Introducing Betty White

[daftcat75]

Second dinner. Is that anything like second breakfast?

Back when she was on pred and finishing meals almost as quickly as I plated them, it was called second dinner. Most of the time, it's her overnight portion that I put down around 9:30, just before bedtime, and she'll hit it a few times over the course of the night. Last night, she mostly finished it on first pass. So it was once again a second dinner vs an overnight. As you know, she can take all shift to finish a meal. So I feed her four meals rather than leaving two large mounds a day and hope for the best. This seems to work really well for her as she is now maintaining a healthy weight. I checked the cameras the other night for her overnight regurgitation. That happened at 11:45 pm Friday night. But at 4am Saturday morning, I saw two or three different clips of her zooming full speed across the Office camera frame. I have several of these zoomies clips over the last few days. So clearly, my gray Garfield does have a few Zoom meetings overnight.

 

[tarasgirl06]

Back when she was on pred and finishing meals almost as quickly as I plated them, it was called second dinner. Most of the time, it's her overnight portion that I put down around 9:30, just before bedtime, and she'll hit it a few times over the course of the night. Last night, she mostly finished it on first pass. So it was once again a second dinner vs an overnight. As you know, she can take all shift to finish a meal. So I feed her four meals rather than leaving two large mounds a day and hope for the best. This seems to work really well for her as she is now maintaining a healthy weight. I checked the cameras the other night for her overnight regurgitation. That happened at 11:45 pm Friday night. But at 4am Saturday morning, I saw two or three different clips of her zooming full speed across the Office camera frame. I have several of these zoomies clips over the last few days. So clearly, my gray Garfield does have a few Zoom meetings overnight.

*Videos are good to share. Just sayin'*
Four meals is much better than two, for cats as well as people, when practicable. Better for the digestion and better overall. I'm pretty sure Betty apPURReciates them! Elvis gets 4, at least, during every 24-hour period, if and when he shows enthusiasm.

 

[daftcat75]

*Videos are good to share. Just sayin'*
Four meals is much better than two, for cats as well as people, when practicable. Better for the digestion and better overall. I'm pretty sure Betty apPURReciates them! Elvis gets 4, at least, during every 24-hour period, if and when he shows enthusiasm.

The other thing I like about four meals is that they her meals are like buses. If she misses one or eats only lightly, another one is coming shortly. I'm not putting all my eggs in two baskets. When she has an off day like yesterday, I don't stress as much that she ate lighter on breakfast and lunch because she turns around puts away both dinners. Krista used to get six meals because between the pred and her lymphoma, she was that ravenous and still losing weight.

 

[tarasgirl06]

The other thing I like about four meals is that they her meals are like buses. If she misses one or eats only lightly, another one is coming shortly. I'm not putting all my eggs in two baskets. When she has an off day like yesterday, I don't stress as much that she ate lighter on breakfast and lunch because she turns around puts away both dinners. Krista used to get six meals because between the pred and her lymphoma, she was that ravenous and still losing weight.

That was right for Krista. And clearly, four is right for Betty

 

[daftcat75]

I tried the unmedicated treat with Betty. She sniffed it a couple times and said what else you got? It may be chicken flavored but it smells like peanut butter.

I have 30 ml of the unmedicated chicken flavored oil which she didn’t care for on its own with a little kibble and kibble powder mixed in. I tasted a little bit myself and it doesn’t taste like chicken. Maybe we have to move onto a different flavor. In the meantime, I dipped the tip of the foul syringe in the chicken oil. If I were going with the oil with her, I wouldn’t syringe it into her because I wouldn’t risk her aspirating an oil. I would want to find that flavor she enjoys and get the medicine concentrated so that she would just need to lick a small puddle of oil to get her meds. Krista did this for her chemo. But she loved all fish flavors. I got her chemo 20x concentrated and anchovy flavored. I mixed it with a little salmon oil and she licked it up every time. In the meantime, I dipped the tip of the syringe in the oil so that maybe when I poke the tip at her mouth, she may more readily open up. Obviously I need more data. But tonight it seemed slightly easier to get her to open up. I don’t try to pry her mouth open. I just poke at with the syringe and say open up until she finally does. Thanks to that short squat syringe I can shoot the whole amount in her in one quick pop. So just having her open up is the hardest part. I like to think that I can either get her to open up with disgust from the bitter or maybe she may lick her lips with something between tasty and interesting with the oil on the tip. We shall see if this makes things any easier.

 

[tarasgirl06]

I tried the unmedicated treat with Betty. She sniffed it a couple times and said what else you got? It may be chicken flavored but it smells like peanut butter.

I have 30 ml of the unmedicated chicken flavored oil which she didn’t care for on its own with a little kibble and kibble powder mixed in. I tasted a little bit myself and it doesn’t taste like chicken. Maybe we have to move onto a different flavor. In the meantime, I dipped the tip of the foul syringe in the chicken oil. If I were going with the oil with her, I wouldn’t syringe it into her because I wouldn’t risk her aspirating an oil. I would want to find that flavor she enjoys and get the medicine concentrated so that she would just need to lick a small puddle of oil to get her meds. Krista did this for her chemo. But she loved all fish flavors. I got her chemo 20x concentrated and anchovy flavored. I mixed it with a little salmon oil and she licked it up every time. In the meantime, I dipped the tip of the syringe in the oil so that maybe when I poke the tip at her mouth, she may more readily open up. Obviously I need more data. But tonight it seemed slightly easier to get her to open up. I don’t try to pry her mouth open. I just poke at with the syringe and say open up until she finally does. Thanks to that short squat syringe I can shoot the whole amount in her in one quick pop. So just having her open up is the hardest part. I like to think that I can either get her to open up with disgust from the bitter or maybe she may lick her lips with something between tasty and interesting with the oil on the tip. We shall see if this makes things any easier.

Syringe sounds good and you're definitely doing it the best and most cat-friendly way. Yeah, how about some stuff that actually tastes like what it's supposed to/cats like and will go for???

 

[daftcat75]

Today’s breakfast plate at 11am. She had finished it before I woke for my breakfast. And by 11, she was pushing the plate around despite the museum putty looking for crumbs and morsels that went overboard.

 

[tarasgirl06]

View attachment 468075
Today’s breakfast plate at 11am. She had finished it before I woke for my breakfast. And by 11, she was pushing the plate around despite the museum putty looking for crumbs and morsels that went overboard.

*Give that cat a trophy and a gold medal!* Now THAT's what we love to see, Betty!

 

[daftcat75]

*Give that cat a trophy and a gold medal!* Now THAT's what we love to see, Betty!

I stepped out for lunch myself and she did pretty much the same to the lunch plate before I came back. It's still affixed to its putty. And there's a corner that still has a few grams for later. But essentially, I give her full credit for that one too.

A few things I wonder today:

a. When they did her last dental cleaning and extractions, I also consented to letting them put a dental sealant on her teeth. The sealant only lasts three months. And while all the websites (that almost all circle back to the manufacturer themselves) don't indicate any side effects, I wonder if it felt just weird enough to her to make eating a bizarre experience. Her sealant would have worn off by now. If that was weirding her out just enough, perhaps she's back to pre-dental levels of eating because her teeth no longer feel weird.

b. With her eating so well and our attempts at formulation going slowly and poorly, I wonder if I should try to wean her off the gabapentin and see if the hemp oil is enough. I'm going to discuss this one with the vet at our next appointment. She needs her rabies shot for registration--I guess that's the cat version of the smog certificate.

c. I have been slowly (minus 1 gram per meal per week) making the A/D mix less rich. Two weeks ago, she was eating 50:50 (16 grams of each in each of four meals plus some kibble calories.) Last week, the mix was 15:17. This week it's 14 grams of A/D to 18 grams of I/D. I am guessing the mix getting leaner is either making her hungrier for the same number of calories or it's not so fudgy rich that she's able to get through more of it on the first and subsequent passes. I will proceed with making the mix less rich as far as she'll let me take this exercise. Perhaps if we get A/D out of her meals, she might starting taking her capsules with fudgy frosting again.

 

[daftcat75]

My mistake. The sealant lasts up to six months. I think I can rule that one out.

 

[tarasgirl06]

Hmm. I was thinking along those lines, too. Oh well. Whatever is causing the change -- and we both want to know -- it's amazing, good, and hopefully, continuing.
"Smog certificate"

 

[tarasgirl06]

Hoping all is well with Betty and Betty's Dad.

 

[daftcat75]

Hoping all is well with Betty and Betty's Dad.

She's doing great. I think we're finally warm enough that my nom goblin spends most of the night sleeping in her cave in the office. Two or three times in the night, she'll come down to eat from her plate and then return back to her office cave. It isn't until usually 4am if there's an empty plate or not until after I've woken to change the plates that I see her again. We'll spend some time after breakfast meds together before I roll her off me for third sleep. It's about 50/50 lately whether she stays in bed with me or jumps down for first pass and then joins me back in bed. "Scoot over! Let me put my food face into yours."

I could still stand to lose a few pounds myself. I haven't yet settled into winter yet. I rage against the dying of the light with comfort food. And I think I'm nearly ready to eat up the last of the potatoes and English muffins and go back to a leaner mix of eggs and beans until that uncomfortable 10% overage comes back off and/or I establish an activity level that can support that extra junk.

 

[tarasgirl06]

She's doing great. I think we're finally warm enough that my nom goblin spends most of the night sleeping in her cave in the office. Two or three times in the night, she'll come down to eat from her plate and then return back to her office cave. It isn't until usually 4am if there's an empty plate or not until after I've woken to change the plates that I see her again. We'll spend some time after breakfast meds together before I roll her off me for third sleep. It's about 50/50 lately whether she stays in bed with me or jumps down for first pass and then joins me back in bed. "Scoot over! Let me put my food face into yours."

I could still stand to lose a few pounds myself. I haven't yet settled into winter yet. I rage against the dying of the light with comfort food. And I think I'm nearly ready to eat up the last of the potatoes and English muffins and go back to a leaner mix of eggs and beans until that uncomfortable 10% overage comes back off and/or I establish an activity level that can support that extra junk.

It's WINTER. You need extra calories. I wouldn't worry.
On the other hand, my roomies seem to feel it's their duty to kill me with kindness, which in her mind, at least, equals food. She cruised by the Armenian vegan ready-to-eat deli case and picked off a bunch of items before they stopped by last time. I'm eating them up before their best-by date, and I feel like a stuffed sausage. Armenian potato salad. Stuffed cabbage leaves. Okra. And the crowning glory, moussaka. I could write songs about the last two especially. And it doesn't end there. Muffins. Double chocolate chip and blueberry. And a packet of instant flavored oatmeal thrown in for good measure. At least that will keep. I long for my rather plain normal food. A person could get used to this stuff.
Elvis has reclaimed his "welcome suite" and alternates between it and our bed. I hope to adopt a mature female cat friend for us soon, and that's where she'll spend her first couple of weeks. Hoping Elvis won't mind.

 

[tarasgirl06]

The moussaka and okra is gone, thank goodness. It's just too good to eat very often
A purring Elvis laptop hopes all is well with you and Betty.

 

[daftcat75]

I missed Betty's birthday. In my defense, we don't really know her birthday. I had planned to observe her namesake's birthday, January 17. But I didn't remember until yesterday. I've been apologizing to her for the past couple of days. She doesn't care. She just wants eats and treats and scritchy scratches.

Yesterday we had another 6 hour Xfinity outage. I went into the second office (the taproom) to work. I stopped by the AT&T store on the way home and got a recommendation for the mobile hotspot router they sell but did not have in stock. I don't have hotspot in my contract because I'm grandfathered into unlimited data. So I figured I could simply buy the router (got overnight delivery from Amazon and it was on my doorstep this morning), a sim card, and a pay-as-you-go plan. I don't want another subscription. I just wanted to buy 100 gb of data and expect that to be good until I use it up. Well, apparently, that's not how mobile hotspot plans work. I bought 100 gb. But now I have to use it before the month is up or I lose it. If I want data on that router next month, I need to buy another month. Another subscription is exactly what I did NOT want. So I went back to the AT&T store and explained that I have maybe a few outages each year--not enough for a monthly plan. I looked at my AT&T bills, my Xfinity bills, and ultimately, I found the most helpful information in the most surprising place. Windows 10 will tell me 30 days of usage per Wifi network. I went back into the AT&T store and said, let's renegotiate my plan to include personal hotspot since I don't use nearly enough data to keep the unlimited plan. I use about 3 gb of data on my phone on cellular network per month. My PC says I use about 3 gb per month at the taproom and about 90gb a month on the home network. So split the difference for a single day's outage, and 50gb personal hotspot is more than enough. Now I have 100 gb on the router to use up before next month. And then I can search for the mythical sim and plan that is pay-as-you-go, no expiration, rather than pay-to-play and use-it-or-lose-it. I told the sales guy my thought was that maybe it might be six months until the next outage and that data I prepaid for would still be there. He said, you don't have to keep paying each month. But probably in six months, you'll need to reactivate your sim. I will be searching for a new sim provider at the end of this month. Or I'll have a mobile router I'll never use.

 

[tarasgirl06]

I missed Betty's birthday. In my defense, we don't really know her birthday. I had planned to observe her namesake's birthday, January 17. But I didn't remember until yesterday. I've been apologizing to her for the past couple of days. She doesn't care. She just wants eats and treats and scritchy scratches.

Yesterday we had another 6 hour Xfinity outage. I went into the second office (the taproom) to work. I stopped by the AT&T store on the way home and got a recommendation for the mobile hotspot router they sell but did not have in stock. I don't have hotspot in my contract because I'm grandfathered into unlimited data. So I figured I could simply buy the router (got overnight delivery from Amazon and it was on my doorstep this morning), a sim card, and a pay-as-you-go plan. I don't want another subscription. I just wanted to buy 100 gb of data and expect that to be good until I use it up. Well, apparently, that's not how mobile hotspot plans work. I bought 100 gb. But now I have to use it before the month is up or I lose it. If I want data on that router next month, I need to buy another month. Another subscription is exactly what I did NOT want. So I went back to the AT&T store and explained that I have maybe a few outages each year--not enough for a monthly plan. I looked at my AT&T bills, my Xfinity bills, and ultimately, I found the most helpful information in the most surprising place. Windows 10 will tell me 30 days of usage per Wifi network. I went back into the AT&T store and said, let's renegotiate my plan to include personal hotspot since I don't use nearly enough data to keep the unlimited plan. I use about 3 gb of data on my phone on cellular network per month. My PC says I use about 3 gb per month at the taproom and about 90gb a month on the home network. So split the difference for a single day's outage, and 50gb personal hotspot is more than enough. Now I have 100 gb on the router to use up before next month. And then I can search for the mythical sim and plan that is pay-as-you-go, no expiration, rather than pay-to-play and use-it-or-lose-it. I told the sales guy my thought was that maybe it might be six months until the next outage and that data I prepaid for would still be there. He said, you don't have to keep paying each month. But probably in six months, you'll need to reactivate your sim. I will be searching for a new sim provider at the end of this month. Or I'll have a mobile router I'll never use.

I know. These corporations are NOT set up to serve individuals. And they absolutely don't care about each person's individual preferences/usage. I had to negotiate hard to keep my phone plan after T-Mobile swallowed Sprint. As for the rest, I chose ATT when I moved here and have stayed with it, figuring you get some and give some, no matter who you go with. My roomies chopped and changed a lot when they lived next door, but settled on Spectrum when they moved here. They had a few issues, but basically, every time I'd ask them how things were, he said they were okay. Of course, none of us needed a mobile hotspot.

 

[daftcat75]

9.64. Last week 9.62. Week before 9.6.

Even though she’s maintaining, I’ve started calling her my little pork n beans.


I am having a quiet weekend at home with Betty rather than my usual burger, beer, and taproom. I picked up a taco family plate from Rubio’s yesterday. That should be about four football games’ worth of meals and snacks. Betty still gets the front room during the day and I watch football in the office. I’m a good roommate to my cat.

 

[tarasgirl06]

9.64. Last week 9.62. Week before 9.6.

Even though she’s maintaining, I’ve started calling her my little pork n beans.
View attachment 468568View attachment 468569View attachment 468570

I am having a quiet weekend at home with Betty rather than my usual burger, beer, and taproom. I picked up a taco family plate from Rubio’s yesterday. That should be about four football games’ worth of meals and snacks. Betty still gets the front room during the day and I watch football in the office. I’m a good roommate to my cat.

Sounds excellent all the way around! TACOS!!!
Betty is looking lustrous and very well.

 

[daftcat75]

For one reason or another, Betty didn’t take her breakfast when she usually does. I offered her eats before treats while I was cooking my breakfast: a couple of kibble pieces. She waited around for her usual treat when I set the first microwave timer. Okay. You did just have a couple eats. Maybe the treat will stimulate you to visit the breakfast plate. Nope. She remembered her taproom treats. So in short order she ate four kibbles and two treats. And shortly after leaping into my lap while I ate my breakfast, she jumped down and made those awful moans. I’m guessing she just had too much dry food/treats at once without any moisture/wet food. She had a tiny regurgitation of those kibbles and treats. She’s now resting peacefully in my lap. Poor girl. Hopefully her ship will right soon and maybe she’ll eat a few bites of breakfast proper before I have to change it out for lunch. Calling this a regurgitation. Not a hairball or a food vomit.