A Big Fluffy Headbonking Update

Hello, interwebs! Long time no blogging!

Ye Olde Technology Curse kicked me in the pants hardcore, and TBH I didn’t have the technical ability to post anymore! But if this posts, I can blog with my Kindle, huzzah!

So… a lot has happened since I posted last. Let’s start with the hardest part.

Deidre crossed the rainbow bridge in October. She was 15 years old. She was my best friend, and I still cry sometimes when I miss her. She was acting totally normal until the week she passed. At first I thought it was another UTI like she had the year before, but it turned out her kidneys were failing, and her liver too at the end. We tried two days of IVs, but she wasn’t getting any better, wasn’t eating, and was in a lot of pain. I was with her as she passed (our vet hospital has a nice place with couches so you can hold them and feel more comforted). I scattered her ashes in my sacred place in the mountains. Deids is now with me in spirit.

Maggie and Yuan are doing well. They have their ups and downs in the getting along department: on the one hand, Maggie has been Adventure Tortie and going places in the apartment she never went before, like the bathroom counter (really. 6 1/2 years, she never went on that counter until this week!). She has also asserted her right to Sleep With Her Human, whether little brother likes it or not. So now I often wake up with two kitties in bed, which makes me happy.

She has also taken to belleh petting!!!

Which makes me squee. Yuan likes to SHOW OFF his belleh, but don’t pet it… it’s a trap!

^ a trap.

Yuan still has his bullypants moments, but there are things that help. He originally ratcheted down for a while after Deidre passed, as he was now The Undisputed Alpha. But then… I think he wasn’t keen on Maggie joining us in bed. Bed is very important territory. So he started picking on Maggie, and… surprise! Poop and pee in weird places!

The carpet in this apartment needs to be buried in that nuclear waste mountain at this point, I think.

BUT… when I play with Yuan enough that he gets to panting at least once but preferably a few times a day, he picks on Maggie less. So really, it seems to be more of an issue of distracting him and redirecting his energy. You know, to the REAL enemies. Like the business end of wand toys.

(Enter quasi technology curse here; video wasn’t letting me upload the post!)

He’s a very smart kitteh. He knows which end is running that show.

The kitteh superhighway has expanded, and all it needs now is a suspension bridge (yes, a suspension bridge). But even with the bridge missing, it still helps keep peace as only Yuan goes up to the high points, and when he’s up there, Maggie feels free to be a Beach Cat in the middle of the floor without being accosted my Mr. Pouncypants. I think when I finally have some money to make that last link, it will be even better, because then Yuan can on- and offramp on either end, bypassing Maggie if she is on the floor-to-ceiling cat tree (which she often is).

^ still a trap.

We have had moments of peaceful tolerance! I have photographic evidence!

…even the vacuum didn’t deter them!

And in the fluffy kittehs department, they finally settled on ONE food for wet and one for dry (after searching for a long time, trying to go raw, trying to minimize upset tummehs and hairballs), and they have both lost weight (I don’t know exactly how much as I haven’t weighed them in a while, but it’s visible AND I can tell when I lift them). They are NOT on a raw diet (the vet actually told me not to bother with that), they are not getting bored of it and turning up their noses at it (like they did with soooo many foods), Yuan is not having hairballs left and right (Maggie never did), and human and kittehs are happy!

So that’s about it for now! If you are still following this blog, welcome back! If this works I shouldn’t be so derelict about posting in future. 🙂 Yay Kindle!