At The Ballet (The Magic is Back!)

Yet more small adventures, none of which were properly told in a timely fashion.   Thus, it is time for multiple chapters of "As the Food Bowl Turns".

Our Story Thus Far

Penwiper, who gets overly excited and swats at his housemates while meals are being served, has for some time now been locked up until his own bowl is ready.  

It mostly just works: He knows the food reward for going in the bathroom before feeding, and when he thinks it's time he'll go sit by the door waiting to be let in.   After he eats, he's fine, lounging around or looking for some human affection.   No disturbing of housemates occurs ... at least by Penwiper.

January

As previously noted, we had a minor problem with Penwiper's appetite being off after his annual shots, the same sort of problem we sometimes see with Oscar after his annual exam.   We bought two cans of wet food, and to avoid a riot gave some to each boy:

• Penwiper treated it like an ice cream cone at first, licking it rather eating it, but he got the hang of it and generally liked it.
• Oscar refused to go near it.   We had to give him a clean bowl of dry kibble.
• Whitey definitely liked it.  Not surprising, since he and Billy got wet food years ago.
• Billy, resident foodie, acted like he had gotten cream.  ("More please?")

We gave the three who wanted it a treat at every meal until the first can was gone, and put the other can away, unopened.

Three Weeks Ago

Billy, who has always been a pain at meals by eating fast and then raiding others' bowls, got to be enough of a headache that I came up with a new plan: As we let Penwiper out of the bathroom, we put Billy in.   

This is actually easier than it sounds, because Billy was already under the impression that going in the bathroom on command gets him treats.  That the kibble he was following to the bathroom wasn't his (it's PW's, and not going in the bathroom with Billy) mattered not: The Mighty Hunter is easily decoyed, and if his bowl eventually shows up at his private dining room, he's good with the procedure.

With this, after 10 years we can lay off the continuous vigilance at meal times.   We just need to let him out once his housemates finish.

The Week Before Last

We got worried about Whitey not always finishing his food over period of a couple of weeks.   It was off to the vet for a full exam and geriatric blood work, the pronouncement being: He's fine.  

We opened the second can, added wet food back to his diet and now the magic is back.   He was bored.   Or maybe no longer feeling the pressure of Billy wanting to raid his food.   

Now

A full case of wet food has been obtained.

The permanent change in menu does mean that Billy is dining alone for the foreseeable future.   If he was a pain when everyone was eating kibble, he's in overdrive when his wet food is gone and someone else has some. The kid spent years trying to raid Whitey's bowl of wet food, we have not forgotten.   

Amusingly enough, it does mean the decoy of Penwiper's bowl is less effective.   Billy is so eager for wet food, he won't go in the room without a bowl as easily.  So now we prep his and Penwiper's bowls at the same time.

Such is the ballet we dance for our boys.

He ain't heavy, he's (still) my brother

Continuing the birthday theme, this was Billy and Whitey at about five months old, in July, 2004.

Billy and Whitey Kitten Snuggles

And this was taken this evening. Same futon (new cover), supersized snuggles. Please note that the boys did not shrink. It just looks like they did because I had to step back further to make them fit in the frame.

Billy and Whitey Catzilla Snuggles

(Tech note: The top photo was taken with a Toshiba PDR-3310 digital point and shoot camera. The bottom was taken with my Moto X phone. Both are straight out of the camera, with no post-processing.)

Ten Years After

Billy & Whitey Watching a Laser Dot the Night They Arrived in 2004

It was on this day in 2004 that a litter of kittens were born that included the brothers which we would adopt (along with the elderstatescat Emily) just under four months later on June 14th, 2004.

Ten years later, our Catzilla brothers are still the anchor of our little kitten farm.

Make no mistake, they are getting older.   Whitey still seeks out the highest vantage point in the room, but he is if anything more sedate than ever. Billy is still a mighty hunter of cat toys, but while he may chase up six foot towers as many as eight or nine times during play time, he may take a break after as little as two or three.  As a catten, eight towers would have just been warming up.

Of course, Billy & Whitey still scoff at the concept that anywhere in the house is truly off limits to them -- if anything, Ssscat laden kitchen counters are more fun than cat towers (especially to Billy).

May we still be shooing our senior princes off the counters ten years from now.

Temporary Menu Change

Penwiper went into the vet at the end of January for his annual check-up and shots, and was given a clean bill of health.   However, late last week he seemed to lose some of his appetite, possibly an after-effect from the shots.  So it was off to vet again on Friday.  No issues were found, but to encourage him to eat we did pickup canned food to spice up his kibble.

The new menu started Friday evening.  Knowing Billy would raid Penwiper's dish if he didn't get some, we gave some to all the feline overlords with the usual results:

• Oscar announced that there no way he was eating this "contaminated" kibble.   We had to serve him a clean dish of dry food, and pass his original dish to Billy.
• Billy thought it was Catmas.  He woofed it down before his kibble.
• Whitey was on board with the holiday treat idea too.
• Penwiper wasn't quite sure, and used it as a tasty side dish.   In particular, he licked it every so often (as he does cheese we when we give that to him), and finally ate it when his kibble was gone.

Oscar wanting only his dry kibble actually makes it easier.   He's fed first, and serving him "boring" dry food means Billy doesn't raid it while waiting for his own meal.

After a meal or two, Penwiper has gotten to where the wet food is a real part of the meal, and has eaten it more promptly.   He has required patience by the valet, but has finished sooner or later.   Sometimes this requires letting hop him on a dining room chair next to a valet and putting his half-finished meal by him, but he's a social kitten -- what's wrong with wanting company?

We'll never forget What-his-name

We actually owe a bunch of posts, some of which we may backdate.   But for now ...

+Erika Rice Scherpelz just posted a picture of Kage (The Grey Mouser) and his housemate Jasper curling up together on the local self-heating cat cushion (i.e. her).

Kage really does remind me of a more reserved version of Penwiper, especially with their long fur and sociability around favorite humans.

Photo Friday: You're Why We Can't Have Nice Things

One of the odder places our Spider-Cat has ascended to is the right speaker shelf in +Katherine's office.   As you can see, "relaxing" on it requires climbing from the bookshelf to the right onto the speaker and then squeezing over the speaker to huddle in the free area:

Whitey On the Speaker Shelf Last Fall(click for larger)

Well, it used to.   Back in December, Whitey had a never quite explained accident, where he and the speaker both came off the shelf.   Being a Spider-cat, he extended Cat Ki and landed well out from the wall.   Cat Physics at work and all that.  The speaker, being attached to a wire which was stapled to the wall, also obeyed the laws of physics:  It dropped until it ran out of slack, and then was pulled to wall by the wire:

Speaker Repositioned After It Dented the Wall Below It
(click for larger)

That's not dirt on the wall.  If you click on the picture to see the details better, you'll see that speaker physics caused the speaker turned pendulum to take two divots out of the wall.

At least Whitely and the speaker itself both are okay.

The speaker is permanently moved to the left, so that if Whitey wants that shelf again, he can get on it without pushing the speaker around.

R - E - S - P - E - C - T at the Spa

Oscar and Whitey got their spa day for their teeth and nails on Wednesday.  However, they didn't consider it that.

Reliable reports had Whitey asking for his lawyer all the time he was awake.

However, Oscar made Whitey look happy.   He was sufficiently fractious (their words) they could not sedate him normally, and instead gave him an injection in the rear flank.   This made him recover more slowly, to the point that we were advised when calling to check on them that he may need to kept in a safe room over night.   So +Katherine Derbyshire prepped the downstairs lavatory (she wanted the larger more familiar library, I wanted the smaller safer bathroom), and off we went to check on them in person and hopefully rescue them from the clutches of the vet.

I think Oscar would say evil <expletive> vet.   Oscar's motor skills were iffy, but his lungs were just fine -- upon our arrival in the back treatment room, he gave a hiss worthy of a cat twice his size.    He was in the wrong (larger) carrier, but we decided to let him stay and stuff the larger Whitey into the smaller carrier for the ride home.   Our vet was vaguely disappointed by our decision ... at least he said that he would pay good money to see us transfer Oscar between carriers.

Yea, right.  We didn't need the money, and we are not that stupid.   We know to respect an annoyed cat's personal space.   (Her Emilyness taught us well, many years ago ...)

Whitey, who wasn't in the second carrier yet, went in fine.   He did continue to meow for his lawyer, of course.

We got home, locked up Oscar in his safe room, let Whitey out wobble around, and got everyone an early snack.  Neither cat who went to the spa ate much then or at dinner time, which was no surprise.

Oscar got released on parole at 9 PM, and was wobbly but in moderately good spirits as soon as he was free.  He did want to cuddle, but he also was hissing with the least provocation.

Both boys recovered their appetites the following day.

Saving the best for last ... the blood work for each of them was fine.