Swapping Feline Family Members

The weirdest swapping around here in recent weeks has been in the composition of our feline family. After four cats crossed the Rainbow Bridge in 2015, Mom decided it was a good idea to introduce a new family member in December. His name is Rascal Spatz, and he was born in March 2015.

We have only seen him at the screen door to Mom’s bedroom, but Jou Jou B–who spends 99% of her time out in the living area–has suffered a number of his overzealous, “playful” attacks, especially when he had just arrived. Of course, Mom kept him in a cage at first; soon she was letting him out on “trial runs” to see if he would get along with everyone else. He usually had to be “re-caged” within a few minutes for bad behavior. Lately, however, he seems to be minding his manners most of the time. We hear a lot less whining and growling.

Swapping Room Preferences

A new frequent visitor to our private chamber has been RubyDoo. She frequently would leap in here when Mom was not careful, but would soon want to be gone again. Then she had to have some dental work done, including two extractions (one fang), and had to wear an E-collar temporarily. She came in here with us and stayed a while.

Now she wants in more often, and Mom lets her stay as long as she likes. That’s OK with us; she does not bother us, except when she picks the best places to sleep next to Mom.

Swapping Bedrooms

Our “orange invader” brother also was a frequent flyer here, but almost never spent the night…until recently. Invariably, Mom would head to bed and get to sleep for a little while. Then Pawscar would howl, and Mom would return him to his lair in our kitchen/bathroom area (we have never seen it, but have heard reports about the warm dryer on laundry days and the heating vent that releases warm air at floor level in the bathroom).

Last Thursday, something changed. Mom was worried about Pawscar Awesome’s eye. When she put the drop in his right eye that morning, he started squinting really badly and rubbing his eye. Mom checked, and saw that the tissues around the eye were red. Since Pawscar has had pressure problems in that eye, and some strange condition in both eyes for which he has gotten treatment for more than a year, Mom took him to the kitty ER. He had developed corneal ulcers (whatever that is) because the steroid he has been taking for a long time weakened his immune system. Mom had to add an antibiotic salve and pain medicine to his treatment for several days, and he has been staying in with us full-time ever since. He sleeps most of the time and never bothers us, so it’s OK.

Today Mom is happy because the ophthalmologist said Pawscar does not need the eye drops for high eye pressure in his right eye any more, and his “chicken slop” (compounded liquid prednisolone) is reduced to .25 ml every day. The right eye also does not need the antibiotic salve, but the left one still does. At this moment, Pawscar Awesome does not seem to care; he is too busy cat-napping.