms), but overall, it's just great.
2. My furniture. I do feel rather lucky that my dad loved mid-century modern furniture and insisted on buying a lot of it in the 70s, and now that I have a house, my mom, who doesn't really appreciate the furniture, is foisting it all onto me. Hooray!
3. My cat, even though sometimes I think he's trying to kill me. After my alarm went off this morning, he got up, stretched, climbed up onto me, sat down on my shoulder and then flopped onto my face so that I couldn't breathe. He then proceeded to purr contentedly. At least he's the cutest cat in the world and has very few annoying and/or destructive habits. And he keeps me warm in the winter.
4. My bikes. I know, I have too many bikes. But I love them all.
5. My free time. I figure it's good to post some non-material list items too. I love that I've been able to work out a budget so that I can pay off my credit card debt very quickly and live very comfortably on my current salary, which by a college-educated Californian's standards isn't all that much (but more than I've ever made before).
6. My physical abilities. I love that I can go rock-climbing, running, swimming, biking, snowboarding, hiking, backpacking, and all that other good stuff.
7. Food. Good food. And lots of it. The fact that I have a community garden plot and that there are so many great farmer's markets in the area really compound this one.
OK, that's enough for now. Lunch is almost over.
Showing posts with label Max. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Max. Show all posts
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
The cat conundrum
So I have two wee little kitties, Max and Akaya. Akaya is going to be 12 soon, and as a member of the senior cat population, she has some health issues that I would really love to have solved. Mainly, this involves IBD (inflammatory bowel disease), or so the vet believes. It's impossible to know for sure without extremely invasive testing, which just seems unnecessarily cruel and, well, unnecessary. So I've chosen to treat the issue as if it is IBD. This has involved trial diets of specialty foods as well as medication, neither of which have been very fun.
This lack of fun is mainly because I have TWO cats and they're both whiny about food. Also, pilling a cat is never fun (saying "pilling a cat" is kind of fun, but not enough to make up for the actual deed). Because of the difficulty inherent in pilling a cat, I have finally put my mortar and pestle to use in crushing the pill, which is then mixed with some wet cat food (which I've pureed with some water to make it nice and soupy, just the way she likes it). Of course, one can't have wet food without the other getting whiny and shoving in, so Max has to have his own cat food (chunky with gravy, just the way he likes it). And when Akaya is done slurping up her wet food, she helps Max by licking the gravy off of the chicken chunks in his food. Ahhh, symbiosis. This will work well as long as Akaya doesn't spontaneously decide that she no longer likes the type of wet food that I am providing, which has already happened twice. Persnickity cat.
But now that Akaya is on a special-food-only diet, I'm having to separate their dry food as well. Akaya can't eat any of Max's food, and I don't want Max to eat Akaya's food since it's insanely expensive and he's got a big appetite (he's a growing cat after all, but mainly it's his spare tire that's doing the growing. And his fur - more on that in a bit). And naturally, Akaya would prefer to eat Max's food and Max would prefer to eat Akaya's food. I'm experimenting with feeding them in separate rooms and only leaving the food out as long as they eat their own food. They haven't eaten as much as they usually do, which is slightly worriesome as Akaya's weight recently dropped quite dramatically, and I'm hoping she'll put some back on. But hopefully they'll learn to eat the food that's given them.
As far as cat hair goes, hairball season is upon us. The cats are shedding all over the house. I think Max sheds his coat completely every night and regrows a new one before morning. I'm guessing he spends the majority of the night scampering around the house and depositing the spent cat hair on any available surface, because it multiplies faster than I can keep up with it. I'm definitely going to have to get better about combing him, because the layer of fur in the house and the hairballs on the floor are starting to get annoying. Perhaps instead of "Locks of Love" we can sponsor an organization for those poor little hairless cats and call it "Coats of Compassion" or something like that. Hey, it's an idea.
This lack of fun is mainly because I have TWO cats and they're both whiny about food. Also, pilling a cat is never fun (saying "pilling a cat" is kind of fun, but not enough to make up for the actual deed). Because of the difficulty inherent in pilling a cat, I have finally put my mortar and pestle to use in crushing the pill, which is then mixed with some wet cat food (which I've pureed with some water to make it nice and soupy, just the way she likes it). Of course, one can't have wet food without the other getting whiny and shoving in, so Max has to have his own cat food (chunky with gravy, just the way he likes it). And when Akaya is done slurping up her wet food, she helps Max by licking the gravy off of the chicken chunks in his food. Ahhh, symbiosis. This will work well as long as Akaya doesn't spontaneously decide that she no longer likes the type of wet food that I am providing, which has already happened twice. Persnickity cat.
But now that Akaya is on a special-food-only diet, I'm having to separate their dry food as well. Akaya can't eat any of Max's food, and I don't want Max to eat Akaya's food since it's insanely expensive and he's got a big appetite (he's a growing cat after all, but mainly it's his spare tire that's doing the growing. And his fur - more on that in a bit). And naturally, Akaya would prefer to eat Max's food and Max would prefer to eat Akaya's food. I'm experimenting with feeding them in separate rooms and only leaving the food out as long as they eat their own food. They haven't eaten as much as they usually do, which is slightly worriesome as Akaya's weight recently dropped quite dramatically, and I'm hoping she'll put some back on. But hopefully they'll learn to eat the food that's given them.
As far as cat hair goes, hairball season is upon us. The cats are shedding all over the house. I think Max sheds his coat completely every night and regrows a new one before morning. I'm guessing he spends the majority of the night scampering around the house and depositing the spent cat hair on any available surface, because it multiplies faster than I can keep up with it. I'm definitely going to have to get better about combing him, because the layer of fur in the house and the hairballs on the floor are starting to get annoying. Perhaps instead of "Locks of Love" we can sponsor an organization for those poor little hairless cats and call it "Coats of Compassion" or something like that. Hey, it's an idea.
Monday, January 19, 2009
On difficult cats with picky eating habits
My older cat is almost 12 years old and lately has been suffering from what I refer to as "digestive troubles" as evidenced by the little presents she leaves scattered around my apartment. After several expensive vet visits and several even more expensive (and inconclusive) tests, the doctor admitted he didn't know what was wrong, but it was most likely IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) or lymphoma, a type of cancer common in older cats. Not having the money for chemotherapy, or even for the test to determine if it is cancer for sure, I'm opting to treat her as if she has IBD, which means medication twice daily for the time being.
For those of you who have cats, you know that there are two types - the ever-so-common cat who is EXTREMELY picky, and turns her nose up at just about everything, and sometimes will eat something for a day or two but then decides it's just not good enough, and the extremely rare cat who will eat anything and everything. Akaya, my sick kitty, is the first type, and Max, my other kitty, the second type. So I'm not only having difficulty finding something to mix with Akaya's medicine that she will eat, I'm having a hard time keeping Max from eating everything I try give Akaya. I'd separate them, but my apartment is relatively small and doesn't really have useful doors. I think I've finally hit on a solution - Kaya gets high-priced, quality fish catfood, pureed to a mush (the better to hide the meds), while Max gets whatever I can find to keep him occupied while Kaya eats. I'm not sure I'll ever get another cat after all of this.
For those of you who have cats, you know that there are two types - the ever-so-common cat who is EXTREMELY picky, and turns her nose up at just about everything, and sometimes will eat something for a day or two but then decides it's just not good enough, and the extremely rare cat who will eat anything and everything. Akaya, my sick kitty, is the first type, and Max, my other kitty, the second type. So I'm not only having difficulty finding something to mix with Akaya's medicine that she will eat, I'm having a hard time keeping Max from eating everything I try give Akaya. I'd separate them, but my apartment is relatively small and doesn't really have useful doors. I think I've finally hit on a solution - Kaya gets high-priced, quality fish catfood, pureed to a mush (the better to hide the meds), while Max gets whatever I can find to keep him occupied while Kaya eats. I'm not sure I'll ever get another cat after all of this.
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