Feline Friday: Cat-Sitting

Earlier this month, I went on a school cruise with our daughter. It was a lot of fun and I'm happy we made it back without incident! I arrived a couple of days early for our trip and got to spend one full day CAT-SITTING the adorable RORY while our daughter was at work. What a treat!

After making myself a cup of coffee with Daughter's fancy coffee set-up, I settled in on the couch with my book and the subject of today's post. On this visit, she was very cuddly and I had no trouble keeping her on my lap.

 

I mean, look at this! I could barely contain myself with all the CUTE happening!

  Later, we got out all the tissue paper that Santa sent and had a little bit of fun sliding around in it.

  By the time her Meowmy got home, it looked like there had been some kind of wild party in the living room. 😸

 

 We even checked in on Lily from time to time using our nanny cam. What a comfort it is to have this camera hooked up so we can look in on her! Here you can see she's stationed at her feeder having her 3pm snack.

 

But as much as I loved hanging out with Rory, I enjoyed the time spent with our daughter even more!

Stay safe out there, blogging friends!

Happy Feline Friday!

Feline Friday - Morning Wake-Up Call

Wow, so much has changed since last Friday. We hope all of our blogging friends are staying safe and well. 

Rest assured, nothing has changed in Lily's world. Each morning, lest I be late with serving breakfast, she sits on my chest (hard to ignore nearly 12 pounds of sweetness) and stares at me, willing me to open my eyes. Amazingly, this technique always works!

 She even styles my hair so I'm looking my best when I head to the kitchen. (And no, there will be no pictures of said hairstyles. 😅)

 

 I'm grateful for my sweet buddy every day!

Stay well, friends!

jp and Lily

Feline Friday

I got to spend the past week with Cousin Rory's meowmy as we went on a school cruise together. We had a very nice time and made it back safely. WHEW!

I also got to see Cousin Rory for just a bit at the beginning and end of my visit. She's thoroughly enjoying the tissue paper that Santa brought her. :)

She's ready for the hair stylist! 

 

She couldn't be sweeter. More on my visit later! 

Happy Feline Friday!

Feline Friday

So apparently there are now Snapchat filters for cats. This means that I occasionally get texts like this from Rory.

I don't mind in the least. 

😻😻😻

Who Can Relate?

Ummm...I think this is me! 😉

Violet Farm Update

I'm still loving my violets! In fact, I've got so many right now that I almost have a space problem. I can't wait until they start blooming again! That will be a beautiful sight!

As you can see, those two ginormous violets at the right need to be divided ASAP. Both of those plants will result in several new babies. That's next on the list!

Awhile back, I divided another large violet which resulted in three new plants (hence the space problem). In the past, I've never done anything other than re-pot them, but I recently saw a video (GardenAnswer -- my favorite garden YouTube channel!) suggesting that you put the baby violets in a closed plastic bag for a month. This creates a terrarium-like environment which gives them a good start.

So I decided to try it. Once the baby violets were potted, I put them into large plastic bags and loosely clipped the tops shut. The violets were well-watered before going into the bags so the bag didn't need to be opened for a month.

 

I checked them frequently and after 2-3 weeks, I noticed that a mold or fungus was starting to form on the soil. I'm quite sure that I over-watered the violets before putting them into the bags. Because of this, I had to remove them earlier than planned.

Once out of the bags, I cleaned up the soil and just left them out. The new violets are continuing to thrive! I don't know if the bag treatment is 100% necessary since I've had good luck without it, but if you've struggled with getting new violets started, it is definitely worth a try!

Feline Friday

Well, on Monday of this week, we found ourselves back at the vet. I got home at around 4pm and shortly after heard Lily make that familiar "something is not right" meow, followed by some tell-tale (tell-tail?) scooting. Mind you, it had only been a couple of weeks since we were last at the vet with an anal gland problem.

I picked her up and checked her rear end, only to find a lima bean-sized squishy lump. It was definitely not hard like the lump she had last time.

BIG SIGH.

Lily was clearly uncomfortable. While I got on the phone to the vet, she climbed onto a shelf in the closet. 

Poor sweet baby. This is the face of a kitty who doesn't feel well.

When I call the vet, I no longer even have to identify myself. We are now frequent fliers, but not in a good way! Amazingly, I got lucky again this time and her vet had a 5pm cancellation, so off we went.

Lily has to be sedated for the procedure. This time, the vet brought her back into the exam room while she was still out so that I could see the area in question. I was able to actually see the anal glands (they're very small and not easily visible). When the sac fills with fluid, the swelling forms to the side, as I had observed.

The vet has now expressed her glands so many times that he believes she has a physical malformation on one side which keeps the gland from emptying normally. This explains why it keeps clogging. If material dries up inside the sac, it blocks the opening. So it's best to keep on top of this situation. If she comes in next time when the lump is still squishy, he may even try to express her glands without sedation. Although she tolerates sedation well, it would be best if we could minimize it.

Our sweet Lily is now FELINE much better. You can see how relaxed she is when sleeping now -- not hunched up and looking sad.

 

 

So Lily's week ended much better than it started. We just hope to keep it going for a bit longer this time!

 

Happy Feline Friday!

Feline Friday: Boogie Fever

Alas, another week has gone by with not a single blog post by the Meowmy. This makes me sad. I need to do a better job of time management so that I can get back to blogging because -- believe me! -- I have a lot to say! 😄

But of course, I would never miss a Feline Friday! For today's post, we shall take a brief trip down meow-mory lane.

When Lily was in her younger years, we somehow got the misguided idea that she could compete in cat shows. Lily is such a sweet and adorable kitty, and we fervently believed that those qualities would surely enable her to stand out in competition. 

Alas, Lily turns into some kind of hissing, snarling MONSTER at cat shows. (Truthfully, it's the same naughty behavior she exhibits at the vet, so we shouldn't have been that surprised.)

Still, we held onto the belief that with a little practice, she'd somehow get better. 

She didn't.

But we DID learn that cat shows sometimes have a cage decorating contest. Without even knowing there was such a thing, we won that category at our very first show. From then on, I knew how we could have a good cat show run -- we'd go just for the cage decorating contest! Lily could be as naughty as she wanted and we might still go home with a prize. LOL

At that same show (which was held in the pig barn at the Iowa State Fair...), Lily somehow came how with a ginormous ribbon for 10th Best Household Pet Cat. I still think that's rather remarkable considering how absolutely dreadfully she behaved. It was WAY more ribbon than she deserved, as sweet as we think she is!

For our efforts, we won quite a few goodies.

 One of Lily's prizes was this "Boogie Board" mat which she absolutely loved. It unzips on the size to allow insertion of dry catnip. Kitty smells the catnip through the fabric and proceeds to BOOGIE!

So now -- if you're still reading 😀 -- comes the point of today's post. This week, Lily re-discovered her beloved Boogie Board. It has been sitting out since the day it came home with us, but I haven't been diligent about replacing the catnip. This week when I saw her show some interest in it, I refreshed it and BOY DID SHE BOOGIE!

 

 

Now she's sleeping on her Boogie Board and playing on it during the night. It's just like old times from her failed cat show circuit days! Time has washed away any unpleasant memories Lily may have had about the three cat shows she attended, leaving her with only happy thoughts.

Of course, the catnip may have had something to do with it... 😉

Feline Friday

Sometime late last Friday afternoon, Lily went down to the basement and let out a loud MEOW. Spouse would tell you it was just an ordinary meow, but he's not a cat person. Anyone who loves a cat knows the very distinct differences between the "feed me" meow, the "thank goodness you're home" meow, and the "something's not right" meow. 

This was a definite "something's not right" meow. For Lily, this means that there's a problem in her southern end. 😾

The last time Lily went to have her anal glands expressed (November!), the vet showed me that I could tell if they're impacted just by touching her back end. 

Here's how he explained it to me: Think of her rear end as a clock face. The anal glands are located at the 4 and 8 positions. If they're normal, you won't feel any kind of bump there but if they're clogged, they can become as large as grapes.

 

I'd never tried to find her anal glands before but this time, I decided to give it a go. As soon as I touched her bottom, I noticed a hard, larger-than-pea-sized lump. Lily growled and tried to bite me so I knew it must be very painful.

So I called right away for an appointment and, by some stroke of luck, our vet had an opening in the last time slot of the day.  I immediately loaded her up and off we went. She did very well with the procedure and even got a complementary nail trim!

Unfortunately, that pesky anal gland was impacted and on the verge of becoming infected. It took a lot of irrigation to clear the gland. Had the vet not been able to see her that day, I have no doubt that we would have ended up in the ER again over the weekend.

The lesson for me is this: As SOON as I see her scooting, I need check her bottom and get her in for an appointment. This time, I had caught her scooting just a couple of days before but I put off making the call. In retrospect, there is no point in waiting to see if it clears up. It won't. It can take just a day or two for the situation to escalate, and that can result in additional problems for her. 

Meowmy learned her lesson! Now that I know how to inspect the back end, I'll keep a closer eye on things! 

Feline Friday

Last Sunday, Lily was briefly captivated by the Puppy Bowl. I pulled up a chair so she could get a closer view.

She especially enjoyed the presentation of the MVP Award, honoring the Most Valuable Puppy of the game.

Perhaps she was imagining herself as MVK, Most Valuable Kitty.

She would win that award any day, at least around here!

 

Feline Friday with Rory

It's time for an update on Cousin Rory in Texas! She is doing well and has turned into a real cuddle bug...most of the time!

Rory loves her boxes. She gets very excited whenever a box arrives from Chewy or Amazon. She also has an affinity for tissue paper. In fact, Santa brought her some tissue paper of her very own so she would never run out!

She has also taken a liking to Kleenexes. Her meowmy has to keep the Kleenex boxes flipped over, which usually does the trick. But not this this time! KLEENEX PARTY!

 

   We think she's very photogenic! Look at the size of those mitts! 

 Who could resist this sweet face?

 Happy Feline Friday, friends!

P.S. You may have noticed that other than Feline Friday, my blog posts have been lacking. Many things have taken precedence over my blogging. I hope to be back in the saddle again soon!

Feline Friday

I really have to watch Lily anytime I'm cooking, especially if one of her favorite foods is involved. (And let's face it, EVERYTHING is her favorite food.)

Here I've just started to set the table for dinner, only to find her sitting squarely in the middle of it! She knows she's not supposed to be on the table but nevertheless she persists! 😸

Lily has a particular affinity for sour cream. She can detect sour cream from anywhere in the house and she'll leap across counters to get to it.

At the risk of appearing to run an unsanitary kitchen operation (HA!), I will share with you this recent photo.

I had left the room briefly, returning to find Lily had perched herself on the island from which she had an excellent view of the open sour cream container. In addition to that delectable treat, she also detected a bowl of avocado right next to it, something she adores but is not allowed to eat as it is not good for kitties.

Although Lily didn't say a word, I could see that she was clearly calculating the distance to make the jump. Thankfully, she thought better of it, remembering that she's good at many things but jumping isn't one of them. I gently lifted her to the floor and wiped off the island where I'd found her.

Truthfully, making dangerous leaps isn't necessary when you have a mama who will probably give you a taste of that delicious sour cream anyway!