More fun than humans should be allowed to have

The feline contingent has brought us hours of fun and excitement over the last few days.

First, our on again, off again relationship with the Littermaid is off again, and permanently. No sooner had we redeployed it than someone (we suspect Emily) issued a negative review in the form of a small lake next to the box. Adding to our joy, a significant part of the box's upper reaches got wet, too: the upper ledge, the track that the litter scoop rides on, etc. Which reminded us of one of the reasons why we retired the box in the first place. It's very difficult to keep clean, as it has lots of nooks and crannies that tend to accumulate crud. (I'll spare you any details of the crud, but this is a litter box we're talking about.) We've both got far better things to do with our lives than scrub a "labor-saving" device. If a few minutes with a hose won't get it clean, it fails the test. Out it went.

Then Whitey developed a case of diarrhea and started refusing to eat his canned food. We haven't sorted out whether he rejected the food because it made him sick, or whether being sick affected his appetite, or whether the two events are completely unrelated. We've cut back on the kitty treats and will wait and see.

Last, but by no means least, we've talked about Emily's tendency to throw up mostly water before. That happened again yesterday. We've always figured it was just a side effect of drinking too much, too fast, and not worried about it. But today's vomiting episode involved tiny white and red bits in pink fluid. Yes, the red bits looked remarkably like blood, and yes, we're worried. She's off to the vet this afternoon.