00goddess

This is one of my favorite memories.

One day in late 2010 or maybe early 2011, I woke up. I was living in R's house in the 3rd ward. WWhen I woke, he came in to talk with me (as he often did) and after a few minutes of us chatting, both cats came hurrying into the room. Opal was first, coming at a hot trot and looking very serious, and Serena Pie was loping right behind her.

They came running into the room and jumped into bed with me. They were both so excited and loving. I realized that they had been somewhere else in the house and, hearing my voice, realized that I was awake and came running in to be with me and love me.

I felt so loved in that moment. They made a deliberate choice to come to me, not because I called them, but because they loved me and wanted to be with me. I don't think I've ever been so loved, as i was by Opal.

I didn't write about this: in January, Opal was diagnosed with Feline Hyperthyroidism. We waited a few weeks in case it was diet-related, but then put her on methimazole. She has been on it now for about 5 weeks. The first 3 weeks were awful because she puked and puked. It got worse and worse. One morning B woke up and she had puked in every room of the house, all over the place. Finally at the end of week 3 B had the idea to give her the pill an hour before dinner, instead of at dinner, and that reduced the puke. She has puked very little in the last week. I don't think I have ever written the word "puke" so many times in one sitting.

She had bloodwork at the end of week 3 and the medication was working. Everything else looked good, hooray! Sometimes hyperthyroid in cats can mask kidney issues, but her kidneys are still doing great. Probably because we don't feed them kibble.

I've grown cat grass for the girls before and they liked it, and now I am doing it again. I stopped because I didn't have a proper pot- one that was small, but heavy and not too tall. Opal has a habit of pulling on the grass and it was knocking the old pots over and making messes.

So, new, squat clay pots acquired, I am growing more grass. An unforeseen problem: when I grew grass before, it was in pots small enough to fit into my miniature greenhouses. The new pots are just a bit too wide. So, they were exposed, and Opal was getting up on the windowsill and ripping the new shoots out and getting soil all over. I tried putting an acrylic barrier up, she went over it. So today I put the pots outside on the patio table.

This evening I happened to see her stroll into the third room and I watched her. She got halfway into the room and stopped. She stared at the empty windowsill in shock, for several seconds, while B and I giggled. She then went searching all around the room, perhaps looking for the missing grass? Then she stood in front of the window and sniffed really big, trying to see if she could smell the grass somewhere. When Opal sniffs hard she actually moves her whole head up and down with each sniff, which is hilarious to watch. After some time sniffing, she determined that the grass was not there. She turned and looked at me.

"Yes, it's gone," I said.

She looked back at the window, maybe hoping the grass would appear, and then she turned to leave the room. With her head down, not making eye contact with either of us, she walked quickly past us and into the hall. In my experience this is something cats do when they know they have been disobedient and they want to pretend it didn't happen.

This cat is so damn funny. I love these moments with her.

Opal went back to the vet on Monday to recheck her UTI. The substitute vet was concerned about her crystal count and wanted to make sure that it was only because of the UTI. The results were that her urine looked great- as perfect as he has ever seen. Our vet has said before that her urine is the clearest he has ever seen in a cat her age and that trend appears to continue.

After she came home, she was VERY noisy. She rarely meows loudly but she was going on and on. I tried to soothe her with lots of love and play. In the evening she was unusually interested in the front door, which is really weird. She sat staring at it and yelling.

Today while B was at work she did the same thing- and ran to the door when his car pulled in. I picked her up to keep her from possibly dashing out. She's been unafraid of the outside and approaching the door often lately, so I worry a bit- I would hate for her to become a door-dasher.

Then later in the day, she went to the door and started yelling again. B has told me that when I leave the house, Opal will sit and stare at the front door, sometimes until I come home. So when she was yelling, I thought maybe she thought B was gone again. I took her to him in the bedroom and she instantly calmed and was happy. I think she had forgotten he was home! She did it again about an hour ago so i took her to the bedroom where he was sleeping and again, she calmed down.

I wonder if she is approaching feline dementia. She is only about 13, so it would be early I think.

We've been feeding the cats a supplement called "Omegaderm" for at least a month now and it's really, really having an effect on Opal. She is much much less itchy, and less sensitive in her rear end (the rear part of her back and hips is usually very sensitive and you can't even touch her there, but the other day she let me pet her there.) She has also been in a really ridiculously happy mood. We give each cat half a packet of the oil every morning with breakfast. The suggested dose is a whole packet but it's a LOT. Then in the evening with dinner they get a probiotic supplement that has mostly controlled Opal's reflux. I have also been giving them a joint health treat that they both really like. If they beg me for food in the early afternoon, I give them a joint treat and two dental treats and that seems to keep them full until dinner. The Omegaderm is making Serena's fur really greasy on some days, but it usually goes away by late afternoon, isn't that funny?

The cats LOVE the new rug. They are both so playful now. Every night we have some laser pointer time, and at other times we play with feather or ribbon toys and they are having a blast. Opal has also tried to get Serena to wrestle but oddly, Serena isn't too into it.

Opal has also been a bit louder than usual. Usually her meows are very quiet, but lately she's been very loud when she wants attention. Today she was asleep when B came home from work, and when she woke up a few hours later, he was making dinner. She ran into the kitchen and meowed SO LOUD at him! Like "Papa! I didn't know you were home!"

I just love these little cats so much. They give us so much love and joy.