What a difference a couple of weeks makes.
I haven't really had time to blog lately, but suffice it to say that, as is usually the case around here, there's never been a dull moment.
First of all, we've had six trips to the vet in the last two weeks. Elroy and Reggie both went because of an upper respiratory. Unfortunately, turned out they both needed dentals too, and Elroy needed an extraction.
Then Otto seemed lumpy (i.e. lumped around on the bed a lot) last weekend, so we took him to the vet on Monday. He had a UTI and turned out he needed an extraction, too. When they actually did it, he needed three extractions, at least one of which was complicated by the fact that his tooth had shattered in its socket. Otto came home a very unhappy, very puffy, very lumpy kitty. We couldn't get him to eat, and he barely drank, so we couldn't give him his "give-with-food" antibiotics. Also, he had this suspicious-looking brownish discharge coming out of one nostril that made me fearful they had breached his sinuses during the dental and he was experiencing an abscess or worse. I was pretty much beside myself, and in near panic mode, terrified that Otto as we knew him was never coming back to us. So back to the vet he went so they could give him his antibiotics and some fluids. Turns out what was happening to him was fairly normal (!), and we were able to bring him home.
Here's what Sean did to make him feel better when he came back:
This was just Phase One. Sean also figured out (because, as I may have mentioned, Sean can get inside a cat's head better than anyone I've ever met, and he's particularly good at doing that with Otto) that Otto didn't want to be coddled. I was in the dark on this piece. Otto was hurting, Otto wasn't eating, and Otto had some very unpleasant-looking discharge coming out of one nostril. My brain leapt immediately to coddling. Apparently, Otto wanted none of it, and Sean figured that out. So he took him out on the kitty porch (more about that in a later post) and started "roughing him up." By that, I meant that he vigorously ruffled his fur on both sides of his body, held him in his lap like he normally does (tucked in like a newborn baby), and tried to remind him of what a wonderful world he had out there to experience.
It seemed to work. By evening, Otto was picking at some food, and this morning, I woke up to see Otto stretching and clawing at the kitty tree and looking urgently out the screen door to the outside world. I grabbed him a bowl of salmon and he gobbled it down. Otto, indeed, seems to have been brought back from the brink, mostly because Sean is the best Big Buddy ever, and knew exactly what Otto needed, to make Otto feel like Otto again. I've never witnessed a human/non-human animal bond like theirs, and likely never will again. It's truly a joy to watch, and I feel privileged to get to witness it. They are so lucky to have each other. I'm so lucky to have them both.
* * *
Meanwhile, Reggie seemed to have accidentally left his Upchuck Valve in the "on" position. Ever since his dental, he wouldn't stop vomiting. He played, he ate, he seemed bright-eyed and healthy and happy--he just puked his little guts out every few hours. We took him back to the vet and he seemed otherwise healthy--good bloodwork and all that. Turns out the vet thought he had a "Rebellious Chi." Yep, you read that right. So now he's on Chinese medicine to tame his Chi.
I could not make this stuff up.
The other part of Reggie's illness was that we had to sequester him in what has now been affectionately dubbed "Little Bitty Buddy Girl's Room," formerly known with the much less flashy name of "the guest room." As you might expect, Little Bitty Buddy Girl (aka Zelda) had a little bit of trouble with that. She couldn't stand not having a "home base" to run back to when Wanda started hissing at her.
Oh, did I forget to mention the hissing? So much has changed since I last wrote. We really must get together more often to keep you updated. Yes, Zelda has been fully integrated into the house now. She's getting along reasonably well with Elroy and Reggie (to be expected, I think), and is still "working things out" with Mister and Wanda. And by "working things out," I mean that Wanda has taken to chasing her around the house, tiny little mouse tail fluffed up like a bottle brush. There's been lots of swatting and hissing from Wanda and much growling from Miss Z. (Or, as we've been calling them lately, Queen Wanda and Princess Zelda. Or Alpha and Lieutenant Alpha.) They're working it out.
It's not always easy, and on rare occasions it's not fun, but the Six Pack is back. And even when it's sad, and scary (and yowly), I'm loving every minute of it.
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