Wednesday, February 25, 2015

My Poor Kittens - Update II

After four days of poor little Poppy acting like a wild-cat I was getting quite desperate.  Parsifal, who bore the brunt of her hissing, spitting and growling, didn't know what to do and turned into a real Mummy's Cat since I was the only friendly person in the apartment.  Last night he dived under the covers when I went to bed and, as far as I am aware, he stayed there for most of the night.  Poppy stayed under the bed and growled. We were all miserable.


So, as a last resort, yesterday afternoon I went over to Zoo and bought one of those pheromone dispensers and plugged it in.  Parsifal calmed down immediately but it took Poppy until this morning and so far we have had only one hiss from her and she spent a short time this evening playing with her favourite toy so, as well as feeling better she is obviously feeling happier.


They are still on a soft diet but I am cutting down on that now and Poppy can now go through the cat flaps without discomfort so I can shut the doors and turn on the air conditioning more efficiently again.


The pathology came back on the lump.  It was "fat necrosis with Steatitis" which is uncommon in cats and very painful, either idiopathic or from an injury caused by Parsifal, although there was no external sign of claw or bite marks.  The other cause is overfeeding on tuna fish but not so in her case.  She has mostly been fed on kibble which is a balanced diet.  So we are going to have to accept that it is idiopathic and hope that it doesn't happen again.

Friday, February 20, 2015

My Poor Kittens - update

The babies and I arrived back at the apartment at about 6.30 yesterday evening.  When Dr J. tried to scale Parsifal's teeth they broke off at the roots and he had to cut into the gums to remove them and then sew up the gum flaps. So instead of having his teeth scaled he ended up having six extractions.  Poppy had five, with less drama because it was anticipated that she would have extractions and she had already lost one tooth very early on in her life.


But the lump turned out to be a real puzzle and has been removed and sent off to pathology for a diagnosis so she has a shaved place on her back and internal stitches since no-one there wants to have to remove external stitches.  She was like a wild thing when she got home  -  restless, excited, relieved to be home but unable to settle to anything.  She would invite tummy rubs and then get up and rub herself against me instead  -  wouldn't/couldn't eat and hid herself away in the bedroom.  She did come out to use the litter but that was all  -  and Parsifal was determined to have his wicked way with her.


He recovered very quickly and spent the evening trying to climb the shelves where I keep my computers and stuff.  They both refuse to drink their nice new green water which is supposed to inhibit the formation of plaque so I will have to dilute it and introduce it gradually.  In the meantime they are drinking from the water bowl in the bathroom.  They are both on a soft diet for the next week and Poppy finally had a good meal at about lunchtime today and has now put herself to sleep under my bed, which is her 'safe place'.


Last night I went to bed feeling pretty miserable but was really happy when Poppy momentarily reverted to her 'Chronometer Kitten' role and jumped onto the bed to wake me up this morning.  Now we just have to wait for the results of the pathology on that lump.

Thursday, February 19, 2015

My Poor Kittens

The babies are both off to hospital tomorrow morning, Parsifal to have his teeth scaled as he has gingivitis and poor little Poppy's gingivitis is bad enough that she is going to have some teeth extracted.  According to Dr C. some Oriental cats have a genetic disposition to gum disease and although they have been fed Oral Care pellets it obviously hasn't prevented the gingivitis. 


Poppy also has a lump on her back (which is why I took them over to the vet) which could be an old abscess which has become encapsulated.  I am feeling quite miserable and hate handing them over to the new people, especially since the one who didn't look at Poppy's teeth when they had their annual vaccinations a week or so ago is going to be the one to do the extractions.  My views are coloured by the deaths of Bast and Bertie who both died after tooth extractions so I might be doing the new lot an injustice, but . . .


Hopefully, by this time tomorrow I will have them both home and recovered but  I  HATE  this.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

A Stroll in the Park

This morning, since the babies were wailing by the door instead of sleeping as they usually do in the late morning (I was talking to the cleaner outside the door) I loaded them into the kitty carriage and walked them over to the park.


I sussed it out yesterday and have worked out the time and place where we are least likely to meet any unleashed dogs and they both got out and had a little explore.  Poppy was the first, which surprised me but perhaps Parsifal still has an early memory of meeting a rather eager dog when he was a kitten.  He panicked and tried to run away but was firmly tethered and I think that the dog was more interested in meeting and greeting than he was in eating but Parsifal refused to get out onto the grass during subsequent visits so I stopped taking them.


I will never let them off their leashes, of course, and that is why I have been doing 'walkies' up and down the passage every morning so that they are used to having their harnesses put on  -  something I need to be able to do quickly if there is a fire and need to get them out.


I am taking a break from spinning the Jewel colourway.  I have  spun four skeins of 200 gms each and have another two braids to go to finish the kilo of yarn.  At the moment I am spinning a green, blue and brown colourway called Rhinebeck and will ply it with solid brown.  That way there will be enough to knit a vest with perhaps a bit over for a beanie or a pair of mitts.  There is probably another two or three afternoons of spinning to finish the first two bobbins and I will post a photo when I have plied the Rhinebeck and Metro Brown together.  It will be something a bit different and, although I am not a green person, I will probably wear it as I have a matching pair of green jeans.



Sunday, February 8, 2015

More Cat and Computer Stuff

Yesterday I decided to upgrade my Windows 8 laptop to Windows 8.1.  Not a problem except that it took me all afternoon; it was running VERY slow.  But I finally got it done and it looked better  -  my pretty, personalised START page had all its flowers and curly bits, whereas before it only had them at the top of the screen.  But  -  when I tried to find my list of apps it wasn't there and I got the message that there was a file missing, called MSVCP110.d11 so I went to my Windows 7 Desktop and yes, I could download it *sigh* so I did that and . . . all of a sudden I have my apps list and she seems to be running much faster.  So hopefully that it the end of my computer woes until the next time.  Now all I need is the proper keyboard for my Surface Pro 3 and find a way to install Microsoft Picture Manager on everything except my desktop computer which has it already.  Microsoft, in its wisdom, has discontinued it but it is still available as a free download.  I am not sure if I am going to need a Key though.


Parsifal has been emptying his treat container too fast so I have bought a contrivance which means that the babies will have to work  bit harder for their pellets.  I dropped a few treats into it and Parsifal had those out before I could turn around so I am not worried that he will starve any time soon.  I am not so sure about Poppy, though.  She is not as bright or as adventurous but she is a bit plump so I am happy to wait a few days before I go back to having food available in a dish at all times.


When I took a shopping trolley down to the trolley pickup today I took Parsifal with me  -  on his lead, of course.  He enjoyed the ride and walked very sedately back to the lift, but was freaked by the noise from 'The Lane', leapt into the lift and made a dash for home as soon as we arrived at our level.


I only have about two hours more spinning to finish Braid 8 of the BFL + silk in the Jewel colourway and I may take a break and spin something else for a bit.  I have been spinning almost one and a half hours per day since November, except for a very short break to join a Spin-thick-a-thon, and a longer break from it would be good.  Then I can spin the last two braids and get it finished.  I haven't decided yet what I will knit with it and I have been trawling Ravelry.com for patterns.  Something will inspire me  -  a jacket or a poncho, perhaps.

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Don't we all love internet security?

I have spent two days trying to download an updated version of my  internet security because I realised that my two Windows 8 computers had none and my subscription runs out in three weeks, so I figured that it was time ...


I tried three times to download the latest version online but was told that the site was down for maintenance, it was unable to verify my details etc., etc., so I went over to JB-HiFi and bought a 2-year CD subscription.  I had no problems with my three proper computers  -  tedious but simple.  It was when I tried to download it (now that I had the subscription key) onto my Surface Pro 3 that I ran into problems.  It was determined to download a trial version  -  after which I would probably have had to pay extra to keep it and it flatly refused to allow me to change the key number while telling me that the one it was showing was out of date  -  which I knew  -  it was last time's key.


Eventually I went to 'Help" and got a fairly complicated set of instructions  -  which actually worked and Aminata is fully protected.  Then I decided to go into my account and see what was what but I didn't have my password.  I clicked "forgot password" and was instructed to type in a new one and verifly it but every time I did I got the message that I hadn't provided the right information and it kept rejecting every suggestion which I made. 


Finally I got annoyed and typed in a swearword  -  nine characters and an upper case letter and  . . . it accepted it!  So now the password for my online security is a swearword.  All power to word filters  -  I got away with that one.