Why I'm Not a Mother

So I accidentally stepped on Ms. Pukesalot’s tail last night while I was preparing her food last night. Hard. One of those moments where I start to place my foot down, realize there is an inevitably present piece of feline anatomy beneath it, and shift my weight to another location. Unfortunately, I miscalculated and ended up shifting my full weight directly onto her tail.

So, my precious darling now associates food with having her tail stopped on. I open up a can of her food, she runs and hides. I covertly open up her food while she’s out of the kitchen, and sit on the floor with her bowl to feed her manually (which, as you might recall, is the only way she’ll eat), she runs and hides. I walk into the kitchen, she runs and hides. I say the word “hungry”, she runs and hides.

Of course, when I’m engaging in an activity that has nothing to do with food, she comes right out and demands attention. So… I have now resorted to packing a syringe full of food, then taking it with me to some non-food endeavor, waiting for her to come near, then quick stuffing it down her throat and hoping it doesn’t upset her enough to puke it up. After which, she stalks away in a huff with her little ears back, as if… well, as if I’ve just stomped on her tail. And hides.

Now, let me explain something about the syringe. I had to learn how to feed her with one over a month ago. At various points in her sickness, she would eat nothing voluntarily… even via hand-feeding. Plus, her home antibiotics have had to be administered via syringe… albeit mixed with food, ensuring the most success in keeping it down. That was two weeks of liquid antibiotics mixed with baby food. Then after it became evident that they didn’t do a damn bit of good, and three days of in-hospital IV antibiotics, I am now giving her another two weeks of meds in pill form… crushed, of course, and mixed with canned food in a syringe. Up until the tail-stomping incident, she’d fuss a bit during the procedure, but once the food was down her throat, she’d be just fine and ready for the next item on her kitty agenda. It was hardly an occasion for huffiness.

I sincerely hope this is just a phase she’ll get over… soon. But in the back of my mind is the incident when some unknown kitty horror spooked her while her sister (one she’d grown up with) was next to her, and she somehow associated the spook with the cat… and promptly attacked her. She now can no longer be in the same room with her sister without snarling and attacking her. Her sister now lives with my folks.

Amway, I’m taking a sabbatical from cat-ownership today. I just don’t have the time to lure her out of hiding just to trick her into eating, over my lunch hour.

I’d sigh here, but I honestly feel more like growling.

Oh, and...

Gram's out of the hospital. After two weeks of in-hospital rehab, she's doing just fine and back home. Her home. Of course, frustrations abound re: getting certain other aspects of her health back up to par (ie: gaining weight, strengthening her appetite, and getting proper nutrition), but I guess only time will tell how that will work out. I think she's trying, and we'll just have to see how well her efforts help to keep her independent.

3 Things I Could Seriously Do Without...

1) My cat being sick.
2) Me being sick.
3) Ice and/or snow storms
4) All of the above happening at the same time.

Okay, so it's 4 things.

2 weeks of constipation, 3 weeks (at least) of a UTI, a third of her weight lighter, and $1,000 later, Ms. Pukesalot still isn't quite well yet. However, after her 3-day hospital stay for IV antibiotics to counter the most agressive UTI the vet has seen, she seems to have perked up, her meow has lost it's "PITIFUL" quality, and she seems to regained some of her appetite... such as it is. I imagine her stomach has shrunk, and I'm not sure if her meds are screwing with her already sensitive stomach, cuz she can't keep anything but baby food down... and precious little of that at a time as it is. Which means frequent feedings... which she'll only take from my finger. I put it in a bowl, and she looks at it like it's poison and walks away. *sigh*

I tried early on to just let her starve until she ate what I gave her however damn way she gets it, but among the MANY things I've learned over the past month is the fact that she will, indeed, starve herself if it's not how she wants it, and (as the vet informed me) if you let a cat starve herself for longer than 3 or 4 days, her liver will start to shut down and you'll have far more problems on your hands than you started with.

So, I've been running home at lunchtime for three weeks now. Well, except for last week when the coughing and sniffling and snotting and croacking and complete lack of energy from the Cold (with a capital "C") I caught the previous Friday kept me from tackling the results of a three-day ice storm over the weekend, which essentially trapped me in my house, until Tuesday. At which point, I proceeded to make myself even sicker and do (I'm fairly sure) some alarming nerve damage to my hands, and possibly some tendon damage in my left shoulder, by spending 5 hours tackling the couple of inches of pure ice on my driveway.

On a side note: Some of my neighbors can get away with leaving all manner of fun white stuff to Mother Nature to melt at her leisure, however I have a slanted driveway... nose down. There's no way I can get my car out of my drive with anything more than a few inches of snow on it... and parking on the rather narrow street is not the most appealing option either.

Amway, the weather's not done with us yet. We had another snow storm drop off another half-foot of snow over the weekend. But at least this time I lucked out. Just as I was bemoaning to Mom last week over the fact that I have no kids in the neighborhood offering to shovel driveways, I had a couple of just such kids knocking on my door yesterday morning. Considering my Cold is still clinging like a certain neurotic, miserable pussycat, I still haven't completely regained the strength in my hands (though they've stopped shaking uncontrollably), and I still can't turn my shoulder with any kind of weight without experiencing a sharp pain, I'd just been trying to psyche myself up to go out and tackle it for myself. I didn't have anything but a $20, but was quite relieved and happy to fork that over instead of the $10 they asked me for. I think the $20 was part of the Christmas gift/bonus I received from the PM's at work... and I think that was the best Christmas present they could have possibly bought me. lol

Amway, I told the kids to please remember me in future. Combined with the $20, I'm kinda hoping they will.

So. I've been having a fabulous month. One of the few times in my life it'd be nice to NOT be on my own. Oh well. Hopefully by the next time I check in, things will be looking up... and I'll have some time to share about my new project at home. Yeah, I was actually starting on a new project before I got sick. But things are crazy busy at work (I seriously need some help, considering I've again lost my latest back-up), so I'd best keep it at that for now.

Until next time.