Menage-rary Notes from All Over.
Jan. 7th, 2013 09:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogOur oldest kitty hasn't been a happy camper the past few days.
Tazzer's going on 14, all but the first of those years under this roof. Early on, he acquired the nickname of "401K," since he's where mine mostly wound up as a result of surgeries from stupid ingestions on his part. Over time, though, he's mellowed, and seemed to have given up his suicidal tendencies. Until last night, when he turned his nose up at a feeding- not unheard of in recent times, but bearing monitoring.
As of tonight's feeding, though, the monitor hit yellow alert. It was the third straight nom session where he turned his nose up completely at din-din, despite my tempting him this time with a little-ass can of fresh Fancy Feast. Other than that symptom, Mrs. Lincoln, the cat seemed fine: Tazzer preened, and purred, and hung out in the brief sunshine for all the livelong day- until he turned up his nom nose a rare third time earlier tonight.
I put out a Facebook distress call, and got some good advice: baby food. Sure enough, a little jar of turkey-in-broth piqued his curiosity and his nomming, and he's been happily and painlessly sleeping ever since. I'll still run him in to the vet tomorrow if the morning brings less interest in various options, but we will both sleep much better between now and then knowing he's at least eaten (and hydrated with) something.
----
And then there's the dog, our oldest, who as recently as six days ago was also turning up her nose at noms. She's gone to the other extreme, back to annoying the shit out of me to be fed a good 90 minutes before her a.m. and p.m. designated times. While I was too unconscious to resist her plaintive woofs at 5-ish a.m., I took things more angrily late this afternoon and gave Tasha her first-ever timeout.
She was whining, nickering, and barking, BARKING her brains out from the moment I got home between a late afternoon outside appointment and a planned 5:30 workout. The latter never happened, but neither did the 4:30 feeding she was demanding. Round 16:45, I hauled her out to our garage, slammed the door behind her and made clear that the act was not acting in her favor....
And heard the blessed sound of silence from there until I let her back in, maybe three minutes later, and for a good half hour past that, with me even feigning a late-afternoon nap with barely a whimper from this usually vocal objectant. When I put out her kibble at around 5:30 p.m., she registered barely a complaint- a good thing, since I was paying much more attention to Tazzer's not eating at that hour.
In recent morns, she's been waking me up at 0430 to go out, with the Morning Report beginning well before 5. Now that I know this technique works, we may finally be re-establishing who's really in charge here.
Okay, establishing for the first time:P
One consequence of Tazzer's troubles? I only briefly got to meet the perfectly lovely, if less than perfectly purple-haired,puppy_ciao, who I'd heard would be presenting a topic at a meeting at my church tonight. For anything short of a distressed kitty, I'd have stayed, and listened, and appreciated. I hope our paths will cross again, as what you do is much appreciated and needed around here:)
Tazzer's going on 14, all but the first of those years under this roof. Early on, he acquired the nickname of "401K," since he's where mine mostly wound up as a result of surgeries from stupid ingestions on his part. Over time, though, he's mellowed, and seemed to have given up his suicidal tendencies. Until last night, when he turned his nose up at a feeding- not unheard of in recent times, but bearing monitoring.
As of tonight's feeding, though, the monitor hit yellow alert. It was the third straight nom session where he turned his nose up completely at din-din, despite my tempting him this time with a little-ass can of fresh Fancy Feast. Other than that symptom, Mrs. Lincoln, the cat seemed fine: Tazzer preened, and purred, and hung out in the brief sunshine for all the livelong day- until he turned up his nom nose a rare third time earlier tonight.
I put out a Facebook distress call, and got some good advice: baby food. Sure enough, a little jar of turkey-in-broth piqued his curiosity and his nomming, and he's been happily and painlessly sleeping ever since. I'll still run him in to the vet tomorrow if the morning brings less interest in various options, but we will both sleep much better between now and then knowing he's at least eaten (and hydrated with) something.
----
And then there's the dog, our oldest, who as recently as six days ago was also turning up her nose at noms. She's gone to the other extreme, back to annoying the shit out of me to be fed a good 90 minutes before her a.m. and p.m. designated times. While I was too unconscious to resist her plaintive woofs at 5-ish a.m., I took things more angrily late this afternoon and gave Tasha her first-ever timeout.
She was whining, nickering, and barking, BARKING her brains out from the moment I got home between a late afternoon outside appointment and a planned 5:30 workout. The latter never happened, but neither did the 4:30 feeding she was demanding. Round 16:45, I hauled her out to our garage, slammed the door behind her and made clear that the act was not acting in her favor....
And heard the blessed sound of silence from there until I let her back in, maybe three minutes later, and for a good half hour past that, with me even feigning a late-afternoon nap with barely a whimper from this usually vocal objectant. When I put out her kibble at around 5:30 p.m., she registered barely a complaint- a good thing, since I was paying much more attention to Tazzer's not eating at that hour.
In recent morns, she's been waking me up at 0430 to go out, with the Morning Report beginning well before 5. Now that I know this technique works, we may finally be re-establishing who's really in charge here.
Okay, establishing for the first time:P
One consequence of Tazzer's troubles? I only briefly got to meet the perfectly lovely, if less than perfectly purple-haired,
puppy_ciao, who I'd heard would be presenting a topic at a meeting at my church tonight. For anything short of a distressed kitty, I'd have stayed, and listened, and appreciated. I hope our paths will cross again, as what you do is much appreciated and needed around here:)![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-01-08 03:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-08 03:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-09 01:57 pm (UTC)He ate this morning- not when first fed, but by the time we got up (and nobody else had access to it, not for lack of complaining about that)- and he just looks and sounds a lot better. Lab report should be in soon, which should reveal the Really Bad Things if there are any:P