Laura Seabrook's Ramblings

We went the the vets. Gabby me-owed continually on the way in - she really doesn't like being confined, or the bus either. What a day to go to the vets in. There was little wind yesterday but today it looks like a storm's coming in. The vets diagnosis is that it is either

1. result of a cat fight; or
2. a burst abscess caused by bad teeth.

He cleaned the area and gave her a shot of antibiotics. I have a daily routine of cleaning the area with salt water, and giving her some medicine, twice a day. If it's a result of a fight the area should start healing by the end of a week. If it doesn't then I need to take her back in case the abscess is caused by a rotten tooth in which case they'll sedate her and look closer at the tooth. A very outside chance that it's a tumor. At least though, I now have something to do, and perspective on the problem. Apparently taking her to the emergency vets last night wouldn't have been any different, but it would have cost  an extra $100 + taxi fare. As it is the cost has only been $104 including medicines. That I can afford at the moment and was able to pay via my debit card (but have to watch the balance a bit until it clears).

Thinking about things I can see how it might indeed be the result of a cat fight. Gabby used to have a bit of an ongoing battle with Ebony but it seldom came to blows, rather they'd carefully move around each other so that there were no "false moves" (though the sofa next to the front door where they'd sun themselves was a safe zone). They would raid each other's litter trays, and it was even comical to see Gabby go in Ebony's and then go racing down to the other end of the house. But Ebony did have fights with other cats. I noticed Toby in my front yard the other day - what if he was her regular opponent. I noticed once when Toby had tried to come in the house, that Xena and Gabby ran off, whereas Ebony ran to wards him (and he fled). Maybe with Ebony gone Toby (or another cat - there's at least one other that Toby fights with regularly) is trying to move in. Just speculation.

A couple of days ago I noticed urine on the tiled toilet floor, and it wasn't mine!

In the last year I've for the most part had the toilet door always open and the light on at night. That way if I have to go (and the toilet is the other end of the house to my bedroom) I can see what I'm doing and not fumbling with door handles. The light in there is one of those "mini neon" bulbs that have a long life and low wattage. Mostly I just left the light on regardless, and the door open.

Anyway, a couple of days ago I noticed that there were small pools of urine on the toilet floor. Likely suspects are two of my three cats, next door's cat Toby, and Bobby the dog. As I have a very poor sense of smell I can't tell by sniffing. Toby has been known to come in the side window (which I leave slightly open for Gabby and Ebony) over the laundry troughs, so it could be him. There's no point in ytrying to double guess this, so for now for a while I'm keeping the door shut when not in use and leaving the bathroom light on instead. The bathroom is divided from the laundry area and toilet by a partition that doesn't reach the ceiling, and the light's the same as I have in the toilet, so it'll do the same  job of safety navigation.

I could just leave the light off, but in practice I tend to stumble into bookcases, doors, containers and loose stuff when I do need to go. Having the light on highlights these so that doesn't happen. Isn't it fun getting older and sometimes having to go?

Hopefully things will settle down. Either the pools will start appearing elsewhere (which would support the Toby theory, in which case I close the side window) or disappear entirely. With cat litters either end of the house again the cats know to go there normally (and Bobby eats their poo when I'm not looking) and in general it's only on really wet nights that I find poos other than in the trays (which implies Bobby being the culprit). Mind you it's not that bad, except that the poos in the RecRoom are the same colour as the carpet, so it makes them hard to avoid.

Old pets, eh?