Ride of the Rohirrim: Immune System Edition

[lavendertook]

I've been down with a cold the past week--sore spotty throat, congestion, and tiredness, though I think it was incubating for at least a week beforehand. Then my immune system decided to launch a lightning strike on the micro-aggressors and lifted my temperature almost 5 degrees F--from 97.8 to 102.2--in a little more than the space of a half hour early last evening--thanks guys for the fun ride!

I had taken my temp before I ran a couple of errands, and then started feeling chills as I drove home, which became dizziness as I was parking and trying to get in my groceries. My temp went down over the course of the evening with some aspirin, and down to my usual sub-standard norm of 96.0 this afternoon--my body does not believe in burning more calories than it absolutely has to. I feel better today except for tiredness and my lungs trying to figure out what to do with all the phlegm that got dumped in them last evening. I'm hoping mucinex and vitamins will take care of that in the next couple of days. When I first went to bed with the fever last evening, Saki came up and held my hand between her paws and laid her head on top, and purred me to sleep, so I do have a good nurse watching over me.

So I've been sleeping a lot and am more behind on commenting than even usual and hope to get to them soon--please bear with me, dear flisties. I did make it to the TTT and RotK EE showings, and enjoyed them, though the last is a bit long when you're not feeling well. And meh, I'm missing some pretty days. But the nice part of being unemployed is I can stay home and sleep this off entirely, instead of having to trudge into work still down with it--never had enough leave time to do otherwise--so yay for that.

Comments

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Not fun, but much better than slogging to work sick. I'm just living a cat's life right now. Thank you, hon. I am getting better.

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Your icon reminds me: are you still getting lots of kitty kisses and cats for nap buddies? Cat love helps me a lot when I'm recovering. Saki sounds like a good nurse, I meant to say, but don't you have another cat?

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

I am. (-: I have 2 more--their icons are up on my dreamwidth account where I have more icons. Moo the Cow Kitty and her son Tuxie Tinuviel Proudfoot, who is getting to be much more of a cuddler now that he is 5 and is settling into adulthood--he's snuggled beside me on the couch right now.

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Boy, there's a strong resemblance between mother and son; not their colouring but their features. I remember pics of Tuxie, now that I see him again, but not of Moo. I love the captions for your photos. :)

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

They play well together but they don't cuddle at all. Once Tuxie reached 6 months, Moo washed her paws of this mothering business, and foisted him off on Saki, who thought he was the cutest thing she ever saw and would walk tails entwined with him, until he got bigger than her and pushed her around a little too much. He still adores his Saki, but she usually keeps her distance, except for occasionally giving in and grooming him, and they do sometimes sleep closer together when it's winter. But he is a bit of an oaf and he does punch and chase her sometimes, though it's getting less of late, so Saki has reason to shun him. I hope he'll grow completely out of that and maybe learn to groom back, and maybe she'll feel safe enough to cuddle with him more so they can be close again.

Here's when Tuxie was a kitten and they were strays before I took them in. Moo wasn't much more than a kitten herself then.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

And thank you--I'm glad they entertain you. (-:

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm a big appreciator of cat antics. A good thing, too, since we have to endure ("be delighted by") so many. Ours, unlike yours, are bosom buddies, but they're virtual litter mates. When we had four cats a few years back, we adopted the grown mother of litter mate brothers, which we had got to be companions to an older cat whose litter mate brother had just died. The grown mother did not remember her sons or they her, but your story of Moo and Tuxie makes me think it wouldn't have altered things if she had. A dominant cat, very extroverted and sociable, very affectionate, she cozied right up to our older cat, who loved her as a grooming and bed-buddy. The two younger cats were still in their can't-sit-still years. Although she was only eighteen months older than they, her attitude towards her sons was decidedly bossy. She slept with them, groomed them, but they had to do what she wanted and not the other way around. If they tried playing with her when she didn't feel like it, get in the basket with her and the older cat when she didn't want them in there, she'd put her ears back and slap them around with intent. She didn't break the skin, but I am sure they could tell she was Seriously Displeased. If they were desperate for company they'd just put up with it until she gave up and let them get close. Otherwise they'd slink off and try again later. The foursome was endlessly amusing to us. Sounds like your three keep you entertained, too.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

They do. They are definitely a little family. There are no real fights, just occasional swats and hisses. I worry over them too much when something is out of synch. I always want them to get along better and worry if everyone is getting all the love they need. And it varies--they change over time and go through phases, so there's no telling how they will be relating to each other next year.

Saki needs to own me more than Moo and Tuxie do and is very much like my familiar. While Moo chose me and worked hard to make me her human when still stray, Tuxie became very much Saki's cat and still wants to be, but is more becoming mine, or accepting me as his main affection source as Saki keeps her distance from him.

In my experience, siameses behave almost like a different species from other American domestic cats. It seems to me that I would need to acquire another human before having a two siamese household, and that each needs their own human, but that may not be true of all siameses. You've lived in a 4 siamese to 3 human household though--how did that go? Were their rivalries rough for them? I grew up in my family of 4 in a one siamese household twice in a row, then we got brother and sister siamese kittens, and then they died and my mom and brother got a pair of siamese sisters.

And yeah, there is no telling about the grown mother cat you got and how her relationship with her sons might have evolved. Every cat relationship is different, it seems, and can change when you least expect it. How are Elsa and Charles getting on?

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

I have found having multiple Siamese is fine if they have shared bonds. As a single person I had two Siamese cats, different ages, and they became real companions only after several years. The older one, who was bored, which is why I got the second, was jealous of the younger one. The next time I got two kittens at the same time, which worked excellently. We have done that since then, and whether we have had two, three of four cats, it has worked for us to add kittens in pairs. Otherwise a kitten tends to make an older cat fed up, kittens are so rambunctious. When we have two kittens, they play with each other and spend down time with the older cat, which is what the older cat likes. Once the kittens have grown up, they have become companions with the older cat, not just tolerated. I think our cats are extra well bonded, too, because they sleep in their own room at night (my husband, cat lover that he is, can't sleep well if cats are on the bed). I think, over time, sharing the same bedroom leads them to learn to sleep together, making them that more companionable at any time of the day.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you have this cat dynamic thing down. (-: My parents got our cats from breeders and ads in the paper, and they've gotten pairs, but I'd say the results have been more mixed. Of the brother and sister pair they had, the brother grew much bigger and half the time they'd curl up companionably together, and half the time they would fight more than play, and he'd often get overly rough with her. The pair of sisters they have now don't curl up together or spend much time together. I've always gotten shelter cats or strays, and will probably continue to. When the fireworks went off the other night, I found all three of them gathered near each other in the bedroom, so they definitely regard each other as family and can find comfort in each other, and despite their times of aggravation and rivalry, I think they each do get something more positive out of being together, luckily.

[mechtild.livejournal.com]

My neighbors have a shelter kitty. He is a total DOLL. Don't know how he'd do with another cat, though. He's Number One over there.