The Excellent Cats welcome the new year by planning an expedition in search of 'She who must not be named'

[Grumpyoldpersonwithcats]

Carried forward from the previous thread.
www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_litter_tray/5440081-prison-dramas-bands-and-ouija-boards-the-excellent-cats-audition-sing-and-plot?page=1

Lenny however needs a rest before he starts searching.

@Kirova I don't think I'd be able to give the foster up. She is adorable!

Micia is very pretty. I can see similarities between her and Lenny.

If it helps… all of my fosters who I’m still in touch with made the transfer, even the ones I wasn’t sure would. Several have turned into lap cats.

Micia is adorable!

My starting word for Wordle is STARE, which is also very cat-adjacent

I'm feeling very mean & guilty tonight. Tobias is due at the vet tomorrow morning for various bits - blood test, fluid scan, chest x-ray - and will need to have a general anaesthetic. That means no food from midnight tonight at the latest.

So I gave them a very small supper and took the dry away, then got him to go into their bedroom with some lik e lix laced with Gabapentin & shut him in. There will be a major operation tomorrow when Annie gets here shutting every door in the house with Girlcat shut in the living room so we can catch & cage an un=sedated or very mildly sedated Tobias without him managing to either hide anywhere or eat the dry food which went back down again for Girlcat.

The guilt was made even worse by the fact he's been the most affectionate to date today, walking close to where I was sitting and asking for scritches & strokes multiple times. I feel like such a bad cat mama despite it needing to be done.

I'm sorry Allergic, that's really difficult to deal with. I have one cat that needs drugging before the vets can do any kind of exam, but she's nowhere near as scared as Tobias. Fingers crossed it goes well. Please don't feel guilty, you are only prioritising his health.

I know how guilty you're feeling Allergic.

You've spent so much time caring for Tobias and loving him, and prioritising his health.

This time tomorrow he'll be back at home, being looked after. But no, he won't understand what's going on tonight.

I hope he gets good results after his vet visit.

To compound things as I was waking up this morning I could hear Girlcat meowing outside their bedroom door, and the sound of one of them bashing on the door (possibly her?).

I think when we go to catch him later, I'll get a flattened large cardboard box to use like a pig board when we go in the room - what do you reckon guys & gals?

Hope all goes well this morning Allergic - although I'm afraid I have no experience of pig boards so can't advise on that.

No prizes for guessing which cat finished my shredded wheat this morning

Makeshift pig board sounds like a good idea Allergic. We use a similar method here at Pollock Towers if the cats have to be sequestered in the spare bedroom when the "scary" builders/decorators/plumbers have the audacity to visit.

Oh my the quickest and easiest catch ever! I'd closed every door before Annie arrived, went in to the bedroom using the pig board & saw that he was in his igloo. Annie just scooped the igloo up with him in it & poured him into the crate. He hadn't even touched the gabapentin laced lik e lix I'd left inn there for him!

What a fabulous boy he's getting to be 💖

❤️ Tobias.

Hope the vet experience and journey home is stress free also.

Very pleased to hear Tobias had an easy time this morning. Hope all goes well at the vet.

Vet came out to the waiting area just at the right time to see him lying quietly in the crate with my hand inserted through the lid scritching his neck & head. She was VERY impressed at his behaviour 😁

He's lined up for bloods, worming, ex-rays, urine sample & a free fluid scan. The estimate also has the possibility of having to have to aspirate the urine if they can't get him to pee, and for a specialist to have a look at the x-rays if there's anything on there they aren't sure of, so hopefully if they don't need both of those the bill will come to under £1k. Going to alert the insurance company now to remind them that when it comes in to pay the vet directly - last time they paid it to me instead!

How long is he in for Allergic? Assume you'll get him back later today?

There are times when I wish I was a cat. Photos of 4 active (🤣) cats in our living room earlier...

Yep should be later this afternoon, They'll wait until he's fully awake & then they'll try to give him some chicken (he refused it last time!). We can't pick him up until after 3pm at the earliest anyway, as I have a grocery delivery due.

Oh and the "sometimes wish I was a cat" thing? Sometimes I look at mine & think that, but then I remember what Tobias's life must have been like before he was rescued & think maybe not!

Agreed. I'll rephrase - I wish I was one of my cats 🤣

I'd love to be a much loved and pampered cat. It looks like such a peaceful stress free life. Toad barely even has to clean himself as Lex does it for him.

I envy Kitty sometimes when I’m slogging away & she’s curled up asleep. But like @Allergictoironing says, I really don’t envy her her life before me.

Well Tobias is home, and while he can never have a clean bill of health his is no grubbier than before as far as we can tell. X-rays seemed OK, not really any excess free fluid in his belly. Bloods will go off to the lab & we're getting the X-rays checked by a specialist just in case anything was missed - there's enough money left in his insurance this year for that, and his renewal is due in 2 weeks so we'll be back to max again then. Couldn't get any urine, apparently his bladder was about the size of a pea so he must have gone & completely emptied it just before going in.

But the best thing was the praise he got for being so very well behaved. They managed to give him a mild sedation with no damage to vet or nurse, then a bigger dose with no problems at all. So in the end he was just medium to heavily sedated and didn't need a full GA, and they were able to do everything they wanted with no objections, not even swipes or hissing! The nurse even managed to PILL him with a wormer while he was awake afterwards, about 4 hours after the procedures were all finished.

He's lost about 300g in weight, but he can afford to lose that & a bit more yet so I'll just keep an eye out for where he's losing any more from going forwards.

So proud of my boy 💖

What an incredibly good boy, @Allergictoironing. Not surprised you’re proud. I’m so glad he’s home safely & it all went so much better than expected.

Delighted to hear that all went well for Tobias's day out 😁.

Good boy Tobias! Extra Dreamies for you this evening. Now can you please teach my Tobias (his name when I'm cross, Toad the rest of the time) how to behave! He's being a hoodlum tonight.

@RumNotRun do bear in mind that I still have the scars on my legs from the first time I tried to take him to the vets, 2.5 years ago, and that Annie needs to wear thick gardening gloves to be safe to pick him up!

Rate he's going, he may accept being picked up by me or sit on my lap by the time he's on his last legs and last life!