This and That ...

Greetings, my friends! Things have been rather busy here as of late. I have been making some additions to the catio, adding a tall kitty condo which I have placed in front of the back window so that the cats may be able to enjoy the view outside. And, I have added a few more nice throw rugs as well ...

 

Last Friday morning while I was walking out the door to go to work, I was greeted by our favorite little neighbor cat, "Miss Fancy Pants" (hubby and I have nicknamed her "Trixie"). As usual, I opened the door and she walked right in. Apparently, once again, she had gotten away from our neighbor lady and she came to see us. We love her visits, although given the fact that we live very close to a major (and extremely busy!) highway we are naturally concerned about her  safety. We kept her in the catio for the remainder of the weekend until her owner came to pick her up. At least we knew that she would not get hurt or stolen while we were at work all day.

"Miss Fancy Pants" (aka "Trixie")

Long story short, we drove her back home and the woman told my hubby that she had to babysit out of the area every other weekend and asked us if we would like to catsit "Miss Fancy Pants" for her on the weekends that she was away. She also makes handmade catnip toys and generously sent five beautiful bags home with us for our fur babies ...

Lady Tabitha approves of her new catnip toy!

Since we enjoy "Fancy Pants" company so very much (and we only live a block away from her owner), we agreed to watch her. She will have everything she needs in the catio and plenty of love and affection. We haven't actually begun watching her as of yet, "Fancy Pants" owner is supposed to contact us next Thursday to confirm. We shall see how things go.

 

Until next time, Brightest Blessings All!!!

 

Kyli's Girl!

Meet my god-daughter, Kyli (on left), with her crew (her younger sister Kayleigha and ...

 

their little brother A.J.) who are loving on her kitty Niecy. Hmmm, who's loving on who I wonder? LOL!!!

 

For Leo's Sake

As some of you may already be aware, we had scheduled our youngest kitty, Leo, for an appointment with our family vet. After a long, in depth consultation with Dr. Hoy, she agreed to allow us to try giving him 10 mg of Amitripyline. Amitripyline is a prescription drug used by many vets to aid in calming down indoor cats who suffer from severe anxiety issues and/or excessive hyper-activity/aggression. Some cat guardians also use this medication when they must travel with their cats, thus reducing the kitty’s stress level.

 

 

Unlike some other prescription drugs for pets, this one takes time to build up in the animals system and therefore usually takes a few days or so to see any type of affect or improvement. At this time, we are instructed to give Leo a ½ a pill once per day. Since we are always home in the evenings, we have decided to begin giving him his dosage before bedtime as to get him on a set schedule. Though they are rare, there may be possible side effects to look out for such as vomiting, dry mouth, etc. I, personally, know of a few people who have given their cats this particular medication and their cats have had no problems or medical issues with it what-so-ever. I am told that the only thing about Amitripyline is that you must be sure to be diligent when administering it and not to miss even one days’ dosage. If you do, you must begin the cycle all over again as this medication takes time to accumulate in the cat’s system enough to actually help them. And, as with any medication, the dosage/mg is determined by the cat’s body weight and so on.

 

As I have said many times in the past, we always try the homeopathic methods first before even thinking about putting any of our cats on any type of medication unnecessarily. And, we are hoping that this option will only be a temporary solution in the long run. In the interim, we will still have his blood work checked periodically for as long as he is taking his medication in order to monitor his liver and kidney levels ~  just to be on the safe side.

 

In addition to the medication, our vet had also given us the links to some different website address we can utilize:

 

https://indoorpet.osu.edu/cats

http://doctorsophiayin.com

https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/cat-behavior/behavioral-medications-cats

 

 ... So far, so good.

Happy 4th of July!

FROM ALL OF US HERE AT WITCH CATS' TO ALL OF YOU, HAVE A VERY SAFE AND BLESSED FOURTH OF JULY WEEKEND!!!