Luna, Luna, Luna

Luna in her cat cave.  "Don't stick another thermometer up there, or else..."

It has been a wild and woolly couple of weeks.  I haven't had the time to update anything on here, as I've been dealing with some very real life issues at home.

Did you know that there are kitty neurologists?

I know this now!

So, a couple of weeks ago, I was getting ready for work when I heard a sound from Luna that I have never heard before.  I searched her out, and found her.  She couldn't walk.  She would try to stand, flop over on her side, and make that noise again.

I immediately picked her up and took her to the vet.  We were waiting outside of the office when the staff showed up for the day.  The vet took her inside, and took a good look at her and then kept her for the day for observation.  We thought we were at the end.  I was afraid we were going to have to put the cat down.

Fortunately, Luna is still alive and kicking.

She had a seizure.  Our vet ended up keeping Luna for the day, and then we took her to the neurologist the next day.

We don't know what caused the seizure.  We think she may have hurt herself during the initial seizure when she fell.  We have a fluorescent light at the bottom of the stairs that is flashing on and off like a strobe light.  We've been speculating that the light triggered the seizure and she fell down the stairs and hurt herself.  For now, we're keeping the basement door closed.  Husband is out of town on business, and he will replace that light when he gets home.

Luna is slowly getting better.  She is walking better now.  She's still not hopping down from things, but she has started hopping UP on things.  We still can't get her interested in playing with her toys, but she is looking at them again.

Our sweet little kitty.  We love her so much, and she did just lose her companion, Tiger. I wish we could make her understand everything is going to be fine. 

Luna's World

Hey there, this is Luna, writing from the confines of the Pillow of Shame.

I had a sore mouth recently.  It hurt a lot, but I'm a tough little cat, so I didn't make any fuss about it at all.

Until I went to the vet.  She found my sore teeth, and then she decided to make a big fuss.  "Luna needs to have those teeth pulled" she said.  "Abcess" she said.  "Clean her teeth" she said.

Hmph.

My idiot owners "Mom" and "That Girl" (I'm not using her name right now, I'm too angry at her.) They left me at the vets office a couple of days later to have my dental work done.

Do you know, they shave patches of my beautiful fur?
Or that they stuck needles into my delicate skin?
And that they prised my mouth open to pull my teeth?
They even used a scratchy thing to clean my gums.

Even worse, they told "Mom" and "That Girl" that I couldn't eat any kibble for 14 days.  Soft food is fine, but no kibble.

I don't like soft, wet food.  If I wanted soft, wet food, I'd kill one of those little mice that run around in the yard - and sometimes in our basement.

I have been on a hunger strike for 10 days now.  TEN DAYS!!!  DO YOU HEAR ME?????  I HAVEN'T EATEN IN TEN DAYS!!!!!!

Oh, they've given me food... turkey in gravy, chicken, salmon, liver, pumpkin bread...  You name it, they've put it down for me.

And I have repeatedly turned up my nose and tail at this nonsense.

I've slapped plates full of "food" across the room after they put it down.

I've come in and sat down with my back to the "food".

I have shaken my paws at this "food".

All to no avail.  They are not budging. They are standing firm.  They've even taken me back to the vet twice - TWICE I TELL YOU - to have her make sure that I am "doing okay".  I tried my hardest to look all weak and sickly, but when they stick a thermometer up your butt, it's hard not to be angry and indignant.

The vet even said that I had managed to gain weight.

Liar.

She doesn't know about my secret stash.  None of them do.  You see, I had been storing bits and pieces of food behind one of the back legs of the china cabinet.  I had even squirreled away a bag of treats and stored them back there.  When nobody is looking, I go and dig out a few pieces of kibble.  Last night, I pulled out one of the bags of treats that was hidden in a cabinet under the sink.

Don't worry.  I'm letting them know how upset I am.  I am waiting until I really, really have to pee.

The, I find something that belongs to them and let loose.

Very efficient was of winning the argument, hmmm?

Luna

Since Tiger's passing, Luna has been very sad and quiet.  She has been hanging out in all of Tiger's favorite hidey-holes.  She's not been as talkative as usual. She's been disappearing for long periods of time, and when I find her, she's in one of Tiger's favorite quiet spots.  Because of this, we decided to take her to the vet.  We wanted to make certain that she is healthy, and find out what we can do to help make her adjustment to a life without Tiger a little bit easier.

Our amazing vet spent a half an hour with Luna, talking with her, cooing at her, giving her some awesome scritches and asking us questions.  Once Luna gets through her kitty mourning, she will be fine.  We don't know how long her mourning will last, but we need to keep her as happy and content as possible.  And we need to keep her challenged.

Our vet then shared with us information about Enrichment toys for cats.  These aren't the same as chew toys for dogs - or even catnip toys (of which she has many).  No, these are food puzzles.  It seems that cats in the wild only catch 15% of the food that they hunt.  Thus, they are able to keep themselves slim and trim.  In our house, the cats only have to walk over to the food dish and eat their fill.  It's seemed to be a good method, but Luna needs more stimulation right now, and she needs to lose a few of those little pounds that she has recently gained.

And so, we've spent the past couple of days making food puzzles for her.  Right now, she has an open egg carton filled with food.  She has to put her paw into the egg holes and get her food out.  We have each little cup filled a little over halfway with food.  She puts one paw down in the lid of the egg carton to hold everything still while she fishes for her food. 

We've been working on making the next one right now.  We've taken a small water bottle and cut a couple of holes in the sides.  The idea is that we'll put her food in the (empty) water bottle and leave it in the spot where the egg carton is now.  She'll have to bat it around in order to get the food out.  Our goal is to eventually have enough different kinds of enrichment feeders that we'll be able to put a new one out every day for two weeks without repeating anything.

If you'd like to find out more, you can follow this link that our vet gave us:
http://foodpuzzlesforcats.com/