I guess the summer got away from me! I can’t believe I haven’t written since June! I definitely have some news to share.
A couple of weeks ago I got a call from a shelter I volunteer at. They had another Cockatoo in need of foster. How could I say no?
This guy has been through a lot. I don’t know very much about him, I just know that he is currently in the care of the shelter and not available for adoption. He wasn’t doing well at the shelter and had been plucking his feathers, so now he is with me. Still plucking his feathers, but I think to a lesser extent. He’s a really good boy. He doesn’t scream much, he loves to have his head scratched, and he talks in the cutest little baby voice. I’m not sure how long he will be staying with me, but I’m in no rush to give him back!
I did another Humane Education event on National Cat Day, August 8th. I got to bring three adorable six week old kittens to a library story time. The librarian read a story about cats, I talked about the shelter, and then I told the kids and parents about taking care of kittens. After that, we brought the kittens out for everyone to pat and visit with. The kittens did a great job! I love bringing shelter animals out to meet the public!
Another fun thing this summer, I went to a Renaissance Festival and got to watch a Hawk Talk. He had a Harris Hawk and a Red tailed Hawk with him. So cool to see these birds up close! Dave knew how much I liked it, and signed us up to go on a Hawk Walk! I’m so excited! We will basically get to go out with a trainer and a hawk while the bird hunts. We’ll learn about all things hawk. I can’t wait!
The house pets are mostly doing OK. Cali had terrible allergies a couple of weeks ago. I had scheduled her allergy shot and the night before she was due to go to the vet, she woke me up at 3AM. The poor thing was scratching at her ears and crying. I was able to clean her ears a bit, and apply some Animax wound cream that I had. I also gave her a Benadryl. It all helped and she was fine for the rest of the night. She got her ears checked and her allergy shot the next day and she has been fine since.
While she was at the vet, we did her routine bloodwork that would have been due next month. I was really hoping her Kidney values had improved, but they basically stayed the same. The vet was happy that they hadn’t gotten worse, so that’s a good thing. She did have a bit of protein in her urine which may be nothing or maybe something we need to dig into further. For now, we are going to keep doing what we are doing with the low protein diet and the same medication, and we will retest her urine in a couple of months.
Puck and Bean are doing well. They just didn’t want to be left out of the update!
My son’s cat Martin has been having a rough time lately. He pees on the couch sometimes. It happened a few months ago, then didn’t happen for a long time, and then started happening again a bit more regularly. I took Martin to the vet last week to make sure he didn’t have a UTI or anything health-related going on, and the vet couldn’t find anything. They suggested a kidney-friendly food with some calming ingredients in it, and some other things like Feliway diffusers to help with stress.
Martin had a good week at my son’s, but has been acting strangely since he came back here a few days ago. He’s been a bit quiet, hiding more than usual, and we did find a bit of urine on the couch. Last night, Puck and Bean went after Martin. These cats have always gotten along. Puck and Martin have been playing together for years with no issues, so this was really strange behavior. I separated Martin and Martha from my two cats for the night. This morning, I let everyone out together again, and they gave each other a sniff, but there hasn’t been any fighting. A strange thing happened, I noticed the upstairs litter box was super smelly, and there was a HUGE pee puddle in there. I cleaned the box out well, but I did mention it to my husband wondering if it was related to Martin’s issues. My husband said he had noticed the exact same thing in our downstairs litter box this morning. Since finding the really big spots, Martin has been acting better. He’s been out and friendly and seeking pats like he usually does. He ate a bunch of canned food, and the other cats are acting normally around him again.
I’m wondering if it is possible that maybe he had some kind of blockage that was bothering him, and now he was able to release it, but I’m not a vet. We’ll keep an eye on him and I have a follow up vet appointment scheduled for Friday. Of course I’ll get him looked at sooner if something changes.
I think that’s all my updates for now. I do have a new pet water fountain that I want to review here, but I’ll save that for later this week after I’ve had a little more time to use it.
Happy Labor Day weekend! Are you doing anything special with your pets this long weekend?
