We provide our own siren.

Just like parents, it is hard for a cat’s people to hear him/her in pain or discomfort. Poco had asthma for over 20 years, but every attack made me stop and listen. I hoped it would be short. I hoped it would pass without too much pain. I hoped it would be only one attack.

Oliver has inverted sneeze, which sounds even worse than asthma when an attack comes. And since he can go months between them you can tell that Oliver is unsure what is happening. They are horrible. But they pass quickly.

Usually, they pass quickly.

"This is the face of discomfort."

On Sunday, Oliver had an inverted sneeze. It didn’t last long. A while later he was in the condo and I went to take his picture. I noticed he was a little wheezy. Then, later that night, he started to cough.

The coughing came in spurts – one cough every 40 seconds or so for several minutes. Then he’s put his head back down and nap. By bedtime he was still coughing but between he was having trouble swallowing. Neither of us slept well.

I did the math and realized it’s been several months since we’ve been to the vet.

So we were due.

Oliver wanted to eat on Monday morning. This is a good sign. When he doesn’t want to eat we throw him in the carrier and call the vet on the way there. The grey kitten loves his food. Unfortunately, his throat hurt so bad that when I went back to the kitchen to check on him he was just licking the gravy off the food.

I dialed the phone. The vet had an appointment at 2:30 p.m., which I took and I thought in relief about how much cheaper that was going to be that squeezing him in on a “same day” visit.

I hung up.

I saw Oli gag.

I called back and told them we were on our way in. Oliver wasn’t so sick that he couldn’t scream his fool head off the entire way there.

They have another new doctor – he’s tall and seems to “get” cats. Oliver would have liked him had the new doctor not been trying to pry open his mouth to examine his throat. Next time, maybe.

And the verdict? Allergies.

Good grief, kid.

He’s on his way back to fine. Prednisone, our drug of choice, for the allergies. An antibiotic just in case because he had a mild fever.

"Beware the dragon, for you are tasty and about to disturb the kitten's nap."

Why this picture? Because no blog is complete without Obi, right?

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Channel surfing and the magic toy making stick

This morning I had a dream that it was my birthday and we had a beautiful cake COVERED in frosting flowers. I love frosting flowers. All morning, I anticipated having some of this delicious cake. Then lunchtime came and my coworkers cut the cake without me. I got the last piece – a tiny piece from the middle that was about the ONLY piece without extra frosting. So sad. I’ve been awake for about five hours and I’m still kind of ticked off at my coworkers for ripping me off on the frosting flower front. My point? None. No point whatsoever.

Obi has been channel surfing all day. He just strolls from one window to the next, barely stopping, sometimes sighing as he leaves his perch. He had one exciting moment when a squirrel was eating bread on the sill of one of the living room windows. I had to go get Obi from the dining room to show him. He launched himself out of my arms and into the window with such force that the squirrel actually jumped. Usually the squirrels just calmly eat their treat and watch Obi pounding on the window with a “dude…glass” look on their face. That’s right, Obi makes squirrels look cool.

I’m pretty sure Obi gave himself a concussion hitting the window. We watched him for an hour – this is how long we decided was cat equivalent to a person staying awake for 24 hours. We wondered if we’d be able to notice any mental impairment caused by the impact. We wondered how many times Obi, who doesn’t catch himself when he falls, has hit his head.

Part of the reason Obi made so much noise is that he knocked our yard stick against the window and then to the floor. After he channel surfed all the way through breakfast I decided to use the yard stick for its magical purpose. I waved my magic wand under the couch and made…toys! The best thing about the magic toy making stick is that it doesn’t create new toys, but it brings back their favorite toys from wherever those favorite toys got off to.

With a little digging, I created a catnip ball, squeaky mouse ball, and milk ring from the big couch. With one sweep of the wand I produced from the loveseat a teddy bear mouse and two flat leopard skin mice. I. Am. Magic.

One of the flat mice is already back under the loveseat. This has something to do with the fact that Obi will only play with this mouse on the living room rug. If the mouse tries to get away from the couches by flying into the entry way, Obi gets him and carries him back to the rug.

The catnip ball is under the recliner.

After playing with his toys, Obi was able to settle on the dining room channels of OutTV. Both of these channels can be viewed, while napping, from the top of the bookcase.

"OutRadio...when you can't see the birds, but you can hear them on the roof."

An Oliver update: Oli has been drug free since Wednesday. He is limping a tiny bit but it isn’t getting worse. I asked him this morning if he had a fever. He declined to answer. I asked him if he has Bieber Fever. He says, most decidedly, no.