and for all the years she's lived with me...
sleeping in my bedroom, drooling & snoring in my ear...
she's had, uh, "issues"...
she's always been, "vocal"...
not at all shy about letting me know her needs & desires...
and in her mind, the backyard is her "kingdom"...
her natural habitat to which she MUST have unfettered access...
irregardless of the weather, temporal state or hour of the day...
that Molly, who will chase her, is outside to take care of bizness...
is NOT a factor... the window MUST remain open...
in case she may actually deign to go out...
[mostly she goes out & returns, repeated, ad nauseum...
or simply lays in the window sill so Fluff can't...]
failure on my part to instantly & completely comply with her wishes...
is grounds for a torrent of catly abuse, delivered at fortissimo levels...
while doing a cat version of the "runnsies"...
in a large circuit of the room at a high rate of speed...
with my stomach as the jumping-off/landing point...
when that fails, she gets, "up close & personal"...
she developed an immune system problem a few years ago...
where lesions formed in her mouth, making eating very painful...
a bite of food would aggravate the lesions...
with what the vet describes as a burning sensation...
she would jump back, letting the offending morsel fall out of her mouth...
hissing, growling and pawing at her mouth...
[cats can't spit...]
I could always tell that the lesions were forming again...
when I began to see that behavior, coupled with clingyness...
attempting to climb into my arms, ALL the time...
and eventually, a total lack interest in eating...
the removal of her teeth almost 2 years ago, really helped...
without teeth for bacteria to grow on, the lesions started healing...
that, and the steroid shots that reduced the inflammation of the lesions...
allowed her to go weeks, even months eating normally...
about a month ago, she had another steroid shot...
because I saw the symptoms starting up again...
she was OK for a couple of weeks...
but then last week, I noticed that the food wasn't being eaten as fast...
Fluff was eating her share... but I didn't see Pigs eating at all...
I had been consumed with Fluff's infection, which cleared-up...
and Thomas' downward spiral, so I'd not noticed Pigs wasn't eating...
she had been absolutely batso with the full moon...
so I had had more than enough of her LOUD pestering to be, OUT...
as I recovered from Thomas' passing & was relieved by Fluff's recovery...
I began to notice Piglet was becoming very clingy...
and she was thin... that's when I realized that she wasn't eating at all...
so Saturday AM, I took her to the vet & he examined her...
he said the lesions were back & gave her another steroid shot...
so I took her home and waited, watchfully...
she wouldn't eat Saturday, but did lick at some food Saturday night...
with the predictable, "hiss/growl" reaction...
but by Sunday after church, she was interested in "gravy"...
so I put out some fresh food and waited...
eventually, my patience was rewarded...
the video was too dark to post, but I selected frames...
and edited them for brightness & light saturation...
so you can get an idea of Piglet's approach to her food...
having been hurt by the food burning the lesions...
she sits at a distance & paws at the plate...
[apparently she associates the dish with the pain...]
trying to snag a morsel of food with her paw...
upon successfully snagging a morsel in her paw...
she then lifts it to her mouth...
nibbling at the food...
then licking her paw clean, before repeating this procedure ad infinitum...
it is no exaggeration to say that this went on for 10 minutes...
over time, she moved closer & closer...
and experiencing no pain, started eating from the plate...
and this morning ?
she went right to the plate & dug in without "sampling" first...
I'd also like to add that after gorging herself last night...
she slept like a rock...
no complaining or making the circuit...
no rattling mini blinds or picking on Fluff...
not even a snore...
of course this morning, she wanted, OUT !!!
but that was after breakfast...
4 comments:
I was almost afraid to read this because I was afraid of an unhappy endings as I haven't recovered from reading about Thomas yet! But I read anyway and was SO relieved to discover the happy ending!! May Piglet pester loudly for many a moon and may her lesions never return!!
...they do return, but the steroids generally work well... it had been months since her last shot so I suppose 2 in a month could be expected...
she spent the afternoon outside, came in, scarfed her dinner & climbed into my arms for a cuddle...
she's currently sleeping on top of Fluff in the nest... just waiting for me to get into bed so she can worm her way into my armpit for the night...
When I started reading I was terrified what I might find at the end. So glad Piglet is better!
...hi Calico... she's back to eating, big time now, though she has had a kitty cold of late...probably from all that frolicking outside after dark the other evening...
but I gave her some amoxicillin & she's much better now... hope all's well with you...
Post a Comment