Spotted Cat Designs

We are devastated!

Our dear little Auri…the sweet little tuxedo kitten that we just wrote about the other day…we now have evidence that she’s criminally inclined!

I guess it’s true what they say about Saturday night being reserved for wild behavior. I woke up early Sunday morning when I heard some odd scratching. I followed my ears to the closet. I opened the door. And what did I see?

Auri, Agile, and Charger, guiltily looking up at me with their beautiful eyes, imploring me not to turn them in to my wife Susan (“The Furminator”)! Together, they had broken into the locked closet and had been greedily wolfing down Panther’s special prescription diet food (40 bucks a bag, thank you very much!). Because it’s prescription food, this may be a federal offense!

But wait, there’s more! Google News reported that Auri was also identified as a member of the notorious Tuxedo Gang! They even have a known hideout!

We’ve tried to raise her right, but she just wants to raise hell (or maybe just raise heck, after all, she’s still a kitten!). Where did we go wrong?

Know anyone who doesn’t like to save money? On CentralPets.com the alphabetical listing of companies with current coupons, discounts, free with purchase, etc. offers is quite extensive. URL links to the seller’s site are included. The only catch is, you have to know which companies you want to check up on, or else scroll through the long list. Clicking on the box labeled “Pet Categories” doesn’t help — it just distracts by redirecting you to other parts of the site.

When we are paying almost $30.00 for insulin hypodermics and about $90.00 for a bottle of Lantus/Glargine insulin for Panther, I thought it best to comparison shop. So after searching for over an hour I realized that no on-line places sold Lantus, but lots of places sold the syringe sets. Strangely enough, our local Safeway pharmacy had the best prices! And no shipping fees!

While wading through the possible places to buy from I found VetAmerica
We bought a few none prescription items. Found some things I did not know existed for cats. Accurate descriptions, great service and reasonable prices. Check it out!

Found this not long ago — an online “gallery” with brief commentary about cats in art from antiquity to the present. I didn’t realize Rembrandt sketched cats. One image shows the more horrific side of human treatment of cats, other incorporate undressed humans, so parental guidance is suggested!

http://www.delmars.com/kitcats/catsart.htm

One of our readers gently reminded us that we haven’t written about Auri, our newest kitten, since we first got her way back in October. So here I am to correct this serious oversight.

Auri is such a joy to have around. Really, she’s so adorable and happy that every once in awhile I check her belly to see if maybe there’s a battery compartment in there!

When we first got her from the Folsom Carl’s Jr. (no, she wasn’t in a bun, she was begging outside) she was all fire and brimstone, hissing and growling at all our other cats — even Charger, who back then was easily five times her size! But a good dose of our patented Unconditional Love eventually solved that problem, and now she mostly just annoys Aurum for some reason.

Auri is still a kitten, although she’s grown quite quickly, and she can always be counted on to flip her little toy wolf in the air, or fly down the hall in pursuit of a laser dot. She is quite an expert at sleeping, and when sleeping next to one of us will stretch out, turn into a little black-and-white ball, or assume any other reasonable shape in order to stay asleep and stay next to us while we toss and turn.

Having grown to kittenhood on the kindness of Carl’s Jr. patrons, she is also one of the first to the feeding bowls, which is no doubt part of how she has grown so quickly! Here she is in her current sundae best, looking delectable enough to kiss and kiss and kiss some more:

She is a sweetness.

We have two Bengal cats, Charger and Aurum. All of our cats have distinctive voices, yet we have noticed that our Bengals tend to “sing” more often and with a wider range of notes.

Bengals were bred in part from the Asian Leopard Cat (ALC). So I was amazed to find this
1.4 Mb QuickTime movie of an ALC sounding off. Here’s the link from The International Bengal Society:

http://www.bengalcat.com/aboutbengals/animatedalc.aspx

Funny thing is, neither of our Bengals respond much to hearing this recording, but our mixed breed cats do look up and around to see who is making that noise.

At about 5 A.M. Panther started softly crooning. It was pre-dawn, and the moon had set. Panther, like some of our other cats sings in the morning, and all of them are indoors only — unless we take them out on harness and leash. (see walking your cat) This particular time, I heard him sing about some of his favorite outdoor activities.

After the Moon
The sky slowly darkens
Grass smells fresh

Good to Roll in
Pleasant to eat
Fresh grass and warm soil
Glorious!

Last year our beloved first cat, Panther developed diabetes. So we learned about injecting insulin and glucose curves. Last fall, he vomited violently 3 times, and we rushed him to the pet emergency clinic on a Saturday night. We learned about pancreatitus (again) and giving subcutaneous fluids.

Panther has had several more episodes of pancreatitus. So we keep an I/V unit with a pouch of Ringers Lactate ready in the closet. We already had one cat chew through the tubing, so the closed closet is safest. When his fur looks bad and I tent his scruff which doesn’t go down quickly — with Steven’s help I give him subQ fluids from 50 to 150ccs at a time. Sometimes once a week, sometimes twice a day.

When Panther meows and makes me follow him, then jumps on the “insulin perch” I know to give him his 1/4 unit of Lantus/Glargine. But only after he eats!

We learned that Panther has a “sensitive” pancreas. That’s the organ that produces insulin and various digestive enzymes. So he eats prescription Hills Science Diet I/D and canned Purina Proplan salmon/fish or turkey and giblets. The canned food is amongst those recommended for diabetic cats.

During this time Panther has willfully downgraded himself socially from top male cat to the bottom of the social scale. So no more energy expended in boxing matches with Charger.

Panther is wise enough to direct us in what he needs and when. And we have become wise enough to listen. That is why he is still alive and experiencing a decent quality of life.

Last night our two year old cat, Nightstar — yes she is black all over — began to sing softly. At about 4 A.M. These words popped into my head, and luckily I was able to remember them:

Light increases slowly
Grows longer each day
My fur will be warmed

This reminds me of when Glory (our first Bengal — who died a bit over 2 years ago) used to sing on many mornings just before dawn.

I am glad we have another poetic cat. Yawn!

I just now read an article on the Salon website recounting the author’s experience in China, wherein he was offered meat from a dog he had befriended. Whether this was intentional or simply insensitive is not the point, but the timing is impeccable, since it was just yesterday that I posted my own article about the many abuses going on in China.

Since this is a cat lover’s blog, I do ask you to read my article, but feel free to skip the link there talking about China’s death camps for cats and dogs, since the contents were even too distressing for me to read in detail. And the reason for China’s killing dogs and cats is to simply “clean up the cities” before the Olympics, although they claim it’s to “prevent disease”. The Catholic Church tried killing cats in the Middle Ages, and the result was the disease called the Black Death. Unless you believe there are no rats anywhere in China…especially this year!

In any case, I would like you to take away three main points from all this:

• Cheap Chinese goods are no bargain when they support death.
• We should all try to cut down on our purchase of Chinese-made items.
• Boycott the 2008 Summer Olympics. Don’t even watch it on TV.