Catzillas TNG

Oh my.

We just weighed the Panthers for second time, giving our first week to week comparison.

• Lucas is up to 6 lbs, 8 oz (He was 6 lbs 2 oz last week.)
  
• Midnight is up to 6 lbs, 11 oz.  (He was 6 lb 1 oz last week).
  

Neither are flabby.

I've been calling them Micro Panthers this week.  I may need to go back to Domestic Panthers, because I'm not sure they're gonna be "Micro" much longer.

Go! Go! Catzilla!

Photo Saturday: Cuddling by Leaps and Bounds

Lucas & Midnight cuddling Katherine on her Futon

Katherine finally got a photo of the Domestic Panthers together.

It should be noted that they spend a lot of time next to each other under the futon, but it's impossible to get a good photograph due to the low light under there.

We're delighted by several things:

• They are truly a bonded pair:
• They tend to sleep together under the futon.
• When they are awake, there is no ongoing border war.
• They do spar, but in the friendly manner of Cat Fu like their departed uncles the Brothers Catzilla.
• They treat under the futon as their home base, but it's not like they hide under there. They sally forth without fear.
• Individually, they are each following Whitey in their own way:
• Midnight already routinely scales the 61" office cat tower, and has reached up to touch the top edge of the 7 foot (84") bookshelf. Once he works up his nerve to make the two foot vertical leap to the summit, he'll have earned his Spider-Cat Merit Badge. 
• Lucas has discovered Katherine likes to bend her blanket covered knees on the futon to support her work, which makes a great tunnel for catnaps underneath.

(Photo Credit: Katherine Derbyshire)

A footnote

Given the relationship of the name "Lucas" to the British manufacturer of electrical components, PURR MORE the Aqua (our 2019 MINI Cooper S) would like to point out that ITS electrical components were not made by Lucas!

(Nor were PURR MORE the Lemon's problems caused by Lucas.)

Under New Mangement

As of this past Wednesday, The Kitten Farm PNW is under new management.

Being adults, we had a plan: We could use the lack of cats in the Kitten Farm to clean up certain things (like painting walls, installing carpet, replacing cat towers, etc).

Mostly, it didn't happen. Katherine was missing her daily kitten snuggles, and so by Sunday afternoon we were at MEOW Cat Rescue looking for sociable bonded kittens. We saw a couple of pairs that seemed interesting, but after a busy weekend speed dating humans, they mostly wanted to nap. 

So we went back Wednesday earlier in the day. We agreed one of the two pairs was too shy to sociable, but other pair had enough definite potential to become new upper management.

Thus we present the Domestic Panthers:

• Lucas is the larger of two, and a Domestic Medium Hair; he's black with a silver undercoat.
• Midnight is the slightly smaller of two, and a Domestic Short Hair; he's a purer black, but is a ghost tabby.

Midnight during his first evening with us

Lucas during his first evening with us

The name Midnight is obvious. As for Lucas, search on the web for "Lucas, Prince of Darkness".

Requiem for the Floofy Ninja

We have been remiss posting on this blog, with most of our recent Penwiper updates going to FB. There was not much had going on really, except that Penwiper developed hyperthyroidism and got his thyroid zapped last fall; there were no after effects. Now, it's the end of an era. Penwiper never really recovered from dental work performed this August. Follow up visits found probable lung and potential intestinal cancer. Steroids seemed to make him feel better, but only for about a week. He never resumed eating normally, not for than a day or two. He mostly hid. But in true Penwiper fashion, he showed his sociability every day with evening tuck-ins and morning wake-up snuggles. That cat loved his humans to the end. But it was time. Thus with great sadness we announce that Penwiper, age 15, was put to sleep today (19 September) shortly after 9:30 AM at Kenmore Veterinary Hospital. After this morning, we have no cats for the first time in twenty-one years. Probably there will be more soon, but not just yet.

Kitten Penwiper, the week he arrived

Penwiper in a sunbeam this past July

The March of Kitty Treats

"Dragons live forever, but not so little kittens …"

At 13 1/2 years old, Penwiper is still a reasonably limber jumper & climber. But he's no longer quite in the prime of life.

Last week I heard a scrambling noise that sounded like he had missed a jump onto the upstairs hall railing.  This is something that he had consistently made for years.

In the past few weeks, I also noticed that he gets onto the kitchen counter for kitty treats differently. Rather than him doing a direct jump from the floor to the counter, he takes the scenic route via the wastebasket at the end of counter as an intermediate step. This is not a terrible thing, but it does say that he's not feeling like two-year-old catten anymore.

A Healthy Start to the Feline New Year

At his last routine exam in early December, we were told Penwiper needed his teeth cleaned and gingivitis taken care of.

This was delayed because the vet had heard an odd heartbeat and wanted him to be checked by specialist before he was sedated. We did that the following week, and he came out with a clean bill of health. (Excellent news!)

Yesterday was dental day. Penwiper had to skip breakfast, and Katherine delivered him to the veterinarian for the dental work at 11 AM. They were short handed, and so he didn't even get sedated until ~ 2:30 PM. He was home, awake but wobbly, by 6 PM. He's been getting back to his normal purring self since.

The good news is that he required no extractions, just the cleaning and the treatment of his gingivitis.

More good news is that after coming home, by bedtime he nommed not one but two cans of wet food, and then he wiped out the kibble left for him overnight.

(And the vet said he would not be hungry. Hah!)