I have mentioned Ella's live and let live policy with the gray squirrels. She likes to chase them up trees when she can get them to run but she doesn't pose an actual threat to them. Here's a photo of her and one of the squirrels. As soon as the squirrel picked up a peanut and headed down the steps with it, Ella chased her, returning a few moments later after chasing it up a tree.
Hey @Ken Anderson, my new kitten Riji looks like your Ella. Only his orange markings are paler, almost a faded look. We got him for only $20., he had all his kitten shots, he’s already been microchipped, and neutered. They put a little tatoo on his tummy to indicate his neutering, and where it was done.
I couldn't get a picture, but Ella touched noses with one of the squirrels today before chasing it down the steps. I think they view her as a bully, but the kind that would call you names or pull your hair rather than the kind that would beat you to a pulp.
I just got back from the vets with Cutie. She had been making a sound that was a cross between a hiccup and a clicking, although not repetitively like a hiccup, and I didn't know what it was or whether it was something to worry about. Plus, she has been trying to tell me something and I didn't know what it was she wanted. By that, I mean that she has had a system of communication all her life, where she will poke me on the foot or leg to get my attention, then lead me to whatever it is that she wanted - to the door if she wanted to go out, to the water bowl if it was low or she wanted fresher water, and to the food bowl if she was hungry. But for the past few weeks, she has been poking me insistently every night, then leading me to the area of the food bowls, but not to any particular bowl, as she would ordinarily go to the kibble bowl if she was worried that it was getting low, or to the other bowls if she wanted canned food. I couldn't figure out what she was trying to tell me, so we made an appointment for her with the vet in Bangor. For her age, she is doing very well, given that most cats are dead at 27, and she's not. However, she does have a heart murmur and some kidney dysfunction. She is not in kidney failure but there is some dysfunction. As far as what she was trying to tell me, perhaps she was trying to tell me that she needed to eat differently or, more likely, she just realized that something was wrong and she didn't know how to communicate it, so she just kept getting my attention, over and over, hoping that I could figure it out. Anyhow, I have to give her some subcutaneous fluids a couple of times a day, and feed her a special diet for her kidneys, which will probably be a problem in a few days, when she tires of the couple of flavors that it comes in. Plus, I will be giving her an oral antibiotic because there is some bacterial stuff going on. Cutie has some dental problems, which can't be fixed because they anesthetize cats before doing dental work and she won't anesthetize a 27-year-old cat. She also said she's never seen a cat over the age of twenty that didn't have some dental dysfunction. Anyhow, she thinks that's where the bacterial action is coming from, hence the antibiotics. In her old age, Cutie has become quit accepting of trips to the vet. She did hiss at the vet at least once, but she was reasonably docile, given all the poking and prodding that was going on. The bill exceeded $400, however. That was when I hissed at the vet.
It's amazing that she has lived 27 years. That shows that you have taken very good care of her. I hope she will recover completely and be with you a good while longer.
Except to eat, Cutie hasn't left my side since we got back from Bangor so I guess she's not blaming me for the poking and prodding that she went through.
She's remarkable. She is deaf, has a cataract developing, a heart murmur, some kidney dysfunction, and takes Cosequin for arthritis, yet she has thus far maintained her status as the Alpha cat in our household. To her credit, Ella is generally pretty nice to her. Cutie chases Ella (who is five years old) around the house playing, and picks fights with her. When Ella wants to be alone, she would go up to one of the high shelves in my office, up near the ceiling, where I have a couple of cat beds for her. Cutie decided that gave her too much of an advantage so she made her way up there too, a few days ago, which I hadn't noticed until I heard the hissing. Cutie had made her way up to Ella's safe spot in order to pick a fight with her.
Certainly agree here. When my Calico Chloe had her one diabetic low sugar crisis and I took her to the emergency vet, after I handed her over, I handed over my credit card. I didn't care. They saved her and she died a year later from lymphoma. Glad I had that year with her.
We have a closer veterinarian, but I didn't like his attitude. He seemed to think that it would be pointless to spend money on medical care for a cat that was more than twenty years old. At twenty, my sisters were very healthy, and I think Cutie still has a good quality of life. She plays, she fights, she's loved.
Completely agree here. This is your kitty. I'm kind of surprised at the vets attitude. I think it's one thing to offer alternatives one of which is to do no treatment which is valid. However it's the Vet's responsibility to make you know that the decision is always up to you and they will support what you want. I wouldn't want my pet there either if I felt they were disgruntled by my requests. It sounds like she has total quality of life. Chloe was 16 when I took her to the emergency vet. She lived to almost 18.