And due to circumstances beyond my control, I have no available photos from the week and no way to post them anyway.
So I’m falling back on a previous FF from March 2003, with the same cast except no Kiko yet.
Here’s the link.
You can see the dynamic this week.
When two or more cats of our cats gather together, Bessie is probably not one of them.
She’s the social isolate. Not completely, but odds are if one is left out, she’s the one.
We don’t know how to account for this, except that the other three all spent significant time in a cat colony, and were well trained in managing relationships with other cats. We were told Bessie had been dumped at the colony only a short time before we agreed to adopt her. Perhaps she lacked the necessary training in responding to bullying.
In any case, we’re now just a few days away from the big vet visit. Kinikini is due for his annual checkup, and Kali is due to be doped up just enough, we hope, so that she can’t successfully defend against a routine vet exam, including a check on the condition of her teeth. Fingers crossed. We start the night before with the visit her first dose, repeat after 12 hours, and then give her a final dose a couple of hours before her appointment.
Hopefully all will go smoothly!
But then this happened! Meda got up to get another glass of wine, and when she opened the door, Kinikini trotted right past her and out onto the deck. He had one eye on me as I stood up to try and block him, trotting right along the deck just out of my reach, and then down the stairs onto the ground in front of our bedroom. With me in pursuit, he doubled back and disappeared under the house.
None of our current generation of cats has made a break-out like this. Romeo did it, once. Spent 10 minutes or so exploring under the house, seemed to figure out we weren’t in Kaaawa any more, and appeared to let me pick him up.
Kinikini didn’t take that long.I asked Meda to bring out the container of Temptations to lure him back, but before she could bring them out to me, Kinikini emerged and let me pick him up.
Now we have an unresolved question. Was that enough of the unfamiliar outdoors for him, or is he likely to be looking for the next opportunity to slip outside? That’s going to give me heartburn for a while!
And now the cats make their final appearance of February, and they make the most of it!
I sat down Thursday afternoon to make up the weekly Feline Friday photo album, and was surprised to discover that I only had a single photo of Kali this week. I was suprised, because in the normal week, it’s Bessie who is underrepresented. So I had to pick up the camera again for another round of photos. I did manage to get a few of Kali, but also a couple of Kini as well. Oh, and one of Kali, Kini, and Kiko in the prime sun spots along the doors looking out at the back deck.
Other than that, it has been an uneventful cat week.
One complication. I went to buy another bag or two of the TD “Dental Diet” cat food they’ve been eating, and the shelf was bare! Yikes! Luckily, there’s a delivery scheduled today, and they’ll call me when it’s ready for pickup.
And, yes, they mostly eat dry food. I split a can of Friskies ocean white fish and tuna between the four of them for dinner, along with a TD chaser. They like the combo, and it make mealtimes relatively simple.
Anyway, here are the cats!
No bad luck here today, just good vibes from our Kahala cats!
Let’s see. Kali got cooperative after a double dose of gabapentin, one dab (.1 mL) rubbed gently into the inside of each ear. Luckily, she seemed the enjoy the ear rub, which made it much easier. The calming effect seemed to peak between two and three hours after it was applied. Now that we’re somewhat confident that her defenses will be lowered when she meets the vet, I made appointments for both Kali and Kinikini for their regular “annual” checkups.
It’s going to be interesting to see how their teeth and gums are doing after they were switched to a dry food dental diet, which is supposed to improve their dental health. And all of our rescue cats have had dental issues in the past. I hope the change in diet has had the desired effect.
So what else is going on in the world of cats? The wandering neighbor cat, a handsome gray and white male, strolled across our back deck a few days ago. Kiko, who was watching the world from a spot on our dining room table, immediately went on full alert and tracked him as he slowed down, looked back at the house, and then meandered down the stairs into the back yard and towards the place in the back corner of the yard where he slips through the fence and either goes home or proceeds on his rounds. Kiko appreciated the exciting moment, I think.
The long week of rainy weather has meant fewer afternoon sun spots. Kinikini often strolls out to the living room at the appropriate time of the afternoon to check, and has been leaving disappointed. Hopefully the weather will clear soon.
Well, enough small talk. It’s time to bring on the cats!
