Cats on Tuesday...

For more cat news visit Gattina's Cats on Tuesday...

As you may recall last week I had to take Mrs Pod to the vets.  She has ear problems yet again.  The vet put her on antibiotics which unfortunately made Mrs P very sick (on checking her notes it was then realised that the same antibiotics had the same result on her back in February).  A new lot of antibiotics were prescribed which then also started to make her sick.  Yesterday it got worse - poor old Mrs P was turning around in circles, her legs were going stiff... she was not a well kitty.  We took her to the out of hours vet (why do these things happen on a Bank Holiday?) who decided to take her off all antibiotics at the moment and give her ear drops instead.  She couldn't be sure the turning circles thing etc was down to the tablets, or balance problems caused by her ears, or kidney problems as she's lost quite a bit of weight (although she's been so sick she hasn't felt like eating much so I can't say I'm surprised).  The vet said she might have to have her inner ears cleaned out (they do this by making an incision in the ear drum - ouch) to get rid of any nasty bacteria there, and she also mentioned having her head x-rayed to see what's going on inside the ears.  Personally I think the circling thing was down to a reaction to the tablets (I looked it up on the internet and found out that too high a dose could cause neurological problems).  Mrs P is rather subdued but still eating although not with as much enthusiasm as she usually does, and she won't touch her biscuits.  Please send healing vibes and purrs for her. I'm going to pop into the vets on the way to work and find out where we go from here - and also what the bill from yesterday was!!!

Mrs P has an angry at the vets...

A birthday - I haz one, and Cats on Tuesday (a day late)...

Yes, today is my birthday and I have the day off work.  Hurrah!  For my birthday treat we went to the RSC last night to see Patrick Stewart in The Merchant of Venice.  It was superb, the first time I've seen it performed so that you can tell it's a comedy.  It was set in Las Vegas and had a casino, showgirls, American accents, and a singing Elvis impersonator.  Just brilliant!  

And now to cats on Tuesday Wednesday.  This week Pepper decided to attack Charlie, and Charlie being Charlie attacked her back and scratched her face.  She's still sulking.  Posky has also been sulking because his favourite vet Linda, who does the acupuncture, is on holiday so he can't go to see her until next Friday and is limping whenever he thinks anyone is watching him.  That means that only Mrs Pod and Charlie were the cat representatives willing to help unwrap cards and presents this morning.  Well, not so much help as stick their noses and paws in.

At first Mrs P just supervised...

Then decided to get personally involved...

... at which point Charlie decided that ribbon would look better on him

Charlie shows that man cats really can wear pink...

And finally... I almost forgot to say, Helen, Cath and myself completed the charity walk for Rainbows Hospice on Sunday.  There were over 600 walkers taking part (including a real parrot, and a West Highland Terrier being carried in a rucksack) and we had great fun.  Here is a rather bad photo taken on my phone of Cath and Helen pre-walk.  Five minutes earlier and the photo would have been of them stuffing their faces with cupcakes.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday...

It's been ages since I took part in the Scavenger Hunt, so thought I'd give it a go.  These aren't the most original shots I've ever taken for the Scavenger Hunt but what the heck!

'Give me flowers..' 

(I so want to write 'or else...!' after that)

These are hyacinths in a pot in Cath's garden

'Visual Contrast'

Small cat, big garden, or black and white cat amidst greenery - take your pick.

This is Cath's cat Henry in her garden

(you can sense a theme developing here can't you?).

'Friendship'

I used this in the previous post on Pusskins, but I like it

so much I thought I'd get some more mileage out of it.

'Before and After', and 'Dark'

I thought I would cunningly combine these two titles in one.

It's a pic of Charlie and is woefully underexposed in the original as I had

to be quick when I took it (hence the 'Dark' title!).

Through the magic of using RAW files I was able to lighten it, then I turned it 

into a b&w image and cloned out the scratch on his nose.

Pets Forever and Cats on Tuesday - A bit of a sad photo shoot...

Some of you may remember me mentioning my friend Cath's cat Pusskins who had his leg amputated late last year.  Well, he's recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer and will probably only live a few more months.  It's so sad as he's come through being a stray, the problems with his leg and also having a tumour removed from his neck.  Cath asked me to take some photos of him that she could have framed, so yesterday afternoon we had great fun in her garden with me prone on the concrete slabs trying to get some shots of her two errant cats (the other one is called Henry and is a bit camera shy).  Pusskins is fine at the moment, he doesn't look or feel ill, isn't in any pain, and lives life to the full.  These are a few of the 120 pictures I took! He's a bit of a star.

Linked to Bozo's Pets Forever meme and also Gattina's Cats on Tuesday :O)

Cats on Tuesday

First of all some non-cat news.  We've put our house up for sale! Please keep your fingers etc crossed that someone wants to buy it quickly as we've already seen a house we'd like to buy.  

And in the world of rabbits... Ben had another dental yesterday.  He only has three teeth and one of his molars grows like a spike hence the problems he has.  The anaesthetic really knocked him about this time and he was wobbling all over the place last night.  That at least has now stopped but he's still very tired and not eating yet so I'm syringe feeding him some mud-like liquid food at the moment.  Again - fingers and paws being crossed for him would be appreciated.

The only cat-worthy news is that Charlie lost another collar.  A nice man a few streets away phoned us to say he'd found it in his garden along with quite a lot of fur where two cats had had been belting the hell out of each other.  Charlie now has a scratch on his nose which I'd usually clone out of his photos but have left as evidence of his devilishness.

Poor old Ben feeling very sorry for himself...

Mrs P looking bright eyed (and bushy tailed - but you can't see that end)...

Charlie and the scratch...

Visit Cats on Tuesday for more kitty pics!

Cats on Tuesday - Posky had acupuncture!

Posky went for his first acupuncture treatment last night with a very nice Vet called Linda.  He was an absolute star and didn't make a murmur the whole time, just lay there and lapped up all the fuss he was getting.  Linda explained that because they don't know how individual animals will react to the treatment, the first time they only use a minimum of needles.  Posky had about eight that went over his shoulders and over the base of his spine.  We were rather worried that he seemed so quiet on the journey back, but once home he wolfed down a dish of food and seemed none the worse for his adventure.  In fact after a while I said to David that he looked perkier and seemed to be walking more easily, and David said he'd been thinking the same thing.  Posky goes back for a second treatment next week - so far we're really pleased with how it's gone.  I took a few photos but they're not brilliant as I wanted to concentrate on making sure Posky didn't get stressed, but you can see how chilled-out he looks!

Imprisoned in the cat carrier waiting to go in...

You can just see the white ends of the needles in his fur... 

What a star!

For more cat posts visit Cats on Tuesday.