Cell Phone Slot #7 = Vet

These are quite the kittens!  You know it gets on your nerves when you do a weekly visit to a vet for something.  Oh, you know from this blog that the 1st two visits were nothing to terrible.  Easy stuff.  Really, the 2nd visit was really for our contract with the cattery.  The week after that visit, we decided to call for an appointment.

Oliver over the weekend after the last vet appointment had developed some eye trouble on his left side.  Some mornings it was not able to open all the way, if at all.  We actually figured that with he and Sadie, that the one play time he got poked in the eye. However, that Thursday we noticed that Sadie also was getting eye issue.  And on the same side.  Payback for rough play?  We were concerned.  On Friday we decided to call our vet right when they open at 7am.  To my surprise, they were filled up!  Called our other vet that we had gone to with our other past animals and got an afternoon appointment.

Sadie is still having some issues with wanting to be handled by us.  Though this time, it actually was not hard to get her into the carry case.  Oliver has absolutely no issues.  This vet was not going to be far from the house.  Probably half the distance.

We get to the vet and signed in.  At little worried on my part as every time we had gone to this vet in the past, we would get somebody different.  Got into the room, we explain to the vet the issue.  And all of a sudden, we see the assistant holding Sadie.  Without any fuss.  Wife and I were amazed!  Sadie was in her arms, calm as can be!

No real secret.  Seems that some cats in the back of the neck has a spot that "stuns" them.  And this is exactly what the assistant did.  And here is my wife holding Sadie in the exam room. 

Well, this visit turned out that they both have pink eye.  A common thing for cats.  Not a big issue. We got some medication to sprinkle on their food twice a day.  Oh, and we were assured that Sadie has a very good chance of growing out of her skittyness.  The vet also suggested to pet Sadie to the point where she gets over stimulated, then back away.  Doing this repeatedly should get it out of her system.

The weekend went well.  Had lots of fun watching them play with each other.  Amazing what two 4lb kitties can do to make so much noise.  They seem to have a schedule of playing most all of the morning when we get up around 5am until about 11.  Then they pretty much are sleeping the afternoon away until they get a little hungry and is feeding time of about 5.

Oliver does like to get into everything and to see what we are doing.  My wife was studying for work and here he is whispering her the answer.  Not sure if it was the right answer or not.


Another strange thing about Sadie that we do hope is a "phase".  At night, she is up on the bed at my wife's feet sleeping at night.  I can pet and scratch her and she loves it.  Up until day time.  If I come towards her, she scurries away.  At night, she knows that it is me as I talk to her. 

As a matter of fact, here is a picture of her on our bed.  It was about 6 in the evening.  We were waiting on some house guests to arrive.  I came into the bedroom and was able to pet and scratch her to sleep.  She was so comfortable that she actually rolled onto her back.  And yes, she knew who it was that was touching her. 




My wife doesn't have too much of an issue except for not able to pick her up.  She can put out a finger and leave Sadie sniff it and allow for a brief scratch.

Oliver is just a love bug.  I feel sorry for him as it is SO hard for him to choose which lap or chest to get up on and flop down.  I do not think that he has a preference so long that he is warm and has a hand to scratch him.

And the positions that he gets in while he sleeps.  Here he is during a day time nap on my wifes neck.  He started off under the blanket.  I do not have a picture of him.  But one morning his back side was up on my chest, lounging down my side with his head on the bed mattress.

He is quite active too.  His whole house is his.  And good ears.  When we get home, we will hear his bell coming down the steps to greet us.

Sadie is getting around the house too.  She is active chasing after Oliver.  Thanks to Oliver for getting her down to the next level of the house.  She may have come down once on her own.  Otherwise, Oliver needs to lead the way. And I am not including feeding time.

They both love feeding time.  Week 3, we started to feed them down in the kitchen.  We keep their food in a bottom drawer.  Oh my!  they are both running around with such excitement.  They will jump into the drawer!  Twice, Sadie did try to crawl up my leg.

Sadie and Oliver also have found birds to be fascinating.  Oliver doesn't sneak up to the window.  It is a normal walk, sit down and watch the birds be active.  Sadie, however will stalk up to the window.  Not really crouching yet.  They both do enjoy the window.  Here they are on the recent cat toy addition.

One last thing before I go.  We had gone shopping over the weekend and needed some more kitten food.  My wife went next door and I was tasked to get the food and another pack of their favorite mice.  I am so in the dog house.  As we unloaded the vehicle, my wife saw ALL of the toys that I got them.  She asked "Why?"  I merely commented that "I was not supervised.".  I think she bought it.  Though I will be supervised from now on.  What can I say, I like shopping for my kids!

Week 3 with Ying and Yang!

It has been a little since the last blog.  A week now?  The kids are doing fine.  The typical things they do are the following.  They are quite the opposite of each other still.  Sadie is still skiddish most of the time while Oliver is like "Hey, I like you guys!".

 

Oliver has become very comfortable sleeping with us.  So much that last night, he managed to squeeze in between the pillows.  He is also a very sound sleeper.  He can be petted and will not wake. He seems to enjoy mostly flopping down on my chest.

Sadie has taken a liking to sleep up on the bed as well.  Though at our feet when she with us.  Once, I had gotten up to get some water.  The 2 minutes that I was gone, my bed space was taken. 

Oliver has been following either my wife or I where ever we go in the house.  Very inquisitive.  Especially when one of us is in the kitchen preparing food.  He can be found sitting there in the middle of the floor space.  He has not learned to get to the top of the counter top.  But, he is able to surf the dinner table by hopping up onto a chair, then finally onto the table top.

We have yet to see Sadie on the table.  She is becoming more and more brave.  She is not stuck in our bedroom.  The two have been with us for just over 3 weeks now.  Last week, we started to leave the door open to allow them to explore the house on their own.  They are pretty content being with us at night.  They do like to play.  The early morning hours they do like to move about and play.  We will hear a thud in the guest bath.  It is just Sadie jumping up into the bath tub.  They will also chase each other back and forth in the hallway.  We will see a small flash of fur of Oliver followed by a larger flash of fur of Sadie.  Then, the opposite with the small flash of fur chasing the larger.

Oh, and they are gamers!  I downloaded an app for the iPad that resembles a laser pointer dot.  If they jump on the dot, they score a point with a chime.  It is quite cute to see.

Sadie is kind of smart as she will get her paw underneath the iPad in hopes of getting that dot.

I did a terrible thing to Oliver on Friday before heading off to work.  I was down getting my coat from the closet and saw this short stubby tail of Oliver sticking out.  I did not think much of it as he seems to come to our bottom level to explore.  I walked away to put my coat on and shoes.  Not thinking the few minutes away (maybe 1 minute), I thought that I had seen him go upstairs to Sadie.  I shut the door and we headed off to work.  We got home after the work day and heard this meow.  I am looking around downstairs as my wife runs upstairs.  It dawned on me and opened the door to the closet.  He comes trotting out and goes upstairs.  He did not seem too upset. 

But, tell you what, from that day on, we have been seeing more and more of Sadie on the lower levels.  We can only imagine that when Oliver in the closet was meowing, Sadie heard and was on the other side of the door.  That got her out of her comfort zone to explore the house.  We still feel so bad!

Oliver so likes the attention.  And almost wants to dominate it.  Makes it hard working with Sadie.  She allows us to pet her at times.  Since the closet episode, she kind of sits there in view instead of darting under the bed.  Though, she is still skiddish.  I would say 2/3rds of the time.  I know that they are kittens born in October 2013, but she has either the play switch or sleep switch.  Not a lot of sit there and be scratched.  On the bed in the morning, she seems to be alright getting scratched under the neck or around the ears.  Only for a short time. She gets to feeling so good that she starts to lightly claw or even start to bite. 

We will see them wash each other too.  But in about a minute for Sadie, the licking and washing turns into biting and they are off rough housing.  Oliver does have some eye issues on his left.  We think it is from rough housing and Sadie got him with a poke.  They still play though. 

I did got a taste of them during the day when I was at home sick.  They pretty much played all morning with the afternoon of rest and sleep.  And about the time my wife got home, they were starting to move about looking for their food.  Oliver did come down to explore, ignoring me all together.  He did find an interest with the back yard and the birds by the feeder.

We are training them that we are the alpha felines by feeding them on a schedule.  After about a half hour or so, we will pick up the dishes.  This does seem to get Sadie out and about.  So much so that if we head towards the “feed” room at times, she beats Oliver there.  Tail straight up and appearing so friendly. 

With her is seems that there are some good days, and some bad days.  The good is that she is out, scent marking everything.  The bad is that she runs under the bed.  A few times over the weekend, she almost seemed to want to scent mark my legs.  But, same morning, she is lounging on the landing appearing calm and as I approach her, she dashes upstairs. Really not sure what to do.

Well, that is the latest for Oliver and Sadie.   

Sucesful day at the vet

Sunday night the kids were pretty content to being under the bed.  We thought that we would leave the door to their sanctuary open to the entire house. However, early morning around 2 am, I thought I had heard a distant meow from downstairs.  Slowly got out of bed and with my iPod to use as a flashlight, I looked into their basket bed.  Only saw one face.  In my mind I was thinking that the other kitty was downstairs.  Went down to look and could not see any.  Or hear.  I came up to look under the bed again and caught site of the other in another place under the bed.  All fine.

Shortly after returning, Oliver, whom was the one under the bed in the other area had hopped up.  And flopped down on me.  He had first got down on top of my arm.  Then across my chest.  Finally, he ended up on his back, legs stretched out on my arm.  For a little, he used my arm as a pillow.  There is where he sacked out until we woke up at 5.  Then they were following us around waiting for their food.  Though, Sadie is still unsure.

We were concerned about a lump on Oliver's right rear leg.  There was a lump there that we noticed on Saturday.  It was the size if the too of a pinky.  Though, this morning it had doubled in size.  Called the vet and got an appointment for in the evening.  It turns out that this is a typical spot for getting shots.  And sometimes, they just get a mild reaction that will go away.  Though, if it is still there for a few months, then something should be done.

I failed to first mention that we had to do the towel thing to get Sadie into the carrier.  My wife tried and got a pretty good scratch.  I managed to get her in.

As with most purebred animals and depending how a contract is written, you may be required to take your new family member to the vet for a check up.  Got the required blood test done and came up negative for both Sadie and Oliver.  Will need to send the results to the cattery per contract request.

We got them home and fed them.  A little wet food for a small reward for the visit.  The vet did say that Oliver was the hardest to get the tests done.  Cried and tried to scramble.  Sadie was very good.  Very surprising to us.

They also had gotten a small bandage on their leg.  Kind of funny to see them walking and trying to shake this thing from their foot.  Oliver was acting normal when he got out of the carrier.  Sadie, slightly more skiddish since we got her in the bag using a towel.  They both did get onto the bed at some point in the evening.  However, I was not able to get close to Sadie to get her bandage off.  Oliver, my wife did that with no issues.

Oh, since Sadie was a "captive" audience in her carrier, we managed to get her collar on with a bell.  She doesn't like it.  When it rings, she stops and steps back a little.  She will get used to it.  It is not to help us grab her.  With the bell, we can hear where she is at.  Both Oliver and Sadie has one that is a break away clasp.

No pictures this evening.  They are still on the camera.  Will post some tomorrow.

The kids are fine with the rest of the house open to them.  They still prefer the bedroom to sack out in.  And the guest bath where the second litter box is located for use.  Still have the water next to my side of the bed.  And feeding is done in the guest bath in the opposite side of the space from the litter box.  Eventually, the water and food will be moved downstairs.

First week: We got KITTENS!!!

It has been a few days since I last posted.  I assure you, plenty of cute kittens abound.

Sadie does come out more and more out of her shell.  There is still some issues with petting her.  Particularly with the scruff of her neck area.  Not sure why so protective.

Thursday night, Oliver slept with us most of the evening.  He is a little guy and doesn't take much space.  He sure can purr though.  He snuggled up 

We noticed today that their little mice we got them are so chewed up.  Not sure what makes them the favorite in toys.  The long tail with a puff ball at the end.  Or the big mouse thing.  And they prefer this over catnip toys.   

Oliver does come downstairs.  Still needs some coaxing.  And if he meows, Sadie will investigate.  Not very often.  Oliver has taken a liking to the scratching post on the middle floor.  He will climb up it along with scratching it.  

Friday night, Oliver did not sleep with us much.  However, when he was up with us in bed on saturday morning, Sadie was interested in coming up.  Though, she did not when we acknowledged her and scooted under the bed.  

During the day on Saturday, we left the quarantine zone door open.  I think we will do this to allow them to look around the house.  They are very content though in their zone.  And they love running the top floor.

Oliver enjoys playing with wine corks.  They don't roll in a straight line.  

Sunday morning, Oliver jumped up and sacked out with us.  And to our surprise, Sadie jumped up as well. She did hang out at our feet and was checking things out.  

Sunday seems to be Sadie's day to hang out.  My wife really took time to pet her, even if she moved away.  Kept at it.  Also gave her some treats for reward.

Although, it is hard to focus on Sadie as Oliver gets jealous.  Then again, it does go both ways.

I was taking pictures of Sadie on their scratch tree and Oliver decided to flop down.  Silly boy. 

He did notice that we have a large sliding glass door that looks out our back yard.  We have a bird feeder there.  Not many birds were there.  Though, he was interested in them.

They do play more and more a lot together.  End up chasing each other.  At times, they seem to be rough.  We do notice a bump on Oliver's leg. Gonna keep watch of it.

That is about it.  We wish the two, or even just the one, would come down and be with us in the living room. 

This is Tim and Oliver signing off.  Good night!