...I'm pretty swamped with school work right now, and while I have 2 posts under construction, they have to take the back seat for a couple of days.
All in all, we've had some good, some same-old same-old, and some not so good kitty stuff go on in the last little bit - nothing really earth shattering. More details after I finish some homework.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Non-Pee Related Post
So, after all the pee-related frustrations, I realized that I haven't posted much about how things are going on the re-introduction front. Here goes:
Big Acoustic Kitty is really throwing a wrench into things by insisting on spending so much time downstairs. He wants to eat downstairs most mornings, which means that Little Grey Kitty either eats in the studio by himself or out in the hallway by himself. Which, I'm afraid, has just reinforced his notion that the upstairs belongs to him. He and BYHM are still sniffing noses through the gate, but he's gone backwards in his tolerance of BAK. BAK has come up the stairs a few times and LGK makes it known that he really wants him to go away. No hissing or growling, but some mild lunging and paw waving and generally "not happy" body language.
So, all in all ... we're not making any progress yet. (I went back and put "yet" in. I'm trying to stay hopeful.)
Big Acoustic Kitty is really throwing a wrench into things by insisting on spending so much time downstairs. He wants to eat downstairs most mornings, which means that Little Grey Kitty either eats in the studio by himself or out in the hallway by himself. Which, I'm afraid, has just reinforced his notion that the upstairs belongs to him. He and BYHM are still sniffing noses through the gate, but he's gone backwards in his tolerance of BAK. BAK has come up the stairs a few times and LGK makes it known that he really wants him to go away. No hissing or growling, but some mild lunging and paw waving and generally "not happy" body language.
So, all in all ... we're not making any progress yet. (I went back and put "yet" in. I'm trying to stay hopeful.)
Friday, October 22, 2010
More Frustration.
Today is Bagel Day (aka "payday"), so the Amazing Husbandini and I left the house early to go out for breakfast. After breakfast I lingered at the library and then wandered around Hobby Lobby for a while going, "I know I came in here for something, now what the hell was it?!" (An eraser for my design class, turned out.) Finally I headed home, unloaded all my stuff and went inside to see the kitties and indulge in a chapter or two of one of my new books before I had to get cracking on homework.
I sat down on the couch and got through about half a paragraph before I said to myself, "Self, why is our butt wet?"
Oh, joy ... somebody peed on the couch! (As an aside, I've had many reasons to regret buying this particular couch over the past 3 years, but I now have another one - the oft-touted non-absorbency of microfiber is a load of hooey.)
Who did it? Well, there's no way to know for sure. I strongly suspect Big Acoustic Kitty, since the couch has been his perch of choice since his recent re-discovery of the downstairs. However, it could have been either Big Yellow Hallway Monster or Electric Mayhem. (But my money is on BAK.)
Why did they do it? Again, there's no way to know for sure. In the past, inappropriate peeing of this nature has been due to BAK getting a little too much insulin. However, since he's currently off insulin, that can't be the case. Old age? Possible. BYHM or EM keeping him from the litter box? Possible ... and considering how much of an alpha pain in the ass BYHM has been lately, that's pretty much my guess.
So now what? I can't leave the house unless everyone is separated? Well, I guess so ... or at least I can't leave for more than a quick trip to the store unless BAK is upstairs.
And don't get me started about the couch. I've wiped it down with water and sprayed the beejeezus out of it with Nature's Miracle, but it's one of those poofy, over-stuffed recliner couches - I don't know how well it's going to clean up. Which means we'll be shopping for some new furniture, I guess. You know, we had come to the realization that the furniture in the family room is too big for the room, but this is not the way we wanted to fix the situation.
I'm starting to think seriously about running away from home.
3:20 p.m. addendum: It's now a couple of hours after the fact, and I've thought about it some more. This morning when I came downstairs, I noticed a distinct urine odor at the bottom of the stairs. I grabbed the StinkMaster 5000 and flashed it around, but nothing "came to light", as it were. I finally decided that someone had recently used the litterbox downstairs and that was the smell. However, I didn't sit on or otherwise examine the couch. It's possible that the couch-puddle occurred sometime after we took BAK up to bed last night. (I was sitting in that spot right before we took him up to bed ... and I know I'm not the one who did it.) So I'm not ruling out EM and BYHM after all.
And, I've found some super-cute 1930's-era armchairs on Craigslist that just need a little reupholstering ...
I sat down on the couch and got through about half a paragraph before I said to myself, "Self, why is our butt wet?"
Oh, joy ... somebody peed on the couch! (As an aside, I've had many reasons to regret buying this particular couch over the past 3 years, but I now have another one - the oft-touted non-absorbency of microfiber is a load of hooey.)
Who did it? Well, there's no way to know for sure. I strongly suspect Big Acoustic Kitty, since the couch has been his perch of choice since his recent re-discovery of the downstairs. However, it could have been either Big Yellow Hallway Monster or Electric Mayhem. (But my money is on BAK.)
Why did they do it? Again, there's no way to know for sure. In the past, inappropriate peeing of this nature has been due to BAK getting a little too much insulin. However, since he's currently off insulin, that can't be the case. Old age? Possible. BYHM or EM keeping him from the litter box? Possible ... and considering how much of an alpha pain in the ass BYHM has been lately, that's pretty much my guess.
So now what? I can't leave the house unless everyone is separated? Well, I guess so ... or at least I can't leave for more than a quick trip to the store unless BAK is upstairs.
And don't get me started about the couch. I've wiped it down with water and sprayed the beejeezus out of it with Nature's Miracle, but it's one of those poofy, over-stuffed recliner couches - I don't know how well it's going to clean up. Which means we'll be shopping for some new furniture, I guess. You know, we had come to the realization that the furniture in the family room is too big for the room, but this is not the way we wanted to fix the situation.
I'm starting to think seriously about running away from home.
3:20 p.m. addendum: It's now a couple of hours after the fact, and I've thought about it some more. This morning when I came downstairs, I noticed a distinct urine odor at the bottom of the stairs. I grabbed the StinkMaster 5000 and flashed it around, but nothing "came to light", as it were. I finally decided that someone had recently used the litterbox downstairs and that was the smell. However, I didn't sit on or otherwise examine the couch. It's possible that the couch-puddle occurred sometime after we took BAK up to bed last night. (I was sitting in that spot right before we took him up to bed ... and I know I'm not the one who did it.) So I'm not ruling out EM and BYHM after all.
And, I've found some super-cute 1930's-era armchairs on Craigslist that just need a little reupholstering ...
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Frustration
Maybe I should not be quite as upset about this as I am, but ... well, I am.
Yesterday (or maybe it was the day before - things have been busy here lately) I discovered that Little Grey Kitteh had peed all over a pile of papers in the studio. This morning, I discovered that the corner behind the door where he likes to hang out also smells of urine. Now granted, both of these spots were discovered well after the event in question ... both spots were long dry and the smell was only evident after I happened to move some things around and got closer to the source. The spot by the door was actually underneath some other stuff, so I know it's been there for a while. And the spot by the door I could sort of understand - all the pee was at the base of this bookcase that had come up from the basement. If some of the basement smells had come with it, that would explain some of the peeing.
I've cleaned up both places really well and will be keeping a better eye on LGK from now on. I just wish I knew what had triggered it. Did Big Yellow Hallway Monster hang out on the other side of the door and make LGK upset? Was LGK not feeling well one day? Was he just annoyed that I'd left him or shut him back up in the room one day? Did it happen during nicer weather when the windows were open and something outside upset him?
And honestly, I can't be 100% sure that LGK was the one who did it. (Though that's my guess.) The bookcase was there before the studio became LGK's home, so it could have been BYHM. The paper I'm pretty sure was LGK's mess, though.
So ... Amitriptylene (usually prescribed by vets for the treatment of "inappropriate urination") for everybody this morning. I'd been slacking off in giving it to LGK, but that was obviously a mistake. Luckily, LGK and BYHM are much better about taking their medicine than Big Acoustic Kitty is about taking his. They don't like it, but there's none of this "run and hide and pee on people and then run around foaming at the mouth and drooling all over everything" like BAK does.
In other news, "outings" upstairs have become a daily event for LGK, but I think we need to really rev up the re-introductions. There have been a number of mutual nose sniffing sessions through the baby gate at the top of the stairs, and overall they've gone pretty well, but I'm a little worried that LGK is starting to view the entire upstairs as his territory. And if BAK starts feeling worse again and not spending so much time downstairs, that could become a real problem. But, since the Amazing Husbandini is down with a nasty cold and I'm starting to feel that cold-heralding tickle at the back of my throat, too ... well, we'll just see what happens, I guess.
Yesterday (or maybe it was the day before - things have been busy here lately) I discovered that Little Grey Kitteh had peed all over a pile of papers in the studio. This morning, I discovered that the corner behind the door where he likes to hang out also smells of urine. Now granted, both of these spots were discovered well after the event in question ... both spots were long dry and the smell was only evident after I happened to move some things around and got closer to the source. The spot by the door was actually underneath some other stuff, so I know it's been there for a while. And the spot by the door I could sort of understand - all the pee was at the base of this bookcase that had come up from the basement. If some of the basement smells had come with it, that would explain some of the peeing.
I've cleaned up both places really well and will be keeping a better eye on LGK from now on. I just wish I knew what had triggered it. Did Big Yellow Hallway Monster hang out on the other side of the door and make LGK upset? Was LGK not feeling well one day? Was he just annoyed that I'd left him or shut him back up in the room one day? Did it happen during nicer weather when the windows were open and something outside upset him?
And honestly, I can't be 100% sure that LGK was the one who did it. (Though that's my guess.) The bookcase was there before the studio became LGK's home, so it could have been BYHM. The paper I'm pretty sure was LGK's mess, though.
So ... Amitriptylene (usually prescribed by vets for the treatment of "inappropriate urination") for everybody this morning. I'd been slacking off in giving it to LGK, but that was obviously a mistake. Luckily, LGK and BYHM are much better about taking their medicine than Big Acoustic Kitty is about taking his. They don't like it, but there's none of this "run and hide and pee on people and then run around foaming at the mouth and drooling all over everything" like BAK does.
In other news, "outings" upstairs have become a daily event for LGK, but I think we need to really rev up the re-introductions. There have been a number of mutual nose sniffing sessions through the baby gate at the top of the stairs, and overall they've gone pretty well, but I'm a little worried that LGK is starting to view the entire upstairs as his territory. And if BAK starts feeling worse again and not spending so much time downstairs, that could become a real problem. But, since the Amazing Husbandini is down with a nasty cold and I'm starting to feel that cold-heralding tickle at the back of my throat, too ... well, we'll just see what happens, I guess.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
10.14.10
*knock wood* Yesterday and today have gone pretty well.
Little Grey Kitteh had not one, but two outings yesterday ... he got harnessed up and let out of the studio to wander around the upstairs a bit. The first time went unnoticed by the other three kitties, but the second, pre-bedtime outing did get the attention of Big Yellow Hallway Monster and Electric Mayhem. But, while LGK and EM didn't get nose-to-nose through the baby gate, they didn't show any hostility, either. And BYHM and LGK did get nose-to-nose through the gate, but also showed no hostility. So, good news there.
However, right after LGK wandered off from the mutual-nose sniffing session, he did start to act a little weirded out and went right back into the studio when I called him. Short and positive sessions ... that's what we're after.
BYHM had his first dose of non-ear-goo Amitriptylene this morning ... he wasn't happy. But at least he doesn't drool it all over the house like Big Acoustic Kitty does with his steroid meds.
Little Grey Kitteh had not one, but two outings yesterday ... he got harnessed up and let out of the studio to wander around the upstairs a bit. The first time went unnoticed by the other three kitties, but the second, pre-bedtime outing did get the attention of Big Yellow Hallway Monster and Electric Mayhem. But, while LGK and EM didn't get nose-to-nose through the baby gate, they didn't show any hostility, either. And BYHM and LGK did get nose-to-nose through the gate, but also showed no hostility. So, good news there.
However, right after LGK wandered off from the mutual-nose sniffing session, he did start to act a little weirded out and went right back into the studio when I called him. Short and positive sessions ... that's what we're after.
BYHM had his first dose of non-ear-goo Amitriptylene this morning ... he wasn't happy. But at least he doesn't drool it all over the house like Big Acoustic Kitty does with his steroid meds.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Site Update
All the background posts (#1-4) are finished, but Blogger was giving me grief about editing #4, so it's not hanging out with its buddies.
10.13.10
Rolled out of bed late this morning, so the kitties were all sure we'd been eaten by wolves and they'd never be fed again. BYHM went straight into the bathroom and "let" me shut the door on him, then fussed the whole time. Which is fine. Big Acoustic Kitty then decided that if wanted breakfast, he was apparently going to have to get it himself, so he came downstairs and dined in the family room. Finally I managed to bring a plate up to Little Grey Kitty and he's eating it while I type.
So ... been falling down on the job the past couple of days. Nobody's really been wearing their harnesses or meeting the prisoner. Although LGK did get a little bit of an outing last night while everyone else was downstairs. He really wants out of the studio, but the second he's past the door, you can tell he's somewhat on guard. And he can't be out too long, or he overloads a bit. Slow and steady increasing of territory is the way to go, I guess.
We're considering actually putting some kind of a screen door at the top of the stairs so that he doesn't have to worry about BYHM jumping over the baby gate and getting to him. (Because it's not obvious enough that we're crazy cat people.)
That's it for now. Starting tomorrow, I think the daily posts might come in the evenings, or even go up a day late, so that I have something more to discuss than just breakfast. Fishy pudding can only be so interesting.
So ... been falling down on the job the past couple of days. Nobody's really been wearing their harnesses or meeting the prisoner. Although LGK did get a little bit of an outing last night while everyone else was downstairs. He really wants out of the studio, but the second he's past the door, you can tell he's somewhat on guard. And he can't be out too long, or he overloads a bit. Slow and steady increasing of territory is the way to go, I guess.
We're considering actually putting some kind of a screen door at the top of the stairs so that he doesn't have to worry about BYHM jumping over the baby gate and getting to him. (Because it's not obvious enough that we're crazy cat people.)
That's it for now. Starting tomorrow, I think the daily posts might come in the evenings, or even go up a day late, so that I have something more to discuss than just breakfast. Fishy pudding can only be so interesting.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)