Raising Sidney

Sidney on March 29, 2016

This little guy, well I should say big guy because he last weighed in a year ago and 14.5 pounds.  He is a tad heavier than that right now.  My husband is home sick and I didn't want him in the picture but....this is amazing that Sidney is up in his lap.  He has been in his lap now for abut an hour.  I love seeing and watching how Sidney has really progressed here with us.

He started out being thrown into our house that had a dog and several cats already.  He was scared of anything and everyone and all the other animals.  In his state of mind he didn't trust anything or anyone and rightly so.  He was being abused, kicked, shoved around and scared to pieces by another dog that loved to tree cats.


The first main thing that I had to fix, was his biting all the time.  I understood why he did that.  In his mindset he was going to bite it before it bit him.  That took months, but I did get him to calm down and accept love.  

Charlie

He now likes to "play" with Charlie verses when he first was introduced to him and he fought with him.  During this time that he has been here Charlie lost a couple of pounds.  That is a good thing, but Sidney put on those ponds.  Hahaha!  He still is very active.  He is about 4 1/2 years old now and I just love him to bits!

Sidney has an idea how the day is supposed to go.  Many times it doesn't go like he thinks that it should.  The moment that I get out of bed, everyone follows me to the kitchen where I keep the containers of food, one for Duke's food and the other for the cats food.  This is where it gets tricky, for me.  I pour some food in the dishes on the shelves in the living room.  Frederick gets on the shelf that is next the the stove.  Then Sunshine gets the dish in the corner on the opposite side of the wall in the living room.  That is not too bad, but when I go to fill the dish up in the office that is on the widow seal........Sidney runs for it and runs in front of me most times.  I have now changed my steps in that.  I will wait for him to run in front of me first, then go pour the food in the dish.  That works 85% of the time.  After those are all filled and they have eaten it is now time to let out the girls; Shadow and Sunshine ,

Frederick

and then I let our Frederick, the newest member of the family a short while later.

I am then able to sit down with my first cup of coffee.  Oh but Sidney has other ideas.  We must play. He loves the feather on the end of the string at the end of the stick.  My word he does love to jump up and he jumps up pretty high.  We have to do that for about 15 minutes, then he stops and goes to lay down.  

Sometimes Charlie gets in the act too but he would rather the red dot toy.  The red dot toy only gets taken out when it is a cloudy day because they can't see the dot when it is sunny.  It gets washed out by the sun.  They both love that toy and I could play with them for a lot longer than 15 minutes.  Charlie doesn't really go chasing the red dot, but Sidney loves to chase it....on the carpet.  He really doesn't like it on the floor too much so I keep it on the carpet.

Sunshine

Shadow

Sidney has really learned to love it here even with the girls that like to hiss at him and try to take his face off with their claws.  They don't hurt each other though as I trim their claws about once a month, sometimes twice a month just so they don't hurt each other and me too.

Little Bits

Just recently in the last 3 or 4 months has wanted to sit on the chair with me and he has allowed me to pick him up.  He didn't like that before and would squeak at me to let him down.  It is a rare occurrence to see him sitting in my husband's lap, so when he was on his lap my husband said "Look What I Have."  I just had to get a picture of that.


Sidney is so precious and beautiful too and he has adapted very nicely and I am loving it to see a happy cat.

Sidney's first days here, almost 2 years ago.

News From The Allen's Pets June 14 2015

Oh my it has been a while since I last posted on this blog.  There has been so much happening here. I wish that I could get a picture of all my animals in the same picture.  Ha!  I doubth that will ever happen.

Sidney is doing great.  He is gaining lots of weight too.  I must cut down on the food that I give them. He must be up to 17 pounds now!  He only weighed in at 14.7 when we got his checked out and his last round of shots a month ago.  He truly is a youngster around this house.  He loves to play with the Red laser dot, but he loves me to swish and swash and pounce the hand held toy up and down and round and round so he can jump up and try to get the feathers on it.  He already broke on and I had to replace that with another feathered toy.  I do love that he has gotten Charlie playing with those toys now too.  He needed to get more active and so he has.  The thing is, Charlie will walk away after about 5 minutes, but Sidney...he wants to play all the time.  As soon as I put my feet on the floor Sidney is up and wants pet.  I go to the bathroom and he wraps all around my feet and ankles.  I have step on him a few times.  He just meows and then leaves me alone for a few.  He wasn't to play first thing in the morning...before I have the chance to feed all the outdoor cats, the indoor cats and before my first cup of coffee.  He truly is a teen with all his energy.  He is about 3 years old the Vets told me.  I do believe it.  I Love the Boys!!

My gurly Girls, Shadow and Sunshine are almost totally outside now.  Both have choices....one to come inside with a teen aged cat who is Sidney and Charlie who bugs them.  They don't have many places to hide inside.  Or they can stay outside with Mikey who loves to bat them on their behinds and get them going.  He did that to Shadow last night while is was sitting on the porch.  She was going across the driveway and he just slowly walked up behind her and touched you behind.  She went off on a trade and the neighbors must have though there was a fight.  No fight, just Shadow giving it to Mikey.  When he got his fill of terrorizing her he came back on the deck and terrorized Sunshine and she rolled off the deck.  He has done that twice now while I was in viewing distance.  She is OK, but they both have more places the hide than from the other boys in the house.  It is warm too and they seem to like the warmer temperatures.  They also have their cat houses to hide in when it rains.  I cleaned them out yesterday and washed the padding and blankets that I had in them.



While taking Sunshine's bed apart and cleaning it out I found a few wasps nests in there.  They were on the Styrofoam lid that is under the bin lid.  I took it out and left it is the air for a few until the bedding was dry to put back in.  When my husband came home and a neighbor came to call I went back outside and got stung on my left wrist by one of those wasps.  All I did was walk out the door.  I did not bother it at all.  Boy did that hurt!  I have never been stung my a wasp before and wow, it just hurt so much.  I ran into the house screaming Ouch and put some baking soda paste on it for a bit.  Man that did not alleviate the pain.  So I then took a couple of Benedryl's just in case.  That did not get rid of the pain or the swelling.  It did make me drowsy though and I thought that I was going to go to sleep so I went to bed.  This all happened about 5 in the afternoon.  8 o'clock come around and I did not go to sleep and every time that I moved my arm it hurt really bad.  I took Advil PM and by morning the swelling was all gone and so was the pain.  My husband got rid of the nests shortly after I got stung. A few came back around to start or find their nest and today I will have to take the cat house apart and make sure that they did not start a new nest.

Frederick also had his time with me too.  Last week while I was dealing with tendinitis in my right wrist, I did something stupid.  I did not have my wrist brace on that day.  I went and gave him some catnip to make him happy and he loves that stuff.  He is a good boy, really.  He is the only one that can still smell and enjoy the catnip for days after the freshness has gone.  So he was rolling around in it and I put my hand under his chest.  He was already "stoned" by then and turned his head around my hand and bit me.  He bit me so hard that he punctured the back of my hand and on my thumb that already was in pain from the tendinitis.  That added insult to my injury and could not type or use my hand for a week.  It is doing good now.  What an adventure that was.  I did not hit Frederick.  He knew that he did something wrong and ran to the other end of the deck.  I only asked him why and told him that I would be back.  Poor Frederick.  He stayed on the deck until I could get my wounds washed out.  For three days after that and still today he will be right on the deck waiting for his food.  He has gotten much more trusting of me and the bonds that we have are stronger.  We still do not have the money to get him fixed but that doesn't seem to be a problem around her much since all my other cats are fixed.  There is another stray but he only comes once in a while.  Frederick doesn't seem to bother anyone anymore.  I know that he knows that this is now his home and he even gets along with the girls and Mikey too.  He does want to come inside though and I cannot let that happen.  He is not fixed and will spray.  I already have a female that does this and for days I can't find where the smell is coming from.

Duke is having a hard time now that he is up in his age.  This is where most of our money has gone and why we just cannot afford to get Frederick fixed right now.  In order to get Duke more of his painkillers we need to get him a 6 month checkup.  There is this new rule now that the government has put on these PET meds.  It makes me mad and lots of others who also have pets do not understand it at all.  Now all Duke's meds are considered CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES. Now my husband and a co-worker and myself have asked ourselves and commented to each other about how a dog is going to overdose on those meds.  We even asked if they were going to test his blood or the owners blood to see if we had taken any or too much.  The GOVERNMENT controls too much of our lives.

So it so happened that Duke somehow lost a toenail.  I mean he lost if to the end of his toe.  It did not bleed much when I ripped it off because it was just hanging there by a strand of fur.  I put lots of triple antibiotic ointment on it and wrapped it up the best that I could, but that lasted about 10 minutes.  He was licking it lots too and we had to stop that.

We made an appointment that afternoon for Duke.  We had a friend help us get him in the car.  THAT is the main reason that we have not got him groomed or to the Vets since last September.  He just will not get into the car anymore.  It is no problem getting him out.  So our friend got him in the car and we went to the vets and our friend followed us there to help us get Duke out of the car.  We were early, but that was better than being late.

Duke's visit was very stressful for Duke and Denis and I.  Duke was in much pain as expected.  When they took us to am exam room, they put us in a room all the way in the back of the office.  We took a few turns down the corridor.  The room was a much bigger room that we had been in before and it was usually in the front of the office behind the secretarial center.  The things that I notice right away was the Cat and Dog statues with angel wings.  Then while sitting there waiting for the Vet I saw on the two shelves about the counter three plaques that said something about how our pets are loved after they had died.  I mentioned this to my husband who was sitting beside me.  Duke was laying on the cool floor.  When the Vet came in she commented that she hasn't seen a toenail break off past the quick like that before.  Duke has been falling down a lot for no reason and what I think was happening was that the toenail was getting under his foot and he loosing his balance that way.  The vet mentioned that she didn't see any neurological signs that would make him fall like that.  She also commented that same thing when we told her that he had gotten wobbly as of the last few weeks.  She kept mentioning that we were just trying to get him more comfortable.  My husband and I both picked up on that.  When she said that she wanted to take blood from him to see where we would go after that and left the room with Duke, I lost my composure a bit.  She came back a few and told us that his levels were all good and better than she had expected.  That was a bit of a relief.  She also said that he had an ear infection.  That could be the wobbliness because I know when people get an ear infection sometimes their balance is off.  I was also wondering if his Vertigo had come back.  I will post that story in about a month to tell you the difference between Vertigo and a Stroke.

So we were sent home with wipes, ear wash, antibiotics and his pain killers.  My husband and I take turns doing his ears and every time he comes in from outside the one who lets him in wipes his toe.  Oh the Vet also said that if the antibiotics didn't work on his toe that she would have to remove it.  Duke is 16 years old and I don't think that I want him to go through with that.  I also know from experience that when they have that kind of surgery at that late age, they don't usually get better.  So Dennis and I had to make a very painful and sad decision then.  We decided that when he stops taking walks that was when we are going to end his life.  His quality of life will be very low at that time and there will be no recovery for him.  That is what is really making it hard for me right now.  His next appointment is in 6 months.  I do not think he will be around that long, due to his toe and age.

So this is the update to the present today, Sunday June 14, 2015.

Until Next Time............

What A Dirty Job!

Talk about a dirty job.  I had one this morning.

I haven't even had my first cup of coffee.  There was a lot of commotion in the living room area and I was not even awake just yet.  I thought that Mikey was trying to go poop in the litter box. Boy was I surprised when I did get up about 10 minutes later!

There was this awful smell looming in the air of the house.  I tried to see if they had used the litter boxes and there was some in one but not that bad of a smell.

Charlie

Though Charlie makes an awful smell and we KNOW when he has pooped in the litter box.  That smell comes out before he is even done with his dirty job.  His poop is distinctive and makes your eyes water. Nope it was that.










I hear Mikey screaming and yelling and I try to find out where he is because it sure did sound like he was in a mess of trouble.  He was under the kitchen sink and trying to get out of it but got his leg stuck. Before I got to where he was I saw the trouble and I didn't want to see that kind of trouble before I had my first cup of coffee.

Duke 4 4 2015 Easter 2015

Good thing is was not on our Asian rug,  Some was but it was more solid than the other stuff by the back door, in front of Duke's Food bowl and trailing into the kitchen.  He had pooped in the Klaw Kontrol Bag.

He was under the kitchen sink and trying to get out of it but got his leg stuck.  (We don't have wooded doors in our kitchen.  We have curtains instead.) I cleaned up the floor, but the more that I cleaned up, the more I saw him leave it behind him.  I knew he had tried to go poop in the litter box, we have four of them, but that red cat sak just was in the way.


I knew what I had to do and I also knew that it was not going to be fun, for Mikey or for me, but it had to be done.  I had to do this alone, but it would have been great if I had some help.  That never happens because I am the only one home with all the cats and dogs all day long.  My husband leaves for work just before 5 in the morning and doesn't usually get home until after 3 in the afternoon.  Sometimes it is more like 4 or 5 in the afternoon depending on if he has errands to do.  So I fill the kitchen sink up with warm water and some Dawn dish washing liquid.  I have to clean up around the sink area as it is rare that I do not have anything on or around my kitchen sink.  I do occasionally but since we live here and I am here all day and have all these things to do and write, it gets to be a catch all.  You can see why in the picture.

So I get the sink half full and go and feed Sunshine,
who is on the front porch and Frederick whom is waiting to be fed on the back porch.  Oh it is hard getting back inside from the back porch because they are french doors and a sliding screen door on the outside.  Mikey is fast enough to come greet me, actually almost run over me to get back outside.  He slipped out the other day but I caught him with the handles that are on the top of the Klaw Kontrol Bag.  No way was I going to lose him before I get that sore to heal up some.

Sunshine April 6, 2015

Frederick April 5, 2015

Bath time!  I put his back end in the water and of course he fights with me.  It is so easy with that cat sak on and I wash his backside off.  He must have a cut or sore or did something to his tail because every time that I touch it or lift it he yells.  I don't have the time or a way to see what is down there because I needed another person to hold him up.  That was not happening.  So I wash with a washcloth and think that all the poop is out of and off of him.  I put him in the other side of the sink to spray him off and find that I didn't get it all and he is pitching a fit.  He has pooped on one side of it and on the same side that his sore is on!  There is a turd in there and I had to get it out without getting him out of it.  So I tried to turn the cat sak inside out, it was not easy and I didn't get it all out, but I did get the turd out.  I sprayed it really good.  Well as good as I could get being as I am only one person doing it and need 3 or four hands which I don't have.  The water was coming out clean.  I dried him off the best that I could  and put him back in the large crate until he dried off, which will be a few hours.  I did feed him and he is set for the day for now anyway.

I must tell you that since I brought him in Thursday, he has not had a bowel movement and he was on anti-biotics. He stool was a little loose and I think that was his problem  If it had been hard I think the stool would have pushed itself out through the back end of the cat sak.

This is just the very beginning of my day and wonder what the rest of this Monday is going to bring.

Well, now I can go sit down and have my cup of coffee.

© Debra K. Allen a.k.a Lady Guinevere

I researched and wrote this article. Please do not copy and paste any part of this article, picture included for your own use. I will find you and report you for stealing.  It is my right to change any information therein at any time and/or change the location of my article.