CATALOGUE 93

It’s time you had an update on the cats; I’ve been failing to blog, failing to write, failing to catch up with all sorts of things that I somehow could not get on with during my weary period in the autumn – I’m now getting tired from the work involved in catching up! But that’s a different sort of tired, and far less worrying. It’s the sort of tired you get looking after three gericatrics with varying special needs!

The cats have now been with me for seven months and it feels as if they have always been here.

They remain basically very settled and content. Fluff is so settled he can’t be bothered to go outside at all, but at least he’s remembered what the litter tray is for – he’s the current star at doing it in the right places. His coat is finally back to its full glory after the shave he had to have before coming to live with me, and he even lets me brush some of it some days.

Mystic’s settledness now has strong overtones of exhaustion and not feeling well. He would be happy to sit on my lap all day and snooze. His nose lesions are slowly, slowly worsening and I’m glad the vet and I decided on the daily painkiller, it must be helping him. He still looks ridiculously well for an eighteen-and-a-half-year-old, with a glossy coat which he grooms carefully and an appetite like a sumo wrestler.

Felix is pretty OK – like Mystic he likes to go out once a day, leaving by the front door and returning by the cat-flap at the back. Mystic seems to do this straight off and is back almost before he’s left, while Felix is sometimes away a little longer – not usually more than ten minutes, though. After all, they are old and it’s winter. My concerns for Felix are all food-related. I still have to be very careful what varieties of food I give him, as the wrong thing produces a throw-up or the runs. Basically, though, the problem is that he’s recently started to eat and drink even more and I shall be booking him in to see the vet in the next couple of weeks – he can’t go any longer without a kidney function test. I dread it because he hates the vet and lashes out in his fear, but there’s no alternative sadly. At least he’s now a little more responsive to cuddles, and actually purrs while on my lap.

Only seven months and I dread losing them. That’s how it goes with cats.