Lost cat - Page 3

VERY INTERESTING idea, with the vanilla extract by the tails so all the cats have the same scent. I feel bad for poor Snickers! The little one hissed at him a couple of times and the older one hisses at him and runs away. It's like you GUYS! The poor cat has been freezing and starving for 12 days, give him a break already!

I noticed the tips of Snickers' ears are scabby ... I think they got a little frostbitten. :o( He's sleeping a LOT still, but I read that is common after such trauma, and he does have a pretty bad upper respiratory infection that he's dealing with too. He's coming out of his shell a little more; he actually chased the new kitty for a second. He also came into the living room to sit for a while and then slept on his favorite pillow on the chair; it seemed he wanted to be out by us for a while. The rest of the day, he slept in the computer room on top of his perch (we covered him with a warm towel) and he didn't wake at all ... he felt secure even with us out of the room. We had to wake him after about 3 hours to give him more water and feed him. He twitches a LOT while he sleeps; I hope he doesn't have nightmares forever about ... whatever. Anyway, Day 2 went really well in general, and I have to keep pinching myself to make sure he's really here. My husband reminded me how lucky we are ... he said just think, 2 days ago did we even guess we would be here watching him sleep? NOT AT ALL!

Hang onto your kitties, everyone! Not all of them come back home within a short time and not all of them can find their way back and not all of them get into a trap and wait for it to close. Some little devils break all the rules just to remind us how much we love them.

Oh my! I took a gift certificate to the people who found Snickers and talked to the man a little more. He said by his estimation, Snickers had to have been in his garage for 7 or 8 days!!! No wonder he got so thin and dehydrated. He had no access to food or water for over a week! Awww, I can't think if he was better off IN there or OUT!

Also ... Simba STILL won't go near Snickers. He comes close, smells him and RUNS out of the room. What is up with that?? I don't smell anything on him at all....he smelled like gas/oil when he first got home but that is gone now. What should I do?

Snickers is still lethargic and sleeping all the time. He eats and drinks regularly, then heads back to the perch to sleep some more. It's only been 2 days as of right now that he's been back and I know it will take time for him to build himself back up ... but I hope his personality isn't changed forever. He used to follow us everywhere and greet us at the door, etc.

Also ... he urinated once yesterday morning and hasn't urinated since and hasn't pooped either. He's been fed lots of water and food in the 2 days since he got home so I'm kind of worried about that now. Do you think it's anything to worry about?

Aghghghgh! As soon as I post something, Snickers corrects himself ... he has now used the litter box just fine. Whew!

He came out and spent more social time with us today so I know he will be ok. He watched the new kitty for a while, even got excited and joined in some play for a minute or so, and then laid down and watched him some more. He looked out the kitchen window for a while, one of his favorite pastimes from before. Then he tried to jump on the dining table and fell (awwww .... :o( ) So he is definitely still very weak. I'll let him take his time gaining strength and in the meantime, we are pampering him like crazy and just enjoying having him back.

Thanks all! I will definitely get one of those scented plug-in things ... looks like it helps in a lot of ways.

I thought about the bath option and even looked online for the best way to go about it ... I don't bathe the cats, and I don't think I want to take the chance of traumatizing him by trying it now. I did see several suggestions for variations instead of a full immersion ... like just using a cloth, and one link said to avoid trauma just sprinkle cornstarch powder on him and let him groom himself? Not sure if that is a good suggestion or not? Scent swapping would be the other alternative, or the vanilla extract. Or just wait it out ... the cat that is being persnickety was also being a brat with the new kitty too, and within 2-3 days they were best buds. He (Simba ... the persnickety cat) has trouble adjusting to EVERYTHING it seems and I don't know if I want to traumatize Snickers to accommodate yet another bratty behavior from Simba. LOL We love him to death but he's the biggest baby ever. And he's the largest, heaviest, strongest cat in the house! Here a little 5-pound kitty (Freddie, our newest) traumatized him.

Thanks for the suggestions and advice, as always!

Oh! I hope everyone can see these photos from my facebook ... these are pictures of Freddie (new kitty, 6 months old), Snickers since he's been back, and Simba. All pics were taken in the past 2 days. Snickers is 2 years old, Simba is 3 years old. I tried to get pictures showing Snickers' recovery so far and will update them as the days go by.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...6&id=504598411

I accepted a friend request ... I got another one that I didn't recognize so I ignored, then I realized what "TCS" was and so I went and requested them as a friend because I realized that's who was friending me. Sorry about that, accept please! ;o)

I am going to put the pics up somewhere else on the web so non-facebookers can see them. I'll give you the link here when I'm done, but it won't be until tonight because I need to get to work now.

Snickers was up when I got up this morning .... he was only walking around instead of running, but he wasn't interested in me picking him up because he wanted to watch the kitty and just walk around and be a little more normal. So that's a good sign! I think he's going to have a great day.

Thanks again! I may try the chamois thing if Simba doesn't come around soon. Today, he was actually in the same room with Snickers several times ... so he seems to be letting his guard down in the way he normally does around a new cat. I have to remember that to him, right now Snickers is a new cat. And Snickers? Completely unaffected. The new kitty didn't phase him in the least and neither's does Simba's ridiculous behavior. LOL! This is all actually kind of cute and I'm sure I will laugh at it some day.

Tried the vanilla extract thing; didn't phase anyone. So my husband bought this Natural Chemistry "Waterless Bath" spray from the Humane Society. It's a gentle formula spray that you are supposed to spray on the cat, then towel dry. I didn't want to do that directly on Snickers because we sometimes spray him with water to stop him from doing something and I didn't want him to think he was being punished. So I sprayed it onto paper toweling, then rubbed him down with it. That didn't work either. Simba starts howling when Snickers gets within a foot of him. I don't know what his problem is. The baby is fine with Snickers. I don't smell anything on him. I don't know if it is "outside smells" that Simba doesn't like, or garage smells, or what.??? Either way, it's not something a human can smell. Snickers has been home 9 days now! Simba needs to get over this!

Snickers is visibly beefed up quite a bit. He is getting his old personality back, although one of his main personality quirks was torturing Simba (lol) ... sometimes they would sleep curled up together and groom each other, and other times Snickers would play wrestle with Simba and Simba would be fine at first but always end up screaming and we had to separate them. Anyway, Snickers only has to go NEAR Simba right now and Simba screams. I feel kind of bad for Snickers; his first few days home, he was treated like an outcast!

Any more suggestions?

Hahah, I'm laughing at the part about Simba being unhappy that the torturer is back ... yeah, that's most likely it. That and the fact that the torturer also SMELLS now. LOL!

Today Snickers was SOOO much more animated. We all noticed it. He opened the bathroom door (using the handle/latch) and pulled the heater grate completely off the wall. Yep, Snickers is back! We usually have to lock that and several other doors because it's the only way to keep him out! These doors have the latches that you just push down instead of knobs that you turn. Then when I went to get ice and water from my fridge door, he jumped onto the top of the fridge and laid there, rolling and squirming while I did this ... just like the old days, I have no idea why. He makes every jump that he tries, so he is now strong enough to do things he wasn't able to do a week ago. His antibiotics were used up today and he has not sneezed at all so all signs of his upper respiratory infection are gone.

If I had to say what's really different about him now is ... he always loved to look out the windows at birds and squirrels but now he is OBSESSED with it. I don't know if he caught himself some prey when he was out, but he definitely views them differently now so at the very least, he got a much closer look at them outside during his little vacation. Other than that, I'd say he is almost 100% back to his old self, thank God. I missed him SO much and worried incessantly about what happened to him, and I find myself loving his funny little quirks now, when before it would wear on me that he was such an unyielding prankster. Even when we didn't think he was on our minds for a short time during that 12 days, we would catch ourselves looking out windows and watching weather reports and having nightmares, and we all felt rather physically sick during that time from stress, lack of sleep, and worry. These little pets sure do become part of the family and have no idea the impact they have on our lives. I'm still pinching myself to make sure this really happened and we really have him back!

Ugh, NOW WHAT?? Snickers today has suddenly started gagging ... at about 5 minute intervals when he is awake, none when he is sleeping. I noticed it since I came home from work. He acts as if he doesn't feel well and then lets out a huge gag. I think he will throw up, but he doesn't. Then he lays back down and looks lethargic for a while. Right now he's in a deep sleep and is fine .... but he gagged like 10 times before he fell asleep, at about 5 minute intervals. Could this be his upper respiratory infection coming back? He has no other signs ... his nose seems clear, his eyes aren't watery. What the?? And I've read on the net it could be hairballs, but he's NEVER had that in his life, in 2 years. Why would he suddenly get that now? None of my 3 cats have had hairballs .... well Simba, maybe 3 times in the 3 years we've had him. Snickers isn't wheezing or coughing. Just a dry gag. ??? Anyone know what it could be?

Thank you so much for the advice; I will go take a look around at other forums if I have more posts that are off-topic. But for the record, I took him to the vet today and he has a fever so they are assuming it's because of the upper respiratory infection still. He put on weight ... up from 10 pounds. He is now 11.5 - 12 pounds, give or take a wiggle. LOL He is on a new, stronger antibiotic. Eating and drinking fine, a little tired/lethargic, just doesn't seem to feel quite up to par. Thanks again!

Thanks much! See my thread in the health section about Snickers and Clindamycin ... the medication sure WAS making him feel off ... a LOT off! ;o)