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lavendertook Sep. 29th, 2006 03:36 am)
lavendertook Sep. 29th, 2006 03:36 am)So, where we left off with my dad's medical situation is that his spinal surgery, which would have been this Tuesday, got canceled last Friday afternoon by the anesthesiologist due to it being too risky because of his heart condition.
This week has been really horrible for my mom and dad--they have spent all of it calling back and forth between the cardiologist's, anesthesiologist's, and neurosurgeon's offices trying to get them to talk to each other and come up with a course of action. The neurosurgeon, and the nurse there, have been available and nice; the anesthesiologist largely unreachable (but the nurse in neurosurgery is changing that); and the cardiologist guarded by a bulldog gatekeeper of an admin asst who is patronizing and gives out false information to get rid of you--she gave my parents the impression yesterday that the catheterization was unnecessary and they don't need their office anymore. According to the anesthesiologist, this is wrong, and we're trusting that one. My parents are prepared to get another cardiologist if need be.
So apparently, the cardiologist and anesthesiologist made contact of some kind yesterday. Today, my parents scored an appointment with the cardiologist for October 5th to discuss a course of action. Why a catheterization is not scheduled for that day we know not, and I'm very pissed about that. Time is of the essence for my dad to get this spinal stricture operated on, and total paralysis is a constant threat for my dad until that is done. Yet, I guess we have to be happy he actually has an appointment of some kind.
Meanwhile, he is still unable to take any pain killers at all--he has to have no pain killers for two weeks before surgery, and since there's no telling when surgery will be, and if this is the case for catheterization as well, we don't know. I didn't want to press my mom on this, but it sounds like they can't get any information on this out of any of them. That he is just sitting there in pain makes me furious.
Scoring the appointment has given us all some ease today. Despite the pain, dad does feel better that things are moving now. Mom really sounds like she's back into her own, despite the fact that her cancer markers are up from the stress--yeah. I've been on the ready to go up there the last few days to help withbusting heads making contact, but I can tell mom really wants to handle it herself and is back to her fighting self, so I'm relaxing on that now. Stress reactions are fun--I've had a weird rash on my arm the past few days and yesterday my cheeks flushed fever hot all day, though I could feel I had no fever. But today, even my foot feels a little better. So I'm not sure if there's going to be anymore progress before next Thursday.
OK, onto my feral cat questions. If you've been reading this LJ, you've been learning more than you wanted to know about the stray cats Moomoo and Tuxie and their Adventures in Domestication and Training of a Proper Human Servant. Moomoo is stray, but she has obviously never been feral and was probably abandoned from a home, due to her comfort with humans and how happy she is to walk into the lobby anytime I invite her. Tuxie may have been born in the wild and started out feral, and is still often very skittish about being petted, but since I was rubbing his belly this evening, I don't think he qualifies as quite feral anymore.
But there's a third cat I haven't mentioned yet. I call this one The Stranger, and this one's a total feral who has been starting to approach me, and I'm trying to determine what I am to this cat, and whether I'm going to need to consider trying to place this one as well.
The Stranger is at least a third bigger than Moomoo and twice Tuxie's size, with a coat that is a transition scheme between Moomoo's and Tuxie's--not quite enough black to be a tuxedo, or with a regular enough pattern, but much less white than Moomoo. There's a good chance this is Tuxie's dad, but I haven't gotten close enough to determine gender, and ze always keeps hir tail down in guarded position. So The Stranger may be father, or momma's girlfriend, or grandma, but there's been some friendly interaction between hir and my two stray managers, so I think they're family.
I'm not taking on The Stranger as my responsibility unless ze becomes more interactive with me or, observably, with my two strays. I have been giving them an extra half cup of cat food so there's a portion left over for The Stranger to get.
What I don't quite understand is hir relationship with me, as we're starting to develop one, and since the Post doesn't have a kitty relationship advice columnist, I'm wondering if any of you, dear flistmates, know anything about ferals and can help me puzzle this. I'm endlessly fascinated by The Stranger's behavior--yeah, I know I should get out more.
I've seen The Stranger occasionally for many months now, long before I saw Moomoo and Tuxie. I've seen hir running around my street, down in the woods past the fire station, in the Co-op parking lot and going up the steps to the Co-Op and Roosevelt Square, so ze has a pretty big territory--almost a mile of varied terrain. On these encounters beyond my apartment building parking lot, The Stranger would see me and run, but hir pauses to observe me before running keep getting slightly longer as ze seems to be starting to recognize me as a silly human who makes ridiculous little kissy sounds towards hir, but does not threaten to approach hir (and ze probably wonders about how far my territory stretches).
But the last few weeks we've been having closer encounters in front of my building when I've been with Moomoo and Tuxie. A few times, The Stranger has paused to watch us from across the parking lot for a few minutes before running away, and a couple times I saw hir by the food bowl with Tuxie and Moomoo when I was across the parking lot from them. A couple weeks ago, The Stranger emerged from under a car and sat by it, while I was playing with Moomoo and Tuxie in front of the building. They saw The Stranger. Moomoo watched hir while Tuxie went right up to hir with a playful bounce and the two of them disappeared for a couple minutes under the car, then Tuxie bounced back to me and Moomoo, but The Stranger left.
A week ago, after I had fed Moomoo and Tuxie across the parking lot and they had eaten their fill, they were following me back to the entrance of my building, where I often sit with them for a little while, pet and play with them. As they were walking with me up the path, I turned and saw the Stranger following us up the path to the door just a couple yards behind. Ze came halfway up the walk, looked at me specifically, meowed a couple of times, then turned and left. During this, I made kissy and greeting sounds, blinked my eyes at hir as cats do when they are signalling to another that they come in peace, and looked away a little mimicking cat non-threatening body posture. Moomoo and Tuxie watched hir with interest but didn't approach hir at all, staying right by me (because they figured I'm not quite right and needed to be watched.)
Tonight was even weirder ("Weirder?" you ask skeptically, considering the description of my "cat-interaction" style and just how I must appear to the neighbors.(-; ) I was kneeling on the stoop in front of my building's entrance, playing string with Tuxie after the rain let up, while Moomoo was halfway down the walk drinking from a puddle. The Stranger came up the path and right up to Moomoo who acted like she didn't notice at all until ze was next to her. She sat up and they touched noses for a prolonged enough period to seem affectionate to me, then Moomoo turned back, walked over to the stoop, and sat down in compact position next to me.
I beckoned to The Stranger with my silly high pitched sounds, stayed half turned away from hir, and, alternately, looked at hir blinking and looked away, trying to be as nonthreatening as possible. The Stranger approached us and came almost within a yard of us and meowed, then turned and went halfway up the path to where ze had greeted Moomoo. Tuxie then marched out to hir, approached hir, then swung a few kitten punches at hir. The Stranger sat up with hir ears back, leaning back a little, but did not strike out at the Puny Twerp. Then Tuxie turned and marched back to us. The Stranger approached again, meowed at me pointedly a couple of times, then trotted away to sit under a car and watched us for a few minutes before running off. As soon as Tuxie came back, he became way more affectionate with me than he's ever been before, rubbing around me and purring for the first time as I petted him--even welcoming a belly rub before he preceded to undo my shoe laces.
So what is all this? Is The Stranger wanting to join us and have a share in a Human Servant of hir very own, or is ze calling me out as hir rival for hir family's affection? This wasn't about food, because the bowl was on the other side of the parking lot. Are hir meows inquiry, timid sociability, challenge, invectives, kvetching, or a narrative of woe because hir therapist is out of town? Was Tuxie playing with a trusted relative when he punched The Stranger, or was he telling hir to get lost and claiming me as territory with his extra affection towards me? Or something else entirely? If I found homes for Moomoo and Tuxie, would The Stranger miss them and be lonely? What do you think? Only time will tell if there's a third cat that I'm going to need to find a home for.
One thing's for sure--spending a little time outside each day with these strays has been the best stress relief for me. I don't get the outside time with my own twobosses kitties--and they tend to absorb my stress and reflect it, poor things--which is another important reason to keep stress levels as low as I can.
I think I see some feral cat research in my future.
This week has been really horrible for my mom and dad--they have spent all of it calling back and forth between the cardiologist's, anesthesiologist's, and neurosurgeon's offices trying to get them to talk to each other and come up with a course of action. The neurosurgeon, and the nurse there, have been available and nice; the anesthesiologist largely unreachable (but the nurse in neurosurgery is changing that); and the cardiologist guarded by a bulldog gatekeeper of an admin asst who is patronizing and gives out false information to get rid of you--she gave my parents the impression yesterday that the catheterization was unnecessary and they don't need their office anymore. According to the anesthesiologist, this is wrong, and we're trusting that one. My parents are prepared to get another cardiologist if need be.
So apparently, the cardiologist and anesthesiologist made contact of some kind yesterday. Today, my parents scored an appointment with the cardiologist for October 5th to discuss a course of action. Why a catheterization is not scheduled for that day we know not, and I'm very pissed about that. Time is of the essence for my dad to get this spinal stricture operated on, and total paralysis is a constant threat for my dad until that is done. Yet, I guess we have to be happy he actually has an appointment of some kind.
Meanwhile, he is still unable to take any pain killers at all--he has to have no pain killers for two weeks before surgery, and since there's no telling when surgery will be, and if this is the case for catheterization as well, we don't know. I didn't want to press my mom on this, but it sounds like they can't get any information on this out of any of them. That he is just sitting there in pain makes me furious.
Scoring the appointment has given us all some ease today. Despite the pain, dad does feel better that things are moving now. Mom really sounds like she's back into her own, despite the fact that her cancer markers are up from the stress--yeah. I've been on the ready to go up there the last few days to help with
OK, onto my feral cat questions. If you've been reading this LJ, you've been learning more than you wanted to know about the stray cats Moomoo and Tuxie and their Adventures in Domestication and Training of a Proper Human Servant. Moomoo is stray, but she has obviously never been feral and was probably abandoned from a home, due to her comfort with humans and how happy she is to walk into the lobby anytime I invite her. Tuxie may have been born in the wild and started out feral, and is still often very skittish about being petted, but since I was rubbing his belly this evening, I don't think he qualifies as quite feral anymore.
But there's a third cat I haven't mentioned yet. I call this one The Stranger, and this one's a total feral who has been starting to approach me, and I'm trying to determine what I am to this cat, and whether I'm going to need to consider trying to place this one as well.
The Stranger is at least a third bigger than Moomoo and twice Tuxie's size, with a coat that is a transition scheme between Moomoo's and Tuxie's--not quite enough black to be a tuxedo, or with a regular enough pattern, but much less white than Moomoo. There's a good chance this is Tuxie's dad, but I haven't gotten close enough to determine gender, and ze always keeps hir tail down in guarded position. So The Stranger may be father, or momma's girlfriend, or grandma, but there's been some friendly interaction between hir and my two stray managers, so I think they're family.
I'm not taking on The Stranger as my responsibility unless ze becomes more interactive with me or, observably, with my two strays. I have been giving them an extra half cup of cat food so there's a portion left over for The Stranger to get.
What I don't quite understand is hir relationship with me, as we're starting to develop one, and since the Post doesn't have a kitty relationship advice columnist, I'm wondering if any of you, dear flistmates, know anything about ferals and can help me puzzle this. I'm endlessly fascinated by The Stranger's behavior--yeah, I know I should get out more.
I've seen The Stranger occasionally for many months now, long before I saw Moomoo and Tuxie. I've seen hir running around my street, down in the woods past the fire station, in the Co-op parking lot and going up the steps to the Co-Op and Roosevelt Square, so ze has a pretty big territory--almost a mile of varied terrain. On these encounters beyond my apartment building parking lot, The Stranger would see me and run, but hir pauses to observe me before running keep getting slightly longer as ze seems to be starting to recognize me as a silly human who makes ridiculous little kissy sounds towards hir, but does not threaten to approach hir (and ze probably wonders about how far my territory stretches).
But the last few weeks we've been having closer encounters in front of my building when I've been with Moomoo and Tuxie. A few times, The Stranger has paused to watch us from across the parking lot for a few minutes before running away, and a couple times I saw hir by the food bowl with Tuxie and Moomoo when I was across the parking lot from them. A couple weeks ago, The Stranger emerged from under a car and sat by it, while I was playing with Moomoo and Tuxie in front of the building. They saw The Stranger. Moomoo watched hir while Tuxie went right up to hir with a playful bounce and the two of them disappeared for a couple minutes under the car, then Tuxie bounced back to me and Moomoo, but The Stranger left.
A week ago, after I had fed Moomoo and Tuxie across the parking lot and they had eaten their fill, they were following me back to the entrance of my building, where I often sit with them for a little while, pet and play with them. As they were walking with me up the path, I turned and saw the Stranger following us up the path to the door just a couple yards behind. Ze came halfway up the walk, looked at me specifically, meowed a couple of times, then turned and left. During this, I made kissy and greeting sounds, blinked my eyes at hir as cats do when they are signalling to another that they come in peace, and looked away a little mimicking cat non-threatening body posture. Moomoo and Tuxie watched hir with interest but didn't approach hir at all, staying right by me (because they figured I'm not quite right and needed to be watched.)
Tonight was even weirder ("Weirder?" you ask skeptically, considering the description of my "cat-interaction" style and just how I must appear to the neighbors.(-; ) I was kneeling on the stoop in front of my building's entrance, playing string with Tuxie after the rain let up, while Moomoo was halfway down the walk drinking from a puddle. The Stranger came up the path and right up to Moomoo who acted like she didn't notice at all until ze was next to her. She sat up and they touched noses for a prolonged enough period to seem affectionate to me, then Moomoo turned back, walked over to the stoop, and sat down in compact position next to me.
I beckoned to The Stranger with my silly high pitched sounds, stayed half turned away from hir, and, alternately, looked at hir blinking and looked away, trying to be as nonthreatening as possible. The Stranger approached us and came almost within a yard of us and meowed, then turned and went halfway up the path to where ze had greeted Moomoo. Tuxie then marched out to hir, approached hir, then swung a few kitten punches at hir. The Stranger sat up with hir ears back, leaning back a little, but did not strike out at the Puny Twerp. Then Tuxie turned and marched back to us. The Stranger approached again, meowed at me pointedly a couple of times, then trotted away to sit under a car and watched us for a few minutes before running off. As soon as Tuxie came back, he became way more affectionate with me than he's ever been before, rubbing around me and purring for the first time as I petted him--even welcoming a belly rub before he preceded to undo my shoe laces.
So what is all this? Is The Stranger wanting to join us and have a share in a Human Servant of hir very own, or is ze calling me out as hir rival for hir family's affection? This wasn't about food, because the bowl was on the other side of the parking lot. Are hir meows inquiry, timid sociability, challenge, invectives, kvetching, or a narrative of woe because hir therapist is out of town? Was Tuxie playing with a trusted relative when he punched The Stranger, or was he telling hir to get lost and claiming me as territory with his extra affection towards me? Or something else entirely? If I found homes for Moomoo and Tuxie, would The Stranger miss them and be lonely? What do you think? Only time will tell if there's a third cat that I'm going to need to find a home for.
One thing's for sure--spending a little time outside each day with these strays has been the best stress relief for me. I don't get the outside time with my own two
I think I see some feral cat research in my future.
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Tuxie's attitude may have a mix of play and 'all her attention are belong to me!'. One of my tame cats is horrible for that. He tries to shove the other cats away, especially the males. That makes me think Stranger's a boy. Oz will push Xena away sometimes, but he's terrible about getting rid of Joxer, the other 'alpha' male cat. However, Oz gets along fine with Joxer.
From:
He's a gorgeous kitty.
Well, last night I saw a fourth cat. This one isn't family because when Tuxie and Moomoo spotted hir, they didn't want to go near hir and I could tell they were on alert. I spotted hir making a bee line for the food dish area while my strays and I were sitting on the stoop playing. We went over closer to the food bowl to investigate and ze slipped behind a car. I did your trill--so thank you--and after a few minutes, ze came out around by the front of the car to observe us. Moomoo and Tuxie sat down beside me alertly watching. I guess due to the company I was keeping, after a few minutes, ze decided I was no threat and went back to the bowl. I led Moomoo and Tuxie back to the stoop and we didn't see the other cat go by again.
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Bitten would also play box him (still does this) like you described Tuxie doing. She wasn't trying to chase him away, she was just establishing (as far as we know) that we were primarily Her Humans. She'll still grab him and assert her ownership of the humans. Mirandaflynn suggested the "all her attention are belong to me!" attitude... I have to agree with her.
Our cats came from a small group which has slowly thinned down. They're the Owned Cats now, while the others have been killed on the highway, simply stopped coming around, or were possibly picked up by neighbors. They would display affection and aggression towards the other cats from their group. Sometimes they would all be in the yard. Other times, Bitten would be chasing them off the property. I'm not sure if she misses the other cats, or if they miss her and Puck. It's possible that Tuxie, Moomoo, and Stranger are a part of a group like this... loose knit, from a common area. They know eachother but aren't as attached as Kitty Companions can be. Stranger might be ok with Moomoo and Tuxie get adopted, but I don't think (from knowing PuckPuck) that Stranger would be an ideal adopt because his behavior is always going to be off kilter from a normal housecat.
-shrugs- Good luck getting them adopted and figuring out the mystery of Stranger.
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From:
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Just wanted to let you know that I'm on LJ now.
Talk to you later.
Gloria
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Here's an entry with links to some kitty icons, if you're looking for some user icons to start off with:
http://community.livejournal.com/cat_adoration/1648531.html?nc=1&style=mine
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Happy, happy, joy, joy
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Re: Happy, happy, joy, joy