The Yarn Harlot documented her visit to Eau Claire – and she got a much better picture of Jeanne, Deb, and I than the one I posted (we’re holding the sock)!
V is having a contest – she’s collecting 12-18 yard lenghts of DK or lighter weight yarn for a blanket. Everyone who sends yarn will be entered to win a $25 gift certifcate from Little Knits.
Vicki Knitorious is having a constant comment contest – if your comment happens to be her 6000th comment, she will send you a prize.
Cara is having a haiku contest – leave a haiku containing the word “sock” plus 3 other special words (january, one, rock(s), jet, fall, sheep, wool, feet (or foot), knit, yarn, pirate, fest, dude, fantastic, worm) in her comments before September 23, 11:59 pm EDT. Six winners will receive sock yarn and one of the coveted orange Chibis!
Forgive me – I am once again behind in bloglines. Let me know if you have a contest or knitalong starting! I usually get caught up over the weekend… Y’all are just too busy being interesting! I’m still knitting my MagKnits project, tweaking the pattern, and I can’t really blog much about it. Secret knitting makes for boring reading – sorry! So, back to cats. 😉
According to the vet, Choas is stressed, plain and simple. Sigh. He got an antibiotic shot and some tuna flavored liquid antibiotics to take daily for five days to help his messed up insides heal. And he was prescribed a bland diet of tuna and mashed up rice for the next several days. The vet might be on Chaos’ payroll, too, along with some of y’all. Hmph.
The vet also confirmed what I suspected – Chaos needs to lose about 2.5 pounds! Poor guy. Yesterday afternoon, I noticed that May was trying to nurse on Chaos’ jungle pouch. Hmm. Maybe that’s making him stressed?! It would me.
Oh, the vet did float the idea that Chaos might not adapt to Mayhem enough and that maybe he would be best as a single kitty…. 🙁 But Chaos is washing her, which I think is promising. I think that I might have made things worse by moving his food to the top of the fridge to keep May out of it – I think that really confused and trauamatized him. I’m not giving up hope yet, but I am starting to worry about taking a vacation with things this unsettled here at home.
I really want to thank all of you – you’ve been so helpful and reassuring while I’ve been angsting about this. Your support has been wonderful and much appreciated. You guys rock!!
So, I ask y’all – does this look like a stressed cat?!
May was trying to nurse off of Chaos? That is hillarious and you have GOT to get a picture of that! Hobbes will pick a fight with Susie by walking up to her and licking her head feverishly. Susie gets annoyed and tries to bite Hobbes and then the 2 girls just turn into an orange ball of fur and hissing.
What adorable pictures! I’m sure they’ll be fine — you’re probably right in your guess that putting Chaos’s food up on the fridge may have been the stress breaking point. You know, they might bond even more while you’re gone… then it will be two against one….
Poor Chaos. Hey at least he gets tuna and rice. 🙂 Seriously, cats seem to get stressed easily with changes, but from the pictures it looks like he’s adapting well. Especially since he’s bathing May, I think the transition is going well. He looks very comfortable with May. He probably needs some extra “Mom time” too.
don’t give up yet, it can 3 months or more for cats to adjust. Try to keep all of Chaos’s stuff and routines the same. I’m a pet behavior counselor, let me know if you need more help.
OK, if Chaos is cleaning Mayhem, I don’t think that the problem is the need for being a single kitty. Plus, they lay near each other. Believe me, when there is a problem of adding a cat, there is much hissing and posturing and not being able to be in the same room together. So, while it may be stressing him a bit as they figure out their hierarchy, he’ll get over it.
We have cats that need diets, too. We found a Purina OM that is cheaper than the WD/RD trie that they often give. This food also helped their coats be a bit softer than they had been on the Science Diet products.
i’m in *love*
see pics of earl at my site!
I don’t know anything about cats, but adding a new member to the family is always an adjustment. It will work itself out.
I am the main servant of 10 cats. I’ve introduced them all as kittens and let’s just say if they are cleaning each other – things are going good. If there is no reason other than the little one should be eating kitten food (I’m thinking medical reason), I would put the food back where it was and not worry too much about who eats what… in another week or two she’ll be up on the fridge.
In my experience it has taken 3 days for the acclimation period. After that all is fairly well. There may be times that they will kick up the sand, but like kids it does sort itself out. Worse case scenario is to get some of that canned air for electronics – don’t point it at them – just make the noise when they are acting up and it will settle. All of mine know not to behave bad or the canned air will come out. Funny only the perpetrator runs off – always know who’s guilty. (lol) I expect good behavior and getting along and they do that at least.
I like to remember vets are people too and they don’t know everything about every scenario. I’ve seen some only kitties that had without choice go to a vet friend that will take in the homeless and they adjust in their own way. Cat’s can be very adaptable. Mine have all moved 4 times in the last 5 years cross-country none-the-less.
Anyway, I’ve seen many vets over the years and when in doubt I’ve gotten a second and third opinion and even taken my business elsewhere if I felt the relationship was not up to par.