Cleaning days like yesterday are disruptive.
In future, I think I must declare a day off from blogging at such times.
On any normal day my mind is apt to wander off at tangents.
Add the various cleaning noises and cat protests…
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Usually, I can cope well enough but lately I’ve been fatigued. This was what I think I was going to write about yesterday.
Let’s see how far I get today.
There is the possibility of further disruption which is related to the tale.
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My current fatigue is in most part to do with my fine feline friends. I began my blog yesterday recounting the dramas of Penny and Toby but then I appear to have been sidetracked.
What else is new?
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The sky last night looked air-brushed.
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With Toby once more returned from the edge, my attention was drawn to Lucy.
Having discovered that Blackie had been stealing her food, I put an effort into reassuring my poor blind girl.
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Blind cats manage very well but in a multi-cat home it’s a bit complicated.
Especially when the 10 other cats have such attitudes and requirements and sensitivities that must be considered!
Lately I’ve wished I could administer a boot to their butts, but that would merely aggravate the situation.
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Since this concerns Lucy, I should be posting photographs of her but she has taken refuge under a bench.
She feels safer there. My mind insists that this is not a good thing. But she is blind. Does it make a difference where she is?
She comes out to use the box and to drink and sometimes she blunders into one of the others.
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Until recently, Lucy’s rare encounters with other cats were not a great problem. She could still hiss and spit effectively.
But Blackie’s thieving and intruding into her safe place had the effect of de-stabilising Lucy’s self-confidence.
First I had to make sure she was actually eating. Keeping Blackie at bay was one thing, but once Lucy associated eating with intrusion, she lost her appetite.
That was how it seemed, but I had to be sure and this involved lying flat on the floor every time I offered Lucy food.
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Was it possible Lucy had lost her sense of smell? When I put food in front of her, she couldn’t seem to locate it, waving her head back and forth where previously she always dived right in.
Time for Forti Flora, a strongly scented supplement. Cats drool over it. They recognise the sachet and the sound of the sachet being torn open.
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Suddenly all the other cats lost interest in their meals and massed around me.
So I had to be sneaky, preparing Lucy’s meal behind a closed door.
The little so and so’s can smell it a mile off, so that was no help.
Blackie being the major offender, was the hardest to keep at bay. I tried rounding her up but she is too fast.
So I crouched beside Lucy to watch her eat and when Blackie sneaked up I swatted at her. Of course, I would never hit an animal. Swatting amounted to me waving my hands and yelling:
“NO Blackie!”
Her eyes got enormous and she fled making me feel a real shit. So I went after her to say sorry but she wouldn’t let me come near.
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It wasn’t long till I’d been forgiven and perhaps Blackie had taken aboard the message that she must not take Lucy’s food.
But she still loitered with intent.
Forti Flora gave Lucy back her appetite, but I needed to keep monitoring her meals, so I spent quite a bit more time lying around on the floor.
Just to reinforce her defenses, I closed off access to Lucy’s “place”. Blackie could not herself fit beneath the bench but her claws can. If I pushed Lucy’s food out of reach?
Then I wouldn’t be able to see her eat.
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We talked about making an enclosure for Lucy, like the one I had for my bunnies. I found some and we went to Petco, but Grant didn’t like what he saw.
It’s a long time since I was in one of those stores and I was not impressed by this branch. It smelled strongly of cat pee. I groaned and asked Grant :
“Tell me our house doesn’t smell like this!”
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(There’s another side story there!)
We returned home empty-handed and I got back online. It seems to me that what we purchased was very much the same thing we’d seen at Petco, but I had divorced myself mentally from that project by now.
Often it’s just better to go with the flow.
Assembling said enclosure and more importantly placing it, is the possible disruption I referred to earlier.
When men decide to act, all else must be abandoned. In my experience.
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With dustings of Forti Flora, Lucy was eating. Time to order a supply and of course it is not cheap. A small thing but added to all the other small things…
The budget needs to outlast the feline dependents and I worry about it. So I decided to try Chewy’s own recommended variety of the same supplement.
Lucy was not impressed. I placed her reject in front of Dee Dee who promptly turned her back and made burying motions.
Very subtle.
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After days of cajoling, Lucy appeared to have recovered her appetite though I was still monitoring.
Now though, she resumed coming out to sit on her perch and we began again the anguished cries when she needs reassurance.
Which was fine until it became an all-night wail. I’d settle her down, get into bed and turn off the light.
“Eeyow!”
“It’s alright Lucy, it’s alright.”
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Until now when this happened, Lucy would calm down and sleep through the night.
But the disturbances had unsettled her so for a couple of nights I was treated to two-hourly wailing. It’s not something even a sound sleeper could ignore.
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While I don’t need a lot of sleep, I do need it to be uninterrupted. When I get over-tired, I lose the ability to manage even the small little things that go wrong every day and there is no shortage of those with 11 cats in residence!
It just all becomes too much.
Cat fatigue.
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A few nights of this, with no solution at hand, brought me to a low ebb. At such times I am apt to be grumpy and intolerant. I can’t even stand myself.
Grant knows the signs and remains safely below stairs.
Or he goes off for ice cream with Ed, like this afternoon. I may get this finished uninterrupted!
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Actually, things are not nearly as bad now that I am no longer in oxycodone withdrawal. A few household items got broken then.
In retrospect, while it’s an effective pain killer, that drug is seriously bad news. The anger that flared up in me during withdrawal frightened me.
But that was then.
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In the meantime something comforting had been happening.
Willow began sleeping on my bed.
She had been interested in the past but as soon as any other cat jumped up, she was off. Not because there wasn’t room. The bed is huge. Willow just didn’t want to be near those others.
For many months now, Toby has been with me most nights and often Blackie too.
Suddenly, Willow accepted them.
Of course, I was thrilled. I love knowing my little friend is there.
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Faced with another sleepless night, when Lucy began her wail three nights ago, I dragged her little perch over beside my bed so I could put my hand out to her.
When Lucy first went blind, I tried this for her, but it seemed not to be what she wanted. So I didn’t expect it to work.
But it did. She went to sleep and stayed that way.
But Willow disembarked.
There was always an issue with these two. If Willow appeared to favour a bed or blanket, Lucy promptly appropriated it.
There were rivals.
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“Fantastic!”, I thought. “Willow finally made progress and now it’s ruined”.
After a lifetime of tiptoeing around sensitive people, I freed myself from that burden only to find myself worried about cat’s feelings!
Things have progressed, however.
The following night Willow was back on the bed. I waited to see if Lucy would wail but she did not.
It was in fact a strange night. As I sat in bed reading I was aware of total peace. There was not a sound, not even the occasional night noises.
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Once again, Lucy slept through the night.
Now, I am not naive enough to believe that this situation will last, but one must be grateful for what one can get.
I’m sure there’s a reality TV show in this!
Thank you, Carolyn, for today’s musing. Of course, cats have feelings!
Joanna
Trial and error! Wow, you have to go all out to keep everyone happy! I’m in a really bad mood when I don’t get enough sleep, so I understand your ‘pain’! When our spaniels started getting old and frail, I had to get up almost every hour in the night to take them outside … so, the last year of their lives was hard for all of us! But still, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Small wonder you get tetchy and grumpy! So much to consider about each cat. I only have Ollie to worry about, and I do worry just the same. He had a bad day today. Limping on his walk, and wanting to come home after just 30 minutes. At least he ate his food happily, and has been asleep since 13:30. But I can see the doom-laden signs, and they make me fearful.
Best wishes, Pete.