RIP Jellybean

You life was too short, baby.

In spite of all attempts at treatment, it seems the URI won. All the cats had it this winter, it was a bad one. The cats and kittens were all on antibiotics, had ointment for their eyes, and had started to regain their appetites for a little while, but then they took a turn for the worse again.

None of the kittens made it.

The life of a barn kitty is rough. Worse still when they're born in winter when the weather has been horrible on pretty much every critter out there (and the barn where they lived was even heated, so they didn't get the worst of it, but it still had an effect). Had we taken her sooner, though, she wouldn't have been ready to leave mama cat yet.

Mama cat was a lot less chipper today than I've seen her every other time we've visited. She was totally devoted to those babies. Now she's lost them.

Kitten update

Just a few more weeks before we will be able to bring the Jellybean home. She's got to have a bit of cleanup done. She has what my mother refers to as "barn kitty eyes" - most barn kittens I've known have had it in one form or another. Usually it seems to clear up once we can get them some flea medicine, but then it may just correlate with getting them away from the standard barn dust and whatnot. It has also been a rough winter, so all the kitties are looking a bit more ragged than usual, even though the barn is heated. Ideally, we will pick her up the same day we're headed to the vet and get all that out of the way before she ever enters the house. As it stands, we have been washing hands and clothing every time we've been to see her, just in case.

Now we get to make sure Anubis is up to date on his shots, get a quarantine room ready, and figure out where we're getting Jellybean's shots and exam done (more than likely she will be taken to the humane society as they do the full testing without charging too much - assuming their vaccination clinic is open again by then).

On the upside, in spite of the eye problems, she does seem interested in playing:

Jellybean

"I found you. That means you are mine now, right?"

 So... we might be bringing home a kitten.

Yeah.

There was a winter litter at my aunt's dairy barn just down the road from us, and the runt of the litter has done a pretty good job of getting her wee little claws hooked into my heart. (I say her, but it's only a guess - it's still a little early to be sure, they are all quite tiny still, she just looks less "obvious male" than the other black kitten.)

So far, the kitten has been dubbed Jellybean, because they all looked like wee furry jellybeans when we first walked into the barn and saw them, and it sort of stuck.

Getting ready to climb momma cat to get to me.

We got a few photos today, though not very good ones as it's raining and the barn was pretty dark. Plus the little fuzz-nugget wouldn't stop moving long enough for me to focus my camera (there is video too but my other half has to process that for me - my computer doesn't have enough memory to edit high-def video and he needs to convert the file before we can upload). But today as soon as we walked in, once our little furball heard both our voices she abandoned her lunch and started bawling at us.

We didn't stay long because my aunt was busy and it's rainy and cold today (there's a furnace in the barn but still, I didn't want to keep baby away from warm mama cat for long). But I did get at least those photos before this idiot decided to photobomb:

"What is that in your hand? That hand should be petting me."

He then proceeded to climb all over me and that sort of killed the photoshoot. (Yes, we are aware his eyes need a bit of help - my aunt has some ointment from the vet, the barn kitties have been having a rough winter with all this crazy weather. Most of it's just kitty head colds.)

But we're keeping an eye on the jellybean for now, taking some time to come to a final decision. Momma's running out of milk already, and my cousin says she's already teaching the kittens how to eat regular food, so it may not be much longer, but we want to make sure momma cat has time to teach them what they need to know before we take anybody home.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - Or: Why I will no longer buy dragon scale bettas

Say hello to Lo Pan. (No, he has no green-eyed bride.)

In addition to my furry friends, I am also fond of fishkeeping (try saying that one three times fast). Fish were the only thing I could have in college, and with the small space, naturally bettas were my first love. I've had several bettas over the years, most of them outliving their standard life expectancy (they usually only live around five years, and most bettas you buy in the store are already at least a year or two old, as it takes a while for their full finnage to grow out, so they look more impressive once they are past breeding age). Our most recent loss, Lucius, was with us for at least six years.

My current betta, Lo Pan, is what is known as a "dragon" or "dragon scale" betta. Dragon scale bettas are characterized by thicker, more noticeable scales, which usually have a very metallic sheen. Lo Pan was the first of this type I was really drawn to - most of them are not really "my type" when it comes to looks, but this guy just had a little something extra.

Still the same fish. Every angle of the light changes his color.

It wasn't until I got him home that I noticed anything wrong.

First was that his gills cannot flare all the way. One way I check the health of my bettas is to hold up a mirror to encourage them to flare in a typical territorial display. This way I can see their fins fully. They also bring their gills forward and fan them out to make themselves look larger. (Just a note, you should do this sparingly as it does get them riled and that's not healthy if they're doing it too often.) Lo Pan, I noticed, could not properly fan his gills out. He tries, but they snap back very quickly. I am not certain if this affects his breathing - it has been a bit difficult finding much information about this, but scales growing over the gills seems to be noted by some as a common condition in dragon scale bettas.

I also noticed, once I got him into better light, that there was a scale growing over one eye. I asked about it online, and was told by another betta enthusiast that this is known as "diamond eye" and is also very common in dragon bettas. I was also told this usually becomes more prominent as the fish gets older, and most will eventually go blind, if they are not already.

You can see the scale over his eye very clearly in this photo.

Today as I looked at him, he tried to flare at me again - the issue with his gills seems worse than before.

This seems problematic to me. As beautiful as Lo Pan is, I do not wish to encourage the breeding of unhealthy fish. So he will be my last dragon scale, unless I can find evidence that there are breeders that have found a way to eliminate this problem while still keeping the beautiful scale pattern.

I can't stop others from buying them, but I can stop buying them myself. Not that I will judge people for buying these fish from stores since they are already there - I know plenty of people who prefer to "rescue" fish like this to make sure that the person who takes them home can at least give them a good life. But as for me, much like my decision not to buy fish from certain chain stores, I do not wish to encourage the practice to continue. It hurts my heart to leave them there, but it has to stop somewhere.

If anyone has more information on these issues, feel free to send links. I would like to learn more.

For those who have a betta who is already going blind, I can offer some suggestions that others have sent me: bettas can also smell their food, so if you are using pellets, you can dip them in chicken broth or (so I am told) even a little bit of garlic oil so they can find their food more easily.

Almost-spring updates

The first signs of proper greenery for the year.

Well, it's certainly been a while since I posted anything, so I suppose I'm a bit overdue for some updates.

This winter has been a rough one on everybody, and the furry kids are no exception. Our Anubis has been dealing with a lot of aches and pains this winter, so I got him a nice heated bed to try and help tame them down somewhat.

I think we can call this one a success.

He likes it so much, he spends almost all his time in it anymore. In addition to the heated bed, we also started Adequan treatments earlier this year, which have been a HUGE help. Adequan is a joint supplement that is labeled for use in dogs, and used off-label in cats. It's what Simba was put in after her injury that gave her such a miraculous recovery from her joint problems before other complications took her down. Anubis showed just as miraculous a change even after the first dose. He's through his four week course now, and the vet said he shouldn't need another dose for about 6 months or so. He's playing again, something he hadn't really been doing all winter. He's behaving on his bad-joint days like he was on the good days before. We also started setting his food up on blocks so he doesn't have to crouch down to eat. He definitely seems to like that better than all his bowls being on the ground.

Thanks to one of the Hill's Pet giveaways he also now has a Drinkwell, which he LOVES.

Pardon the offering to the floor gods. About half of his food goes on the carpet.

Of course, now that spring is around the corner, there are other thoughts on my mind. One of which is kittens. We made a promise to ourselves (and to Mr. Fuzzy) that we would start the search for another cat in the spring. He misses having a buddy, and, well, I miss having a purr pillow of my own (Anubis is James's cat, though he is happy for snuggles from me too, it's not the same). We figure a kitten will warm up to him quicker and therefore make it a little less stressful on everybody, since he was the accepting one in the equation before. Hopefully we can find somebody compatible, both with Anubis and with me. It's a big step forward, but one I think I need to take.

Empty spaces

The arm of the couch was always her spot.

I reached for her again. First time in months.

Sometimes I will still see a little movement out of the corner of my eye, and my brain tricks me into thinking there's a cat-shaped something there. But usually I catch myself and it passes before it jerks me by the heart. But the arm of the couch... that was her spot. I didn't catch myself this time until I had already reached back to pet her.

Anubis still looks for her sometimes, too. But at least now we can say her name in the house without him getting upset. He is eating normally again for the most part - from his regular bowls too. Though he is showing signs of age that we never saw before he went through the stress of losing Simba.

I still have trouble looking at the photos sometimes, though. And I haven't been able to sit through any of the videos.

Some critters just claw their way into our hearts a little deeper than others. We don't always know how or why, only that we're lost without them.

Nobody sits in that spot now. It was hers and hers alone. Anubis will not sit there, though he has taken to sleeping in her old bed. The arm of the couch remains claimed and empty.

Cat Burglar

More fun with fiction - this time one written for a friend.

Her humans had been gone for an unusually long time. Fall had thought it strange when there were bags and soft boxes she wasn't allowed to lie in being filled with clothes. But the humans had left the house just like normal, at the usual time of day, with the usual good-bye and assurance that they would return.

But they hadn't returned. It was getting dark out... they were normally home by now. It was almost dinner time, and they weren't home to feed her. Well, she thought with a flick of her tail, if they weren't going to feed her on time, she was just going to go have a nice nap on that pillow she wasn't supposed to get fur all over. Just as she was turning to wander off to the bedroom, she heard the sound of someone at the door. Aha! They were home. She began to meow with impatience, scolding them for being late, but when the door opened, she froze.

That was NOT her human.

The stranger reached out to pet the cat, and she immediately fled beneath a chair. It was not her human, but they were in her house. There were only two possible reasons for this. Either her humans had abandoned her (ridiculous!) or this was a burglar.

Fall had heard of cat-burglars before, and rather thought it was rude to go and burgle someone else's cat - whatever burgling was. But she had never expected to see one in her house. As the burglar moved toward the kitchen, Fall followed, crouched low and padding quietly. She peered around the corner in time to see the burglar rummaging in the cabinets - the cabinets with her food in it! The nerve! She watched as the burglar picked up her bowl. This was too much. Bad enough that this stranger was intruding on her house, but now they were touching her FOOD. She had to take action.

Trying to look braver than she really was, Fall puffed out her fur and leaped toward the stranger, yowling madly. The human caught her by the scruff before her claws had a chance to stick in, pulling her gently away.

"No. Bad kitty!"

Oho! So this was what cat-burglars did, was it? They go into other people's houses and tell their cats what to do, did they? This was an outrage! This was hideous! This was-

Fall forgot quite suddenly what it was exactly as the food bowl was placed back on the floor, totally full. She stared, confused, as the burglar refilled the water bowl too, then left the kitchen and headed toward the litter box. Weren't cat-burglars supposed to be a bad thing? So why was the burglar feeding her and cleaning her litter box? That didn't seem so bad...

The stranger washed her hands, dried them, and went to the door. "I'll be back in the morning."

And then she was gone.

Perplexed, Fall went to sniff her food bowl. It smelled alright... just like normal. She took a few bites. Tasted normal too. Finally she settled herself down to eat. Whatever this was, she supposed she would allow it. For now.

The cat-burglar kept coming back over the next several days, until at last Fall's own humans returned. She yowled and scolded and tried to tell them all about the burglar, but they simply petted her and snuggled her and simply would not listen to reason.

She supposed she would have to chalk it up to the fact that humans were simply very strange animals.

Moving forward

I'm blue, da boo dee da boo da...

Anubis is finally starting to make real improvement. He lost weight for a while after we lost Simba, wasn't eating his regular food (though for the first few days he had been eating like a horse). We bought a different food to see if we could coax him to eat, and now he's eating like crazy (he won't eat it from his normal bowl, but that's okay, we have other bowls). He is, quite thankfully, looking like a cat again and less like skin and bones.

He has stopped wandering the house crying and looking for her all the time. He has taken to occasionally sitting in what were formerly her spots, so he seems to be acknowledging that she isn't coming back now. He still stops to sniff now and then, but I don't expect him to forget her completely.

Biggest deal of all... he was actually purring the other night, for a reason other than begging for treats. That's a big change.

We're still giving him a few drops of the Bach Rescue Remedy with his wet food in the evenings, as it seems to have helped a great deal in helping him pull out of his depression and move forward. We want to make sure he's really over the mountain before we take that away.

But overall we seem to be moving past the kitty blues and getting to the healing stage. We were honestly terrified he was going to let himself go for a while there. But if a bit of a change was all he needed, we can do that. I don't know why he decided to shun his other food. Maybe it's a reminder that it's the food, and the bowl, he used to share with her. I know us bipedal-types get those sorts of hangups sometimes too. But at least we've got him eating like normal again.

Good Dog

Been doing a bit of fiction writing lately, so I thought I'd share.

Night had fallen and the family was asleep. Rex had curled up on the living room rug, wide awake but staying quiet—his boy did not like to be disturbed at night. None of his humans did, but he especially fussed over his boy. Grown-up humans could take care of themselves. Little boys needed good dogs to help them.

Rex heard his boy's bedroom door open, and he stood up. His boy was probably just up for a glass of water, but he was still very little and it was dark in the house. A good dog would go help him. He padded to the boy's side, able to see much better than a human at night. His boy was filling a cup when he heard it.

There was a noise at the door that made his spine tingle. It was a sort of cracking noise, like somebody was trying to pry the door open instead of using the knob. Nobody had ever taught him, but something in his doggie-senses told him that only bad people tried to break doors in the middle of the night. He growled and his fur stood up all over his back.

The door broke open and a man came in with his face all covered up, even though it wasn't winter. Rex didn't like that. The man moved into the kitchen, and he liked that even less. His boy opened his mouth to yell for the grown-ups and the man grabbed him, putting a hand over his mouth. Rex's heart pounded. He had to do something. Good dogs did not bite, but this man was hurting his boy, and good men did not hurt little boys. Perhaps it was okay for a good dog to bite bad men?

He heard his boy whimper, and that settled it. Rex bit into the man's leg, and the man yelled and let go of his boy. The man tried to kick at Rex, and he bit harder, shaking like he did with his toys until he heard the rip of fabric and tasted blood. The taste scared him, but he didn't want to let go for fear that the man would go and hurt his boy again. He heard the grown-ups now, heard them dialing the phone. The man flung him off and tried to run. Rex chased him. Bad men could hurt his family. Bad men had to be stopped.

By the time the men in uniform arrived, Rex had the man by the arm. His family came running and he let go at last—men in uniform took bad men away. He had seen it happen on the television that his humans liked to watch. Tail wagging, he approached the men in uniform, expecting them to praise him for saving his family. Instead, one of the men pushed a long pole toward him, and Rex felt something close around his neck. He didn't understand. Men in uniform only took away bad dogs. The people on the television said so. But he had not bitten his boy. He had bitten the bad man. He was a good dog.

He saw one of his humans move forward, heard the words "good dog". She was trying to explain. But the man in uniform shook his head and said something Rex could not understand. He felt himself being pulled away and started to panic.

He strained against the thing around his neck, barking frantically as his boy began to cry. "No! You can't take me! I'm a good dog! He was going to hurt my boy! I had to protect him. I'm a good dog!" He barked all the way outside as the men put him in the back of a van.

But humans could not understand dog-talk. Rex laid his head down and whimpered as the van began to drive away with him in it, taking him away from his family.

"But I'm a good dog…" 

The dog-thoughts are heavily influenced by Amy Shojai (she is awesome, go check her out). She has a section of her thriller novel that is from the point of view of the dog.

As far as I know, the laws that protect homeowners from prosecution for defending their own homes do not usually apply to dogs who bite intruders. Which is a shame, since I have known at least a few dogs who would never hurt a fly unless they really thought their family was being threatened.

It's the little things

When you lose a family member, furry or otherwise, you always expect that there are going to be big things you miss. A cuddle buddy on cold nights, that way they used to fuss over you when you were sick or upset. In fact one of the first things I realized when Simba passed was that she always made a fuss over me when I was upset about something... and now the reason I was upset was because she's not around to fuss over me anymore.

But it's the little things that really get you. Those little habits you never really noticed that catch you by surprise and bring the tears back all over again. It's going to say hello to her when I first get home. Automatically glancing at the bed when she's not in the living room. Walking by her favorite chair and looking over to watch her sleep, and finding it empty. The sleepy look she used to give me when I opened the blinds in the morning... the grumpy one she gave me when I closed them at night. Things you never realized you had come to expect until they're gone.

Just today I opened the treat drawer, looked at Anubis, and said "I need to go get more treats for you guys." Never mind that just before that, I was wondering what to do with the Greenies now since he won't eat those (Simba loved them). Old habits die hard... and here I sit crying again because of it.

Only when they're gone do we come to realize that the little things are what makes someone who they are. And then those are the things that tear at your heartstrings most.

RIP Simba

I apologize in advance that this post isn't going to be my most coherent. We just lost one of our furbabies.

Simba was almost 15 years old... she hurt herself about a week ago jumping off the couch. She was starting to do better... then... not. I had just picked up some stool softeners from the vet with the instructions that if there was no bowel movement by Monday they would need to see her again...

She wouldn't take the pill. I called to enlist my father's help since he's better at it, and I was worried I was going to hurt her if I tried again. We got the pill down... she swallowed it... but apparently it upset her too much. She started convulsing...

I was afraid something was up when she started getting lethargic a couple of days ago. More so when she stopped purring for me, stopped headbutting me when I put my hand near her. Our other cat, Anubis has been fussing all day... but so often when we see it coming, we throw ourselves into denial. I didn't want to believe I was losing her.

I did at least take her to the bed to cuddle a little bit before all this happened. So she got a little bit of time with me today before...

I'm just having a hard time believing it. It just happened so suddenly... she just stopped breathing... we tried to start it again, got her lungs to fill when dad tried to give her CPR... but it was no use.

She has been with me ever since I moved into this house. She was my snuggle buddy every night. She fussed over me every time I was sick.

And now she's gone.

I can only hope now that Anubis is going to be okay. I don't think I could stand it if we lost both of them right now...

We buried her out by the swing in my parents' yard, since when she lived outside that was her favorite spot, in a box full of some toys and a few of her favorite things. Including the cat grass I bought for her just yesterday to try and cheer her up about being confined for her injury.

Day in the life of a behavior nerd

Just a quick amusing thought I had this evening, inspired by something that happened this morning.

In your typical household, finding cat pee on the carpet generally causes an upset reaction, sometimes confusion if this is not a common occurrence... frequently anger.

This house contains two behavior nerds. So the morning conversation went about like this:

Other half: "Hon, were you just in here washing your hands and spill water or something?"

Me: (heading to bathroom) "No, why?"

OH: (pointing) "That's why."

Me: (bends down and sniffs) "Yep, it's pee. I haven't seen Simba leave the living room all morning. Doesn't smell like hers."

OH: "So it was probably Anubis."

Me: "He's never done that before..."

OH: "Nope."

(pause)

Me: "Are the litter boxes clean?"

OH: (goes to check) "Nope." (grabs the scoop)

The cat still had to wait for his treats since we weren't sure just how recently he'd peed in there, and we don't want to go reinforcing that behavior by accident, but he has since used his now-clean litter box and all is well in the house again.

Brief lesson on fear avoidance

http://hellogiggles.com/10-awesomely-adorable-dog-gifs?sl=2#sl=3 GIF #3 if it doesn’t load properly.

This came to me on Twitter in a link entitled "10 awesomely adorable dog GIFS" - the rest of the images are, in fact, cute, so go ahead and click the link and look at the rest of them if you want to check them out, but I had to comment on this particular one.

If you recognize the body language here, this is NOT cute at all. This dog is showing very fearful behavior here. Now, if you’ve ever seen an object (ball or whatever else) come too close to your dog’s head, you will recognize the ear position and the squinty eyes - dog trying to duck and protect its face from being hit. Add that to the fact that this dog is turning its head away from the person whose shadow you can briefly see in this GIF, the mouth stretched back in a grimace, and the licking of the lips, and this is a VERY nervous dog right here. If it looks super-friendly, it’s because this dog is trying to make an appeasing gesture to avoid a confrontation.

A primer on pet rodents: rats and gerbils

I know a do a lot of talking about cats and dogs on this blog, but did you know that rodents make great pets too? Usually when we think of rats and mice, we don't see them in a positive light. They chew holes in our walls, they carry disease - why would anyone willingly bring one into their home? But pet rodents are not the disease-carrying pests we wage war on every spring and fall. I myself have kept rats and gerbils, and so these are the two types of rodent I want to dicuss today.

Rats are often portrayed in cartoons as dirty, scruffy, vicious animals - often playing the role of the villain (exceptions, of course, being Master Splinter and the rats of NIMH). Pet rats, however, are quite the opposite. They are very fastidious creatures, and can in fact be very loving. The rats you find in the pet store are descendants of the wild Norway Rat, domesticated and bred with many coat patterns, including the plain brown you would expect in a wild rat. The sex of your rat can affect its personality to some degree - for example I tend to prefer females as they remain more active over their life span. All of the male rats I have known get a bit fatter and lazier as they age.

Rats are fairly easy to keep, but there are a few things you should know. First is that while they can be kept alone, most rats are social and prefer to be kept in groups. If you buy only one, you MUST be certain to spend plenty of time with your rat, as much like any other pet they are happiest when they have someone to play with. If you decide to get your rat a friend later rather than buy them all from the same place, you may wish to look up some articles to help make sure the transition goes smoothly. Here is a brief article with the basics on introducing new rats: http://ratguide.com/care/behavior/introducing_rats.php

Gerbils are another popular rodent in pet stores, and they, too, should never be kept alone. Gerbils are VERY social animals, and they tend to become vey unhappy very quickly when isolated. I recommend buying at least two from the same place - preferrably related. I had been told in the past that males get along easier than females, so I have had only male gerbils thus far. Remember that gerbils are nocturnal, so if a lot of noise at night will drive you crazy, I would recommend keeping them someplace other than the bedroom.

I always had two cages for my gerbils - the living cage and the play cage - but you may wish to instead have a larger home where they can always play. You don't want to just let them out on the floor like you can with most rats, as the gerbil is more likely to get loose by the sheer fact that it is smaller and quicker. Make sure to change up their play equipment often, as not only will they chew it up no matter what it's made of, but the change keeps them interested and active. They will readily use hamster balls and tubes, however if you use an exercise wheel make sure you buy one that does NOT have an open design, as the tail can get caught in the spaces and snap off. For this reason it is also very important that you not pick up your gerbil by the tail - if you have no other way to catch it, catch it by the base of the tail ONLY, never at the end, as much like a gecko a gerbil will sometimes allow its tail to break off as a defensive mechanism. Unlike a gecko, however, the gerbil's tail WILL NOT grow back.

Remember that all rodents are chewers, so keep anything you don't want chewed on out of reach, and make sure loose play is well supervised. Always have something in the cage for your rodents to chew on. Not only is it a natural instinct to chew, but much like rabbits, their teeth can get too long and start to cause problems if they do not have sufficient chew toys. Chewy treats are also a good idea - check with your breeder or veterinarian, or look online for lists of safe foods, but anything you see in their regular food mixes can also be fed as treats. My gerbils always loved banana chips and sunflower seeds, and would take them from my hand when offered.

The cage is another important thing to consider for both species. While a smaller cage or aquarium may be fine for gerbils, or rats if you plan to spend lots of time letting them out to play, if you are going to be gone for long stretches you may wish to invest in a larger ferret cage for your rats. This will allow them to have room to move around and explore without worrying that they might get out and get hurt, or chew on anything that they shouldn't. If using an aquarium or cage with a bedding pan, DO NOT use a sawdust bedding for any of your rodents. Common types of sawdust such as cedar and pine can cause severe respiratory problems in small mammals. I would recommend either corncob bedding, or aspen bedding which do not put off a lot of dust. Shredded cardboard or paper-based cat litters may also be used. I also recommend giving them either a tissue or a bit of cloth to chew up for nesting material, so they have something soft to curl up in and sleep.

Has anyone else out there had rodents for pets? What care tips can you offer for new rodent owners? What are your favorite pet rodents, and what stories can you tell about your pets?

Den size and crating

Sometimes when I try to explain animal behavior to commenters on Youtube, I feel like I'm talking to a brick wall. Most often I find myself trying to explain things on a friend's channel - see, she has a fox. No, not from an "exotic pet" breeder. Hers is a fur farm rescue. She used to have two, but recently lost one due to old age. I do not often condone the owning of wild animals, however in some cases where it's clear they are being properly cared for, I do admire the caretaker's ability to bond with a non-domestic critter. This friend of mine is one of those people. She made a point of learning  her foxes' habits and patterns, both in terms of how foxes in general act, and their individual personalities. And I do believe animals have to be treated as individuals.

To get back on the subject, the other day she posted a video showing her fox's sleeping quarters at night, telling her viewers that the fox got scared alone at night now that her companion is gone. The new sleeping quarters consist of a large dog crate with a few good inches of straw along the bottom. Naturally, one of the commenters started going on about how the cage was too small, and how did she know the fox got scared anyway?

Enter the animal behavior nut, who still has not gotten a response. I tried explaining first of all that if you know an animal and its normal behavior patterns, you also learn to know what abnormal behaviors mean. I don't know about you, but I find it VERY easy to determine when my animal companions are scared. Besides which, it is already a known fact that this particular fox has terrible separation anxiety.

As for the cage, it was plenty big enough for the fox to pace in a circle if she so wished. However, this is not her full time enclosure. This is her sleeping place. Unlike most foxes, this little oddball seems to have synced up to her human momma's diurnal sleep schedule. If anything, that cage is too BIG. Anxious animals tend to like close quarters. It's comforting. In the wild, a fox's den is only really big enough to stand up and turn around in. Even for a denning mother, babies only take up so much space. Sound familiar? Yes, that's exactly the guidelines you are given when picking out a dog crate. The smaller space feels like a den, which is where an animal goes to feel safe. So no, the cage is most certainly not too small for a nighttime sleeping arrangement.

Please, PLEASE, before you try and harass someone about how they keep their animals, take the time to both research what you're talking about, and to find out more about the person. A single video is only a small slice of the day. Trying to accuse people of abuse for things that are not will never help your cause. It diminishes the reality of actual abuse that goes on every day, and worries people that if they vote in favor of anti-abuse laws, that it will also ban perfectly acceptable practices that are misunderstood.



On an unrelated note, I am very proud of Anubis. For months we have been trying to show him that the other two litterboxes in the house are also his to use. Finally after this last time we dumped and hosed them out, he has started using the one in the middle of the house. It only took a few good cleanings and James putting him in it to tell him that he could go to the bathroom there. Part of the issue, we think, was that it smelled so overwhelmingly of Simba that he had written it off as her territory, and someplace he wasn't to go.

Writer's block=repost.

I seem to be at a loss for anything to post lately, so instead I am reposting an entry from an old forgotten blog, posted back in January of 2007.

We had a slight adventure this morning.

Remember how dad and I stuffed the holes in the floor so the mice couldn't get in? Well we stuck glue traps just in case, so I could find out if they were able to get back in.

This morning I caught something.

See, I had gone into the cupboard to get a plastic baggie to take something to work. Wasn't in any rush to shut the door - cat seems afraid of going under there anyway. Go to put my shoes on, and finish with the first. I hear this frantic scraping noise. Get up to go look - it's coming from the cupboard. I duck down to peek inside, and out shoots the cat.

As soon as I noticed the glue trap was gone, I realized what had happened.

So, off I go, chasing the cat across the house with one shoe on. Cat runs into the spare bedroom and under the bed. I follow to try and catch her. Cat runs out of the bedroom - gets one of my shoes stuck to her somehow in addition to the mouse trap, and starts running faster.

The cat loses the shoe somewhere en route to the living room, and hides under a stand. Now that she's cornered I can finally grab her to pull the trap off her foot. Thankfully, these are the ones with what I call "snot glue" on them, rather than the flypaper type stuff, so it's fairly easy just to pull her foot out of the goop, and it sticks to itself so there's not much residue left on her paw.

That was my morning... all before breakfast. And with only one shoe on.

Hopefully my cat will forgive me for laughing at her expense.

Pets and stress

"Into each life a little rain must fall" - or so the saying goes. No matter how well your life is going, there's bound to be some stressful moments. We all have them, and we all need to deal with them in one way or another. But many of us forget how our stress can affect our pets.

James and I are no exception. Both our cats are very good at sensing when something is wrong with either of us, and usually they take it in stride and try to stick by us with purrs and snuggles to try and make it all better. Lately, though, since we both manage to injure ourselves slipping around on the ice and snow, we haven't been able to get out and blow off steam with a good dose of exercise like we normally can. So, naturally, we've taken to ranting a bit while at home to air out complaints in private, whether they be about work, politics, or whatever happens to be going on. Now, this is a normal practice and one most wouldn't think anything of. It's not like we're yelling at or about each other, just grumping about those pet peeves that we can normally just walk off.

The trick comes when you've got a cat who, by our reckoning, seems to have the approximate intelligence of a human toddler. There's a reason most people don't like to let Junior see Mommy and Daddy yelling - it upsets him, and for a kid that young it can be hard to explain. Anubis is very much the same, except for him, it's impossible to explain given that you can't just sit down and have a talk with your cat to tell him what's going on. He may understand a bit of language (no, down, good kitty, food, that sort of thing - especially food, that's the important one), but he has his limits, it's just not within his scope.

Also much like a child, Anubis has a habit of acting out when he is confused and upset. Many animals do, in fact, for various reasons. The problem being that although a child can tell you what's wrong - your pet can't. So when Anubis started chasing after Simba when she was clearly done playing, and trying to play too rough, at first we couldn't understand why he had suddenly stopped being polite. More than this, he was not listening when daddy told him "no", which is a very rare occurrence.

It was just this morning that we discovered the reason, as we had the time to really notice the succession of events. We were having a good rant, raised voices and all and after staring back and forth between us for a moment, Anubis made his way straight toward Simba and started swatting at her. The light bulb turned on. He thought we were yelling at each other. Last time daddy got yelled at by somebody that much, daddy had to move. Besides which, he is used to seeing us quite a bit calmer around each other, so the change was cause for confusion. It was not normal, and not-normal things very often make pets very upset. So when he heard us yelling, he ran off to do something he knew would make daddy come get him. It was a predictable reaction, and one he had some degree of control over, as well as a way of getting attention. Of course, we have no way of explaining to him that we aren't really fighting and that his position in the household is not in danger, so in order to change his behavior, we have to change ours.

So we have decided from now on if there's something worth yelling about, it needs to be done outside of the house as much as possible so Anubis won't go taking his confusion and frustration out on Simba.

That's part of the trick of handling behavior problems in pets - the behavior doesn't always match the cause as much as you might think, you have to do a bit of sleuthing and really figure out what changed around the time the problem started. Sometimes it is as simple as pooping in your shoes because you suddenly started going to work or school every day again after a long time of being home. Sometimes it's more complicated. And from my experience, the smarter your pet is, the more complicated their problems can be, not least of which because they can come up with much more creative ways of getting into trouble.

Yet another overdue cat update

The cats are getting along beautifully now. They even play with each other, which I never thought Simba would do. Even as a kitten she wasn't big on rough-and-tumble play with other cats so this was a pleasant surprise. She's getting real exercise again, and it seems her cystitis has gone away. She's more relaxed than I've seen her in a while, not least of which, I'm sure, because she now has somebody to keep her company when we're not home. Anubis is much the same. He still wants to spend time with daddy, and she still wants to spend time with momma, but they're not as desperate when we first get home now.

Today, though, we had our first miscommunication in a while. Simba seems to have a little bit of a bug - started getting a bit sluggish about the same time we did, when the weather changed to cold quite suddenly. Even indoors she feels it. Well, Anubis wants to play and with Simba not feeling well she kept trying to slink away from him quietly after a minor slap-fight by the box (which by the body language was play - she ran with him a couple times but she can't take much right now so after the little playfight she was done). He wouldn't take the hint - kept trying to chase. He cornered her under the window seat and she hissed at him. I had to remind him that means enough and it's time to be done playing for the night. So she made her way over to me, glanced at him a few times with that look she gives me when she thinks she's upset me and didn't mean to, so I reassured both of them and told him next time to listen when she says she's done. I know that last part sounds silly but he does understand a certain amount of human speech, and the tone clues him in to what I'm getting at if nothing else.

I'm trying to teach Simba now that he's learned her cue for being done with play is jumping onto the arm of the couch and curling up. If she does that he seems to leave her alone.

Overdue Kitty Update

I suppose I owe you an update by now, since it's been a while. Between being busy and being ill (illness being the latest in delays) I haven't had much time to type up a blog post. However the antibiotics have kicked in and I think I'm up to at least offering a brief update on what has been going on.

Firstly, Simba's cystitis seems to have subsided for now, which is a relief. It isn't something that's serious or fatal, but it does cause her pain so of course I hate to see her like that. Thankfully my vet does not seem bothered at all by my requests for news on possible new treatments every time we're in his office. So far it still looks like Diazepam is her best option, though it only really treats the symptom and not the disease.

Simba has stopped hissing at Anubis almost entirely. She will still hiss every so often if he startles her (or runs over her when he has turned the hallways into a racetrack), and we had to chide her for hissing at him the other night without due cause. Well, I'm sure she considered it due cause - we had a large cardboard box sitting in the living room and she decided it belonged to her, and her alone. That was quickly corrected and she (perhaps a bit grudgingly) learned to share.

Anubis is now frequently found asleep on the bed. He and Simba seem to trade places - one on the bed, one on the cedar chest. On rare occasion they will both be on the bed. They have yet to curl up together, but they're coming closer.

It seems they have come to some sort of agreement about acceptable play, too. Rather than pouncing, Anubis has settled for playing something that looks like tag with her across the house. One cat will start poking at the other, at which point the second cat will take off running. They usually only chase back and forth a couple of times, but we're making progress.

All in all they seem very comfortable with each other now. Simba even uses Anubis' litterbox and drinks from his water bowl. I'm pretty sure I've caught Anubis eating from Simba's food bowl once or twice. He regularly goes into the bedroom, she regularly goes into the office - before they were very wary of entering each other's "safe zones". And sometimes when James and I go to sleep at night, Simba retreats to the office and curls up in Anubis' cat carrier, with him sleeping on the chair nearby.

Update on the cats

Anubis and Simba are doing well, aside from a continued flareup of Simba's interstitial cystitis.

She has been to the vet to make sure she hasn't developed an infection, aside from that we just wait. She almost got past it, then the fireworks this weekend shot her stress levels up again so we're back to fighting it. Unfortunately our vet also advised me there is still no research that has shown any promise in prevention of her condition. The issue is apparently cause because the cat has holes in the glucosamine layer along the urinary tract - studies have at least shown this much. However the research also, sadly, shows that simply supplementing glucosamine into the diet does not repair these holes and therefore does not help the issue. He did tell me there is some current research into whether a daily glucosamine cath will help, but even if the research shows promise I don't think I'd ever use that method. Unless they found that a one-time cath of glucosamine would help, it's a matter of the cure being worse than the disease. For now, as much as she hates me scruffing and medicating her, the Diazepam does work.

Unfortunately the cystitis causes pain, and the pain causes Simba to be, I suspect, a bit moodier than she would otherwise be. We were making good strides in getting her to like Anubis, but now she's gotten to where she is confusing the heck out of him. Sometimes she doesn't mine him sitting next to her, sometimes she'll hiss. We're trying to give her a firm "no" anytime she hisses for no good reason (ie: he hasn't startled her or chased her or, his new odd habit, stared at her on the litterbox). We're getting there, but slowly.

It doesn't help that Anubis has decided that with James and I out of the house much of the day, he needs a new playmate, and Simba's it. Now, even as a kitten Simba wasn't much into rolling around playing with the other cats. She likes to play with toys, she likes to snuggle. But she's not big on the pounce-and-play with other kitties. Anubis, on the other hand, likes to roughhouse a bit. He doesn't understand why she keeps hissing at him for pouncing after her. After all, he wants to play, why shouldn't she? Unfortunately his boredom has reached levels where he's jumping out at her on her way to the litterbox, on the way to her food bowl... pretty much all the time if he sees her. Which, of course, means he gets hissed at again. For some reason, though, she's running instead of her normal approach I've seen her use with every other new animal I had in the house - standing her ground and swatting. We're quite convinced that all it would take is one warning swat for him to get the picture, but she just won't swat him. So the learning process is requiring us to catch him in the act and stop him, and make sure he knows we're saying no to him without her thinking we're telling HER no for something. It's all getting rather complex and confusing, but they're both smart cats, we just need to make sure we're consistent. It's not that he's doing anything BAD, just Simba won't scold him properly herself but she clearly wants him to back off, and if he wants to make a friend we have to teach him how to interact a bit more calmly.

See, Anubis has never had a kitty playmate before. Not since he was a kitten himself. So he doesn't really know his manners as well as he probably should. He knows not to be mean, he just doesn't know that other cats don't like to be pounced every second of every day.

On the upside, they have come nose to nose a few times. Once she walked right up and sniffed him while he was sleeping. Simba is still occasionally hissing for no reason (we assume the times she hisses are when she's in more pain), but it's happening less often now. Anubis has gotten brave enough to come into the bedroom once or twice a day now - Simba has yet to start wandering regularly into the office, but we're thinking we may have to carry her in there to get her to realize she's allowed in there again. The other day Simba walked right up to Anubis, they sniffed each other's faces.... then the neighbors shot off a firework and she thought it was his fault. So right back to hissing again. Two steps forward, one step back...

It's a slow process but we're getting there. It'll get better once James isn't interviewing constantly, we stop running around trying to pick up things to organize the house, and we settle into something that resembles routine so both cats can sort of figure out what's going on. Until then it's a little crazy, and they're still both doing much better than expected.

We're just mystified by the fact that the situation is reversed from what we expected. We seriously thought Anubis was the one who would have trouble getting along with another cat...