The Miller Place

Ginger and Clarence

It’s been a long time since I did any cat blogging. I can’t promise what I didn’t deliver before (regular cat blogging), but with five cats, there’s usually something going on… Take Wednesday. Please.

Sammi Two-Stitches

Shortly after I got home from dropping my wife off at the airport Wednesday evening, I found Samantha. Or perhaps she found me. She had a slice on the outer edge of her ear, with a piece hanging on and flopping around. I have no idea what happened and though I first saw her inside, we have a pet door. There is no way to know and she’s not telling. None of our other cats have a mark on ‘em, and they’re not likely suspects.

An emergency visit to the vet’s and she’s … not gonna be quite as good as new, but close. He was able to connect most of it back but had to cut off the thinnest part and cauterize the tip (of the reattached slice). She will have a noticably altered ear.

She’s doing better than I would be. She’s not bothering it at all, the wound is staying clean, and she acts like it doesn’t hurt. I’m not so sure but she’s doing the prairie-dog thing where she head-butts my hand as I reach down to her and she’s soaking up the extra attention. She wants outside like always. Two more days and then we’ll see.

The pet door has been locked since she got home with all five cats inside and under supervision. If she can’t go out, nobody can! Hardly any sparks, but a lot of whining…

She goes back in a week to get the stitches removed.

A loyal friend for over 14 years.

Toonces has been a champ for a long time now, but diabetes and renal failure have been progressively wearing him down – both physically and mentally. With a long, slow cronic disease, there will never be an obvious no-choice time, but bad times will increase and good times will fade away. When the balance is permanently tipped…

Last night, Kathy picked him up from the lower landing and brought him upstairs. When she set him down to walk, his back legs gave out. He wasn’t able to get up and stay up, and he just laid down with a heavy sigh. We took him to the vet’s. Dr. Tope was still there at 8:30pm. We were able to go in back with him as he checked Toonces out. He was dehydrated and possibly hypoglycemic. While Dr. Tope administered fluids and offerred Toonces food (which he accepted graciously while standing there wobbly and hooked up to an IV), we talked.

Dr. Tope said Toonces has been getting tired, especially in the last few weeks (he went in every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for rehydration by IV). Dr. Tope felt Toonces was becoming clinically depressed. Kathy and I have both seen it too, the more so since we knew how little time was left and we made the most of it. We talked about it and decided to bring Toonces home.

Today, he got to eat as often and as much as he wanted. I spent time with him on the couch again. This evening, Dr. Tope came to the house at our request to put Toonces to sleep humanely and in familiar surroundings.

I already miss him.

Sammi stays focused on the chipmunk hole while Moki washes and Precious watches.

Ginger is the latest addition to the Miller household.

She’s about two years old and had been at one of our local vet’s for more than a month. They told me most people didn’t even notice her, and when they did, they hardly gave her a second glance. I was there for another reason, and got to know her while waiting (who doesn’t at a vet’s office?) Honestly, with four cats already, I knew better than to take on another responsibility. Unilaterally, anyways. I was about to leave without her when my wife dropped in to see how things were going: she saw the cat, picked her up, and that was it. All she needed from me was a nod of agreement. By the time I did leave, Kathy was signing adoption papers.

Ginger was spayed yesterday, so she’s not real happy right now. She has been out and about a few times, but she goes back to the pet carrier for security.  So far, the only thing that really gets her worked up is seeing another cat.  Each of our other four cats have seen her, been hissed at, and decided they had other, more important matters to attend to. 

I’ve posted pictures under Cats.