Such a good boy

Simon is the good cat. (We like Johnny too, but he is better behaved at home than he is in public.)

Simon is the cat who goes to the nursing home. He's the cat who donates blood. He's the cat who doesn't mind his harness and isn't too whiny in the car.

So I volunteered him to "help" at open house this weekend. The student chapter of the American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP), aka "The Cat Club," had a booth at which they wanted to have some live, well-behaved cats that kids could pet and also listen to their hearts with a stethoscope.

Like going to the nursing home, I wasn't entirely sure how Simon would do, but I offered to bring him anyway under the assumption that they could keep him out if he wasn't stressed and was being friendly, and just put him in his carrier somewhere out of the way if he got tired or crabby.

Well, reportedly he was an awesome little guy! The volunteers said he was a good cat, friendly and sociable for the full two hours of his "shift."

At the end of the two hours, they put him in a cage in the ward where he usually hangs out on blood donation days.

Before my last tour yesterday, I had a couple minutes for a break so I went to check and see how he was doing back there. I think I have to not do that sort of thing, because he had been fine until I checked on him, he was happy to see me, but then I got reports that he became crabby after that. I think he gets sad if I go see him and he thinks he gets to go home, but then he really has to stay longer.

Poor guy... but he is such a trooper!

Poop? Doesn't anyone want this poop?

Over spring break, I brought Johnny into Community Practice at the VTH for his check-up and vaccines. (He was sort of a brat about it.)

I had them run some bloodwork just to be safe (all came back normal) and they wanted to do a fecal sample as well.

Johnny is an uncooperative pooper, in that he won't let you get a sample from him, and I could leave him at the hospital all day and he still wouldn't pee or poop away from home unless it had been like 24 hours or longer.

So I brought home a little sample container to get a fresh sample from him to drop off before class someday.

It took almost a month before he cooperated enough with his poop timing such that I could actually get a fresh sample. But, at long last, he timed one just right for me to bring it in yesterday when I went to open house.

The student that saw him at Community Practice in March and gave me the sample cup also gave me a lab form (filled out) and told me to just drop both of them off at the front desk.

So yesterday morning, I dutifully walked up to the front desk with the form and Johnny's poop (in the cup, in a Ziploc bag), and asked them if they could take it.

I was met with looks of mild horror.

(I think they were pretty confused because I was wearing my blue student coat, so they may have thought I was a junior or senior and should know what I was doing. Not so!)

Two of the reception ladies sort of muttured back and forth for a minute, then one of them said to me, "OH! Is it for Community Practice?"

"Yes!" I replied, relieved and assuming I would soon no longer be standing at the desk like an idiot holding some poop.

"Well," they said, "maybe you should just take it back to Community Practice then."

"Okay...." I said.

"Because otherwise all we'll do is page them and they'll have to come get it," the receptionist finished.

"Okay, thanks," I answered, and headed back toward Community Practice (which happens to be about as far from the front desk as you can get, and seems 10 times farther when the halls are clogged with inquisitive second-graders).

I finally battled my way to Community Practice, only to find it completely unoccupied save for one doctor I didn't recognize who was sitting in the back room drinking some coffee.

"I have a poop sample," I began. "I tried to bring it to the front desk but they asked me to drop it off with you."

The poor doctor also looked rather repulsed.

"Um..." he stalled, "maybe you should take it out to the diagnostic lab?"

"Even though it's for Community Practice?" I inquired.

"Yes," he decided.

"Okay, thanks," I answered, and ventured back into the halls, again dragging myself and the poop sample through hordes of little kids.

On my way into the diagnostic lab, I passed some people leaving who looked like they worked there and/or knew what I should do.

"Excuse me," I started, "I'm a sophomore and I don't really know how this works, but I need to drop off a poop sample for my cat. Do you know where I can leave it?"

"Try the window up there on the left," one of them replied before they scurried away from me and the poop.

"Okay, thanks," I answered, and headed deeper into the lab.

I stepped cautiously up to the unoccupied window to which I had been directed, and soon somebody appeared and offered a cautious, "Can I help you?"

"Sorry to bother you," I said, "but I'm trying to figure out where I drop off this fecal sample. Do I leave it with you?"

"Oh, no," she replied. "Take it to that other window over there."

"Okay, thanks," I answered, and headed back the way I came in.

Finally, at long last, I had found the correct window! But would they take the poop sample?

"Hi," I started, trying to keep the beleaguered tone to a minimum. "I'm a sophomore vet student, and I brought my own cat into Community Practice a few weeks ago for his shots, and they wanted to do a fecal test, so they sent me home with this form and a sample cup, and I have a fresh sample, and all I need is a fecal float, and the student that saw my cat told me just to drop it off at the front desk, but the front desk told me to bring it to Community Practice, and Community Practice told me to bring it to the diagnostic lab, so here I am, and I hope I'm in the right place!"

"Okay," she said suspiciously. "I guess I can take that for you. You said you're a sophomore?"

Exhausted, I nodded.

"That's so weird," she said. "I've never had somebody do it that way before. That's not at all the way they are supposed to do this sort of thing. The student didn't even write their name on the form. Why don't YOU write your name as the student on this patient's case?"

Already late for my tour guide shift, I did as asked, hoping she would just take the poop so I could leave.

"All right, I can run that for you," she finally said.

"Okay, thanks!" I answered, and headed on my way.

The infamous two-bodied, one-headed cat

I love this picture of Johnny & Simon. Sometimes it seems like they only have one brain between the both of them!

Monkeys: Business as usual

Okay, so people have been nagging me about wanting to know what the monkeys have been up to lately. Be prepared for a lot of info! :-)

Johnny & Simon have been good little troopers with handling lots of changes in their environment and routine.

1. They spent 5 days alone over Thanksgiving with a daily check-in by one of my classmates.

2. Three days after we got back, we picked up foster cat Daisy, who stayed till mid-December.

3. Two days after Daisy was adopted (great home, by the way), we had a visit from mother/father/brother-in-law.

4. Two days after the in-laws left, J&S got to spend another 5 days alone with a pet-sitter once a day while we were in Minnesota.

5. After we got back from MN, they had to put up with me hanging around the house constantly for 2 more weeks until my spring semester started.

6. Finally, a period of relative calm! That is, until...

7. Lucy arrived for a visit in late February.

8. Two weeks of peace, and then....

9. Dad arrived for a visit this past week!

The cats act a little put-out when their routine is disrupted - especially when somebody else is staying in the house. With all of our human guests, as well as foster cat Daisy, J&S have been kicked out of "their" bedroom (the guest bedroom) where they like to lounge on the bed in the sun, sleep at night, and hide in the box springs. They are thus relegated to snoozing on the couch downstairs. (Yep, it's a pretty rough life.)

Simon went to the VTH in early January for a rabies vaccine. He was such a good boy - he is quiet in the car, doesn't protest the carrier, cooperates for his exam, and even tolerated me stopping for gas, groceries, and to return a DVD on our way home. I felt it was nice to give him a bit of a respite and remind him that it isn't EVERY time that he goes in his carrier in the car that he has to stay at the VTH for the entire day and get needles poked in him and be knocked out and feel loopy for the whole afternoon.

In late February, Simon got to make his "therapy cat" debut at a Fort Collins nursing home. I honestly had no idea how he would do - I thought he would be ok but was entirely prepared for the possibility that he would totally flip out.

In the end, he tolerated it. I don't know that he really enjoyed being there, but we had no hissing, scratching, growling, biting, etc., he came out of his carrier willingly, didn't try to get off his harness/leash, and didn't try to run away after the first couple minutes. There was only 1 other cat there and no dogs, so that wasn't an issue. I held him in my arms for the residents to pet, and when he got antsy, I let him walk around on his own on his leash. I'll probably bring him back again when they do their next visit, and hopefully he'll be even better on the second visit.

Yesterday, I brought Johnny to the VTH for his annual exam and vaccines. He got to have both a rabies and an FVRCP, and he got dewormed and had a chemistry panel and CBC and got sent home with a sterile sample container to bring back a fecal sample -- all courtesy of a new "pet wellness plan" the VTH is offering, which is normally $99/year ($59 with my vet student discount) and included the exam/vaccines/deworming/fecal and I still get my 40% discount on the bloodwork which I was going to do anyway. Plus if I bring him in any time in the next 12 months, he gets additional discounts on his exams and more bloodwork/fecals if he needs them.

It's been a year and a half since I brought Johnny to the VTH (a year since I brought him to a local Windsor clinic for shots), and I guess I have just been bringing Simon so many times that I forgot what a wuss Johnny is.

First of all, Johnny doesn't like riding in the car. (Actually, to clarify, he doesn't like riding in the car on the way to the vet.) He meowed pretty much constantly for the entire 35 minute drive (or at least I assume he did - I turned up the radio so I wouldn't have to listen to him).

We got to the VTH a little early for his appointment, and community practice was running late, so we sat in the lobby for about 20 minutes before they called us. (I am used to this, fortunately, so knew to bring a book.) But poor Johnny was just totally freaked out, and was shivering (nervous shivers) so hard that he was shaking his carrier on the bench next to me. Poor little dude!

He was mildly reluctant to exit his carrier once we got into an exam room, and didn't want me to hold him -- he preferred to pace around the room and check things out. He was a little squirmy for his exam, but nothing too terrible. Amazingly, he even tolerated a rectal temperature (for the most part)!

After the senior student got his history and did his physical, she took him back to the community practice rounds room to consult with the clinician, get his blood, and vaccinate him. She told me it would be "about 20 minutes," to which I thought, "Ha!" and said, "Okay, I'll be in the lobby."

Forty-five minutes later, Johnny was back, and not looking much happier. As predicted, his blood draw was pretty much a repeat performance of his last bloodwork 18 months ago -- no aggression but lots of squirming and knocking the needle out of his vein at the last minute, multiple veins used, and a nice hematoma on his leg from wriggling around. He really doesn't like to be restrained. At least this time I knew to warn them in advance to watch out for his anal glands.

Poor Johnny finally figured out how to get under the towel in his carrier and buried his face there for the remainder of our visit and checking out.

He was remarkably happier on the car ride home - perked up, not a peep out of him, and gave his shaved neck as thorough a bath as he could physically manage before settling in for a nap. Simon also saw to it that Johnny received a thorough bath once he got home.

So everybody is vaccinated, as healthy as they usually are, and back to a normal routine for awhile. Simon doesn't go in to donate blood until late April. Lord willing, Johnny doesn't have to go in again till next spring. We aren't expecting more houseguests for two or possibly one more month.

That means they can get back into their usual routine of kicking litter all over the place, pulling dish towels up the stairs every night, shredding toilet paper when they're bored during the day, and generally being annoying, albeit charming and loveable, little cats.

Business as usual

The bedroom door must not have been closed all the way when CLH left for work this morning, because I was awakened by Simon marching across the pillow over my head. When I sat up to shoo him away, I promptly noticed Johnny sitting, quite contentedly, on top of the dresser. Sigh.

Now downstairs eating breakfast and checking email. I just found Simon standing with two of his feet in the several inches of water in the big pot we keep on top of the garbage can. Johnny is trying to steal the toast crumbs off of my plate.

But hey, life would be so dull without cats!

New monkey!

"Monkey Business" has been temporarily expanded to include a third monkey.

Introducing....

Miss "Daisy"!

(Technological difficulties. Use your imagination to insert a cute picture here.)

"Daisy," as we are calling her, has been living as a stray outside my vet school friend TR's condo in Fort Collins for 6-9 months. With the recent drop in temperatures, Daisy finally got smart and started asking people to let her inside.

TR took pity on poor miss Daisy and took her in. The only catch is, TR has two English springer spaniels that think cats are great. Very tasty.

So Daisy lived in TR's bathroom for about a week, coming out to enjoy the house only when the dogs were in the backyard. Things clearly weren't going to work out with both a cat and the dogs living in the same house, so I offered to bring Daisy home for awhile, depending on how she did with Johnny & Simon.

I went over to TR's house after school on Monday to meet Daisy and bring her home. At TR's house, she was just the sweetest thing - snuggling, cuddling, purring, and generally sweet and adorable.

(If you want to know how sweet she is, consider this: In my 16 months of knowing TR, I have never once heard her make a positive comment about any cat. But she told me that she actually wished she could keep Daisy, if only her dogs wouldn't eat poor Daisy.)

We loaded Daisy into one of my carriers (Daisy dislikes riding in the car and chewed her way through TR's cardboard cat carrier on the way to and from the vet) and set her up in the car.

All was fine. For about a block.

Then Daisy threw what I can best describe as a hissy fit. Think of a 2 or 3 year old kid having a total, all-out, screaming, kicking, writhing tantrum. She yowled, cried, reached her arms through the bars and tried to destroy the upholstery, threw herself onto her side and her back, kicked the carrier... you get the idea.

I thought there was some hope for a peaceful drive home when we finally got onto I-25. Daisy shut up and sat still for about 2 miles, but started up again with the tantrum for the last 4 miles of freeway, plus the 10 minutes into Windsor.

Since then, she's been calmer, although not entirely much calmer. It took her a couple days to settle in and get used to her surroundings.

She now has a ravenous appetite, is less wary of Johnny & Simon, knows she is not supposed to be up on the kitchen counters, and has torn her way into the mattress in the guest bedroom so she can have a cozy place to hide and sleep.

Johnny is getting along with her pretty well. He is intrigued and curious about her, and not exactly sure what to think. He tends to keep his distance and takes her cues pretty well (i.e. backs off when she hisses at him).

Simon is feeling more combative. He will hiss at her and tussle with her if they are out together. He's gotten better in just a few days but they are still kept separate.

Daisy is a cute little brown tabby girl, 1-2 years old and about 7 pounds. She is such a little thing compared to Johnny & Simon - makes them look like cartoonishly large, slow, lumbering catosaurs. She moves at the speed of lightning and is excellent at sneaking through doors when you least expect it. She needs to keep busy and hates being cooped up in the bedroom alone. She uses the litterbox just fine but has absolutely no house manners - she sees nothing wrong with being up on the kitchen counters, bathroom counters, kitchen table, bookshelves, dresses, computer desks, TV table, etc. It really makes me realize how "good" our two monkeys are in comparison (of course, she just hasn't learned what's appropriate and what's not).

TR has posted a couple ads on Craigslist looking for a home for Daisy, and we've had some interest. Maybe the best possibility is an acquaintance of a vet school classmate who is looking to adopt a cat. I've talked to a couple sketchy people who may need to look elsewhere. TR got Daisy vaccinated, dewormed, and FeLV/FIV tested, but we don't know if she's spayed. (She was a little, erm, fractious at the VTH so they couldn't shave her to look for a spay scar.) We'll probably end up taking her to the Fort Collins spay-neuter clinic to be spayed (or make sure she already is) and microchipped.

She is a good little girl, but a little wild and in need of attention. It is not the best set up for her to be locked up in a bedroom by herself most of the time, but I guess it's better than being frozen (temps got down to zero last night) or eaten by a pair of springers!

Cross your fingers

Tonight, we put up, for the very first time, a full-sized artificial Christmas tree. It has no lights or ornaments yet, and we are hoping it will still be standing in the morning after spending the night alone in the living room with the cats. Send happy thoughts our way!