this, that, and some of those

I thought I'd post an update on a few things...

Cats

The cats have been expensive this month! The oldest two have each had periods of anorexia aka not eating. When cats don't eat for over a day, they go downhill pretty quickly. They're very sensitive creatures. It's hard to get them eating once they go off their food. The trick is figuring out what is causing inappetence and resolving it.

Two oldest kitties who have had health issues recently

Urgent care veterinary visits aren't cheap, but our kitties recovered with the right medications to stimulate their appetites, relieve pain, and recover their electrolytes (through subcutaneous fluids). Each was a little different in what worked, but our torbie had a tooth abscess that seems to have been resolved with an extraction and teeth cleaning. The Siamese (aka Thai cat) will have his teeth cleaned on Monday; we'll see what they find since he had his teeth cleaned a few years ago and had four teeth extracted at that time.

These two are 14 (Siamese) and 12 1/2 (torbie) years old. In searching for answers, I learned that dental care is a major cause of not eating in senior cats. From experience, I learned that bad breath is a good indicator that something is wrong with their teeth. The third oldest (10 1/2 hears old) will need his teeth cleaned too. He's showing signs of mouth pain, but he'll have to wait since we spent way too much money on the oldest two this month.

In other news, Bilbo has settled in pretty well. I currently have my old momma's boy (the senior Siamese) next to me while Bilbo is half on my lap--without any issues. Bilbo should be hubby's cat and often is, but for some reason, when I'm home and sitting on the loveseat, he wants my lap. He's a big boy and hasn't yet learned not to lay on my laptop. He's getting better, but he still has to be in my way. Fortunately, I pushed him down this time and he laid that way to be only partly on my lap, so I can type this with my laptop out of his way.

Household

All the pet issues came on top of the dryer not working. Fortunately, it only needed a piece replaced and the repairman knew immediately what it was. Unfortunately, we had to pay a hefty fee for the repair visit while the piece to replace cost about a tenth of that. It's cheaper than a new dryer but, added to the pet costs, makes for a very expensive month.

Forgotten Worlds

The first draft of Book 21 of Forgotten Worlds is nearly done. It's at 44K words and I have just a few scenes left. I expect to finish by the end of this month with it around 47K, although I do have to contend with health issues that can interfere with my plans.

The book is turning out better than expected. I'm always amazed when that happens, although I should know by now that the harder a story seems to be to write, the more I work on it and the better it actually ends up being (at least in my opinion, probably because I'm comparing to what I thought it would be in quality).

And I've finished rereading Book 5. I'll be uploading the updates soon, minor as they are. I'm really enjoying the reread and appreciating the refresh while going into the final stretch of this series. What concerns me are the little things that slipped past me in later books, so this reread is very helpful in that regard, because I'm making notes and fixing things and adding to my wiki file for reference.

Next up, I'll need a cover for ARMOR. Finding a cover image for that could be difficult, given the setting of it.

Writing a first draft description for Book 20 also needs to be done.

So much to do; so little time.

Life (and writing) goes on.

God bless!

Bilbo update

Adapting to our house is progressing quickly with Bilbo. You wouldn't really know he had been a stray. He wasn't that far in socialization from being a regular housecat to start, but now he's even more like the others. It's been almost three weeks of having him in the house.

• He's climbing into hubby's lap on his own. (He's always loved laps but was reluctant to get up onto the furniture unless we lifted him up.)
• He's exuberant for toys. (And a bit too much wanting the other cats to play with him--they still don't want that.)
• He's learned the feeding routine and knows the sound of the treat bag. (That never takes long. 😉)
• He knows what the water bottle means. (We've used it a few times when he starts hunting the older kitties. It's the only thing that gets his mind off that behavior.)🙀
• He comes to the door when people are coming or going, instead of running away to hide.
• He doesn't hide much anymore or run from normal household sounds or activity. (Once in a while, he does get startled, but it's much less than it used to be and he doesn't flee to hide from us but goes a little distance and stops to look back.)
• He's staying out in the open more near us.

The only issue I see is indications that he may have had a lower back or leg injury. He doesn't like to jump off the ground when playing and remains low, but he does go up and down the stairs and will jump onto the dining chairs (carpeting helps). We even have pet stairs for the old kitties getting up and down from our bed and he uses those instead of jumping up and down. When he does jump, his hid legs don't seem to hold steady but give out a little beneath him.

He returns to the vet the day after Christmas for his second DRC/Leukemia vaccine. Then he'll be done for the year. At that time, I'll have the vet see what they can determine of his back end. He seems to be improving slowly (jumping for the feather toys once in a while), but I'd feel better with them examining him a bit at that time.

Overall, we were very blessed that such a cat found us (as was he to find a good cat-loving home). We weren't looking for another cat, but when the cat distribution system delivers such a wonderful feline, you can't refuse.

Meow!

ps--Adding this pic after my initial posting. They've been eating like this for the last week already. No fights or growls or stealing each other's food, except the usual food steals by middle two from the oldest kitty.

Oldest two eat closest together while third oldest eats by the shredder (pushes his bowl around, so the little corner stops that, and he tends to go after the food of everyone else, although he's learned to wait until we're not looking) and new boy, Bilbo, eats near the dining table on the carpet. Bilbo tends to push himself back while eating, so his back legs always slide back and he has to pull them up close repeatedly while eating. We feed him on the carpet for this reason and to make the oldest kitties more comfortable with eating in his vicinity. Our oldest (Siamese) is the one shorted--he sits back and gives us a forlorn look if anyone starts eating his food. He doesn't do anything to stop them. We usually sit at the counter and watch, since the others do try to steal his food at times. He's a big baby.

New kitty gets a furever home

He's ours!

No chip. No FIV or FeLV. No fleas. (All as expected)

All vaxxed, neutered, dewormed, and now he does have a chip registered to us and a collar like our other kitties.

New boy is all ours. 🥳

Rodney also got a new name... Bilbo. And he is estimated to be about 2 years old.

Now we have cats named after characters in Farscape, Avatar the Last Airbender, Stargate/Danny Phantom/Pirates of the Caribbean, and (at last) Lord of the Rings. Five years ago, we had one named after a character in Star Wars, but she passed away at the age of 16+.

I brought Bilbo home from the vet this afternoon and he was dying for attention, besides being hungry since he had to have his food taken away by 8 pm last night. I thought he'd hate me for being the one to shove him into the carrier this morning, but I got licks and headbutts. Edit: he's also giving love nips and finally sleeping peacefully now that everything is settled.

Hubby and I got his scent all over us, and since he's clear, no more changing clothes or having to wash hands between him and the other cats. That's... not going too well, but it's only been a couple of days of having him in the house. Youngest boy sniffs and doesn't care. Middle girl is just staying away. The old man, however, is skulking around and hissing at us. He wants to be close to us but doesn't like the smell of a strange cat.

This will take some time. Once they get used to scent mixing, we'll consider face-to-face introductions.

This is going to be a long process, but with patience, we'll get through it.

Officially the newest member of our household

I can't believe we have another cat. It's surreal. I wanted to wait until our old boys and girl had passed away. God had other plans.

new kitty update... T-1 day

Rodney goes into the vet tomorrow for all that he needs done to be our new indoor cat. We will find out then whether we can keep him or have to give him up. We're pretty sure he's healthy, but if he's not, it's going to be heartbreaking, just as it would be if he's chipped. He adopted us.

Getting him into the house yesterday had a couple climactic moments when he freaked out a bit, but he settled down with scratches. Using that, we took our time to lure him into the bathroom we had prepared for him. The other kitties were locked up at the time so there could be no interaction.

Taking in a stray is no small endeavor. He's not feral, however, and prefers human companionship to being alone. In fact, we discovered that, after just a few hours in the bathroom by himself with food, water, a litterbox, and a folded blanket for a bed that he is a completely clingy lap-cat.

When I returned to him after he'd had a few hours to settle down, he had been hiding behind the washing machine and came out with some coaxing. I sat down with my bathrobe on and he climbed into my lap and laid down with front claws kneading gently. I knew he would be a lap-cat but I didn't expect it to happen so quickly.

This morning, I went down to feed him, being the first one up in the morning, and he came out almost instantly and made a fuss for attention. In fact, he then started to eat while meowing. When I stood up, however, he quit eating. It was like he was saying, "Don't leave! Please, please don't leave me! I want scratches and love. I love you so much!"

Once we get a clean bill of health from FIV/FeLV testing (and if he has no microchip), we can then say he's ours. Unfortunately, if he's positive, he would put the health of the rest of our kitties in danger. He won't go back to the wild, however. I won't do that to him. My youngest kid volunteers at the local humane society, so we'd check with them on other options. He doesn't have an aggressive bone in his body, at least not when interacting with us.

How could anyone have given him up or not be searching for a lost pet? Could you abandon this big snuggly lovebug?

I'm praying for confirmation of a healthy stray boy who gets to stay with us.

As hubby said... The cat distribution system is working.