welcome to camp telophase

So this morning before I got up, Sora was sitting on my chest purring and kneading (attempting to knead MY FACE as usual) while Nefer was on the bed nearby. (In Sora's usual spot!) Toby, before he went into the kitchen to feed the cats, came and sat on the edge of the bed next to me for a minute or two, scritching the cats.

After Toby left, Sora stood up streeeetched himself out and carefully, thoroughly sniffed the spot where Toby had been sitting, and once he had finished sniffing, sat down on that spot.

( cut for pic )

Now that Sora's little, ahem, problem is all sorted out and things are back to normal in the litterbox department, I think that we do not have to worry about the cats fighting over the litterboxes or anything like that, and they may share quite willingly and well.

I know this because after the last two times I've scooped them out, I can say with some certainty that we do not have a His box and a Hers box, that what we have is a Pee Box and a Poo Box.

We will also never not have problems with litter all over the floor because Nefer's preferred method of burying is to get out of the box entirely, reach in, and scoop towards herself, slopping it all over the mat we've got under the boxes.

Sora is finally home! I called at 3 and he still hadn't peed for them, and at 4:30 I decided to leave work an hour early and drive by the vet's on the way. I got there, and the tech went and checked, and he'd FINALLY peed - naturally not in his litterbox, but on his mat. So I picked him up, paid the bill (he is turning into one expensive little monster) and went home.

Sora was most happy to be going home - he scrunched himself into the door of the carrier, which was the closest toward me he could get. He also registered complaints out loud for most of the trip.

The vet called me shortly after I got home, and here's the verdict...

( cut for the suspense )

So Nefer has a tendency to barf - sometimes hairballs, other times due to gorging and throwing it back up because she's eaten too much.*

We'd been free-feeding them dry cat food (Blue Buffalo, which seems to sit the best on Nefer's tender stomach), but as they're both overweight have been slowly cutting back to see how much they eat per day, eventually so we can feed them juuust slightly less, so they slim down a wee bit. They both eat about half a cup per day, so they've been getting that. They also eat from UFO-shaped feeders, which require them to reach in and paw the kibbles out, so it slows their eating and, previously, Nefer's gorging.

Now, of course, with the reduced food, Nefer's starting to gorge again. The past three mornings, she's thrown up on the mat right next to the feeder she eats from. We think that, although there's still a few kibbles left in the morning, she's going "Food! Lots of food! Must eat as much as possible bfore it all VANISHES!" which makes her, of course, throw it back up.**

Any ideas? I thought about starting to feed them some wet food in the mornings and leaving some dry for them to nosh on during the day although I have no idea if it'll solve the problem. Also, Nefer tends to turn her nose up at wet food, although I suspect she'll start eating it if there's nothing else in the morning.

There is also, I suppose, the option of purchasing a fancy feeder that releases a bit of food periodically throughout the day and night but (a) they're expensive and (b) we'd have to get 2 as Nefer starts stressing out and chewing on her foreleg if she has to share a bowl/feeder with Sora.



* Sora, not so much. He will happily eat the food that Nefer barfs up, but never barfs himself. I have caught him twice almost throwing up, but each time (rot-13'd because it makes me want to puke, honestly I gagged just writing it) fhpxvat vg onpx hc naq fjnyybjvat vg. Thank providence that he doesn't have thick fur and doesn't seem prone to hairballs getting stuck.

** I got her from a shelter when she was a year old. I have no idea about her past history.

We moved the master bedroom around this weekend. I've forgotten the original reason for it, but as part of this we turned the bed 90 degrees counter-clockwise and put it against the longer wall of the room, installed light-blocking roller blinds from IKEA on one wall, and installed drapes on the other wall. We need the light-blocking blinds more in the winter because there is this HUGE HONKING LIGHT on a pole behind our house that beams rays of light in all directions all night long. It is usually hidden by leaves, but once the leaves fall, it goes directly into the bedroom windows. We complained to each other about it all last winter, but didn't get around to doing anything about it until this winter. The normal drapes are to block some of the light from those windows, but not all, because if I sleep in a room with no light cues I have a tendency to oversleep, which triggers migraines. There is also the hope that they will insulate the room slightly more than not having them up.

What does this have to do with the cats? Besides disrupting a huge section of their territory, making lots of funny noises and smells from the drills and hardware, both of us humans getting snappish, and kicking up lots of dust and making myrialux suffer from a three-day-long severe allergy attack?

Well, you see, cats have a Very Definite Idea of the shape of their territory. They familiarize themselves with it, and know where everything is. And then they stop thinking about where everything is and just trust that stuff will remain in the same place. My mom's cat always knew that Under The Couch was the Safe Place to Go when it was time to go to the vet, because Mom wasn't in any sort of shape to be able to tip the couch up and drag her out at the same time. And when Mom rearranged the living room, the cat still dashed to the place where Under The Couch used to be, even though the couch was now on the opposite side of the room, and hid under a small side table that was now in that space. It took her months to realize that Mom could now scoop her up easily and throw her in a cat carrier.

Our cats are much the same. Not only is the small chest of drawers that Sora used to perform the Morning Ritual that Ensures Food on a different wall, the head of the bed is on that wall, so he spends the morning tramping around the ledge at the head of the bed* where the chest used to be. The small padded bench that was previously at the foot of the bed, which held the cat beds and the cat bed heating pads is now against a wall because I felt that there wouldn't be enough space after the foot of the bed to *not* stub toes on in the new arrangement. So they're not spending as much time there as they used to.

And, the unkindest cut of all, myrialux and I switched sides while in bed. This is because we treat the two bathrooms of the house as His and Hers** and it really makes more sense this way, as we each have the shortest route available to our respective bathroom now. Alas, poor cats, they have a very hard time comprehending this. Sora spent most of Saturday night snuggled up against myrialux's feet, crowding him off his side of the bed, instead of crowding me off my side of the bed as he usually does. He jumps onto myrialux's new side of the bed in the morning, all ready to bother me until myrialux feeds him like usual, and then stares at myrialux in confusion because Something Is Not Quite Right.

Nefer's even suffering this. Quite often she jumps up on the bed and then onto me in the morning to annoy me accept petting and scritching. This morning, she spent a lot of time on the floor on myrialux's side of the bed, staring up at him. When she finally jumped up, she sat on his side of the bed for a bit, staring at us trying to figure out just exactly why this wasn't right while we both scratched her, then jumped off.

They'll eventually figure it out. Probably just in time for us to decide to move, so they can then get used to a whole new house all over again.



* IKEA Malm bed with optional shelves that roll out from behind the head of the bed, so there's a ledge there on which we can put lamps, alarm clock, books, Kleenex, spare cats, etc.

** People on House Hunters always squee over double sinks, but I am all for double bathrooms instead. It would save quite a few relationships, I am convinced.