My 14 year old, Midnight, stays in my room with me most nights and is a bit of a challenge to deal with occasionally. Aren’t we all, right? He has lost some teeth so he can only eat soft food. Since I feed them on dry, this means I need to wet meal sized amounts for him when he is hungry and this could be at any time, day or night. He lets me know he is ready to eat by visiting me with a gentle tap on the arm, but if this does not work, he gets much more aggressive very quickly. I am a heavy sleeper, once I can finally get to sleep. This is not a good combination. More than a few times a week I am awakened by a 12 pound cat jumping on my chest and then, ever so gently, patting my chin. (Yes, Midnight, I am FULLY awake now!)
Today was one of those days, or so it seemed. I woke up to a cat on my chest for sure, but this time he was not patting my chin or watching my eyelids from 2 inches away. Instead he was acting distressed and was very cranky to say the least. I got up and headed straight to the bathroom, following the cat. He jumped in his box and then backed right back out, ran over to my bed and immediately squatted! I ran and grabbed him, returned to the bathroom and shut us in, placing him at the door of his box. He started in again and then backed out, giving me a dirty look. I looked inside and sure enough it had 1 spot that needed to be cleaned out. I could tell by the size, placement ant the fact that it was not buried that this was from the OTHER cat, Smokie. OK., I scraped the box out, added a bit of new litter and plopped Midnight in to do his job. I went back to bed. Silly me.
Midnight came bounding out of the bathroom at this point screaming like the demons were chasing him, sat down and began to drag his butt in a long arch across my carpeted floor. It seems that he was having some constipation issues. I jumped up and tried to grab him which caused him to run and hide in the one place where he knows nothing can touch him. Behind the headboard of my (queen sized) water bed, where he sat howling. I went to find something to encourage him to come out and as soon as he could not see me any longer, he ran out and began trying his carpet assisted poop removal again, dragging ANOTHER long streak. Thank goodness for Simple Solution and Oxy Clean! I WE went on a chase again and this time I managed to catch him. I took him to the bathroom with a hand full of paper towels and was trying to do several things at once.
1) Hold this really ticked off cat steady.
2) Not git bitten
3) Figure out how to help him with his problem
4) Try not to hurt him in the process
I was able to see at this point that the main cause of the problems was stuck to the fur on his backside and was easily removed. However there was still a small amount that needed to pass naturally. My plan was to shut him in the bathroom (tile floor and a box for him) and check on him. He did not share my plans, though. As soon as I opened the door he shot out of the bathroom, ran back to my bed and squatted again. This one was anger at me, I do think.
I managed to get him and put him back in the box and he came back out in a reasonable but hungry mood. I was busy scrubbing my floors when he emerged and demanded wet food. I went to the bowl (it is in my bedroom too) and there was my second surprise of the day. ANTS! Hundreds of them!
So, I am sitting now in my pajamas, typing to you, looking for a little sympathy and hoping to give you a laugh. My room is VERY clean. It is also bounded in boric acid and there are no ants. Because of all the disinfectant smell, I will possibly sleep on the sofa tonight. Midnight is sleeping on my bed like nothing happened, but I have given him a good dose of hairball treatment. Hopefully the rest of the day will be a lot less interesting.
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