Bully cat

I am being bullied by a cat. This morning, I slept in past my usually 7:30 a.m. on the weekends and at 7:45 a.m. my famished, starving-to-death obese cat Ozzy demanded I get up and feed him breakfast. (How dare I keep him waiting!?)  He did this by sitting on my chest (he weights 15+ pounds) and kneading my sweatshirt with his super sharp claws until I got up.

I did get up and feed the cat breakfast. I just wasn't happy about it.

#nothappy, #feedmenow, #mornings, #bully, #bullycat

Guard duty

Gunnar has tasked himself with keeping my sweaters safe. He really likes these shelves. He likes to sit on my sweaters and watch me work on my computer.

He also likes to jump on top of these shelves and keep an eye out from this angle. It always makes me nervous. One night, I was on the phone with my sister and he hopped in one of those shopping bags and started to shift his weight forward. I ran and got the shopping bag down before he fell. Crazy cat.

10 things about Ozzy

Ozzy's been living with us for over six months now, so I thought we'd describe our fuzzy cat.

Before.

After

10 things we know about Ozzy

1. He is not the skinny short-haired cat we first took in. Get a few good meals in him and he's practically Paul Bunyon size. He's a large cat (15+ pounds).
2. He has long hair. (I've never actually had a long haired cat before.)
3. He's a talker. And he has a static-y, marbled sounding meow. Like nothing I've ever heard before. (Part of the reason for the name Ozzy, is that like the Prince of Darkness, he doesn't talk quite right.)
4. He likes to sprawl out on his kitty chaise. It's his favorite. 
5.  He likes to eat. He takes down every meal like he's Kobayashi or Joey Chestnut. It's a race to put as kibble in his belly as soon as possible.
6. He's part hobbit. He likes second, third and fourth breakfast. 
7. He has a faun butt. If you look at Ozzy from behind, it's like he's wearing furry pants. He reminds me of Mr. Tumnus. 
8. He's besties with Gunnar. They wrestle and play a lot. They groom each other daily. Currently, they are napping together. 
9. He likes to drink out of Mojo's tall water bowl. (Mojo likes the cat water bowl on the ground so it works out.) 
10.  He has static in his fur. Poor guy. I pet him and we both get shocked! 

Bonus: Sometimes Ozzy asks for cuddles and at night will come sleep on my chest or on my legs. (Human = heating pad.)

Brotherly love

Gunnar and Ozzy are best good buddies. Truly, I didn't know how much Gunnar wanted a brother, but he really did. And since we got Ozzy, they've been inseparable.

And they have this cute routine, where every night one of them, Gunnar likely, will be sleeping on the bed. The other one will hop up on the bed and start grooming the other. The licking turns into a friendly-ish wrestling match until one of them tumbles off the bed, King of the Mountain style. These tumbles will usually happen several times. And eventually they'll just get tired of wrestling and just nap cuddled up together, but with a paw on the other cat—claiming them, holding them down? I'm not sure. It looks like a hug, but I feel like there's a dash of kitty domination thrown in there somewhere.

So that's our boys.

Mojo's arthritis treatment

Mojo has been diagnosed with arthritis for about two years now. The vet called us the other day and said that he's trying out laser therapy for dog arthritis. Did we want to try a session? For free?

For free! Why yes, we did. 

So Matt took Mojo to the vet for the training day on the laser machine. And this is what Mojo looked like in the car on the way to to vet. He loves the vet!

Happy, happy, happy. I love going to the vet.

The laser therapy involves putting a red laser the size of a fat highlighter on Mojo's joints and leaving it there for a few minutes. His blood cells are supposed to absorb the red light and it's supposed to help with circulation.

The vet tech showed me, and it just feels slightly warm.

That's Mojo getting the treatment. We had to wear glasses when we were in the room. I tried to give Mojo a pair, but he said he was fully accessorized. 

Mojo liked the treatment. 

This is what the laser looks like. Just a red light.

And after that first free visit, the therapy isn't as expensive as I feared. So we're going to try a few sessions and see if it helps with Mojo's pain. He still holds his paws gingerly, like he's afraid of getting hurt. Let's hope it helps.

Pukey kitty

Gunnar has been our pukey kitty for a while now. He barfs a lot. Usually at 5:30 a.m. Right by the bed. On the carpet. Or if it's not 5:30 a.m., it's the same time I need to leave for work. We switched the food to hairball control. We took him to the vet. He's been taking Laxatone to break down those hairballs for about a year now. And he was hurling way less. But it started up all over again.

Right after the new year, he started barfing every day. Laxatone wasn't helping. It got to the point where he was walking around, looking miserable. And he lost 2-3 pounds in as many weeks.

Yesterday, he kept hacking. All day long, his head was moving like he was retching. He puked clear liquid several times. It was heart-breaking to watch. It's the sickest my tough guy cat has ever been.

This morning, he went to the vet. After blood work and X-rays, we learned that it was, in fact, just hairballs. A big one in his stomach and another one in his colon.

The vet said that they should pass. But gave Gunnar shots of anti-inflammatory, anti-nausea and some antibiotics because he was running a fever.

So, we hope that Gunnar feels better soon.

Mojo's eating his fiber

For size comparison, that's my kindle. 

Either we have giant moths or Mojo is going to have a massive stomach ache.

Seriously, the hole in this blanket is bigger than my head. I'm worried what this is going to do to his stomach. He already has a vet appointment Monday (for his arthritis), so we could get medical intervention as needed.

UPDATE: Mojo is just fine. The blanket did come out the other end. Maybe Mojo is part goat?