Category: Nick

caturday — the medical post

whbeebe

This past Monday Luke made the trip to the vets for his rabies shot. He was totally quiet riding over, and totally quiet riding back. No upset howls from the Luke man. Luke is also the easiest cat to get into the carrier because he uses that carrier as one of his sleeping spots around the house. I prop the door open and he just waltzes right on in whenever he feels like it. Luke is the first and only cat I’ve ever had that willingly sleeps in the pet carrier.

Luke’s the third cat so far this year to get his rabies shot, the other two being Nicholas and Beau. What’s nice about these current rabies shots is that they’re certified for three years between when they’re administered. Like all the other cats, Luke took to hiding in this unfamiliar place. Luke decided to hide under the blue towel while cuddled next to my right hip. The two of us sat together on a bench in the waiting room the entire time we were there. The staff infused the blue towel with pheromones and lavender scent to help calm little ones like Luke, so since he sat calmly while under the blue towel, I have to suppose it worked.

Before Luke got his shot, he got weighed. Luke weighed in at 14 lbs. According to the vet’s records he hadn’t gained any weight since the last time he was there, which I suppose is a good thing. But 14 lbs is still a chunk, which I feel every morning as Luke walks across me while I’m still sound asleep. That’s Luke’s way of telling me to get up and feed him.

The next day, Tuesday, I held a telemedicine consultation with the orthopedic surgery group that’s going to operate on my left knee come 18 July. According to them the data collected during the recent medical visits were fine, and I was cleared for surgery. I suppose that there was a corner of my mind that was listening and said quietly to itself, “finally!” Because the next day on Wednesday it was like my left knee went to hell in a hand basket, with me limping around the house like an old gimp, wobbling around and feeling sharp pain in every step that alighted on my left foot. It was so bad that I spent the evening out in the main part of the house in my recliner, with my leg propped up and knee iced up. That’s when all the cats came by to check out what was happening and to give me their version of comfort.

Nicholas Joseph was probably the biggest comforting soul that night. The others came by and stayed a few moments to collect some gentle rubs, but Nick curled up in my lap and went to sleep. I should note he did not pick the left leg to lie upon, and in fact stuck to the right side of my lap. They all did, which makes me wonder what signals I gave off that my left knee/leg was in such a sorry state Wednesday night.

Nick stuck around until after I dozed off to sleep. Nick’s behavior is notable for how long he was with me. Nick is a sweet little character, just like the other five, but he’s so busy checking things out that he doesn’t hang around the humans as long as he did with me that night.

caturday — napping on my tv sound bar

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Luke is the clowder’s alpha. Being the alpha means he takes every opportunity to exploit every special spot in the house, special being defined by how much they each covet a particular spot. Recently the space between the base of my TV and the sound bar has become one of the most coveted spots in the house, primarily as a napping aid. Here we see Sir Luke napping to the left of me on the sound bar.

Here, he’s switched positions and is now napping to the right of me on the sound bar.

And to prove how popular a napping spot the space between the TV and the sound bar has become, we see Nicholas the Youngest napping to the right. Others in the clowder (it has six cats) may also nap there, I just haven’t caught them at it yet.

There are at least three problems with the cats napping on my sound bar:

  1. They all shed like crazy, so I’m regularly pulling out my special vacuum and wand and constantly going over everything to pick up the hair. I have to really work on the sound bar because it’s covered in cloth. Looks stylish, but it’s a royal pain to keep clean with this crew.
  2. Cats are not windows. Their fat little bodies cover the IR window at the base of the TV, meaning that when the humans want to watch TV with the remote control I have to get up and chase them off.
  3. One morning I came out into the TV room and found the sound bar pushed off the normal position you see it now, and down onto the floor. Thankfully I still had an Orvis thick dog pad on the floor so that the dog pad cushioned the fall. The fall still disconnected the HDMI cabling as well as the power, so I had to reconnect everything and turn it all back on again. So how did the sound bar wind up on the floor? I suspect a brief but powerful wrestling contest between Luke and more than likely Nicholas, resulting in the sound bar being pushed off by all that thrashing cat mass.

*sigh*