I know we have been absent for a while, but Riley is in the hospital tonight and we need some purrs. His chest is full of fluids and they suspect very bad things. I love my brother. I don’t want him to go away.
Tiki
I have now been strollering 4 times!!!! Mommy & Daddy say I can now go strollering every day the woofie takes a walk!!! I jump right in my stroller and wait for Mommy to zip me in.
Tiki still says “no thanks!” 😦
Riley
P.S. Gattina, I am not an expensive breed. I was a free barn cat, but we have a lot of traffic here so Mommy doesn’t want anything to happen to me.
P.P.S. Daisy, you gotta get your Mommie to take you strollering. Has Harley tried it yet?
P.P.P.S. I hope that everyone who wants a stroller gets one.
I got to go strollering. Twice!!! Mommy brought in the stroller and I hopped right in and Tiki hid on top of the kitchen cabinets, so I got to go all by myself with Kesey and Mommy and Daddy!!!! I saw woofies and peoples and houses and trees!!!
I don’t like cars. Cars are scary when they get too close.
Riley
Vincent Who Came Before left to go to the Bridge three years ago today. Mommy misses him.
Tiki
Yesterday, Mommy shoved me into the PTU and made me go to the v-e-t. Dr. Nguyenba is very nice, but he’s still a v-e-t and I am a c-a-t (That spells cat). Meow, meow, meow!
They took my blood pressure and did a brief echocardiogram (so they could check my hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy). Can you believe they shaved my armpits again? Meow, meow, meow!
I like to fuss at the v-e-t people.
Good news! I have been taking 1/4 atenolol twice a day since October. So far: my heart rate is slower, my blood pressure is lower, the heart murmur is now a 2 instead of a 3, I now have a mild left ventricle obstruction instead of a moderate to severe one, my right ventricle now has no obstruction instead of a mild one, and I now have trace mitral regurgitation instead of mild.
So far so good!
So then I go home and my brothers won’t stop smelling me. Riley did at least help me clean my armpits, but Kesey was no help at all!
Riley
Gattina says we should write more often. She is right. Mommy is lazy.
Our woofie buddy Riley just got his own blog! His Mom also blogs about him and his brother Boscoe and a bunch of other things too!
We just want you to know that cat or dog, Rileys are a handful and definitely ornery.
I should know. I’ve had to spend some time in the PTU recently. You see, it is my opinion that the humans should get up really early. Mommy gets up at 5:00 am during the week. I like to get up sometimes between 3:00 and 4:30 am. I don’t see a problem with this. Mommy & Daddy do. So does Kesey. He growls at me when I rub on him when he’s trying to sleep (I ignore it). Mommy & Daddy tried the squirt bottle (big deal), they put a magazine basket on the TV to keep me from jumping up there and making noise (that helped), they shut me out of the room (I claw the carpet and meow), they shut me in the bathroom (I meow and whap things), and they finally tried the PTU.
Dang. I still like the PTU, but apparently I am now a cage trained kitty. How embarassing. I sit and chill in there until they let me out a squillon hours later (the most was 2 hours on a weekend). For some reason I am really calm in there.
Tiki
I am a good girl. I just sleep on the Mommy while he’s having shenanigans.
Kesey
Peace and quiet. Ahhh
Tiki
On Friday we all went to Cleveland! Cleveland looks a lot like a hotel room. Daddy says a hotel room is not really Cleveland. Daddy went to a poker game because his friend Tom K. is 40. That is really really old. We got to stay in the room with Mommy and explore. Mommy says it was an experiment to see if I was still scared of hotel rooms.
Guess what! I’m not still scared of hotel rooms! I was good in the car and only meowed a little. I explored the room over and over and over. It was very exciting! I think Riley and I were awake all night! We had fun! Mommy brought Feliway and our soft fleecy blankets and catnip bubbles and a new mousy and new treats and our fountain. I did hide under the bed a little but there was too much too explore so I kept coming out. Just to keep them guessing I did some intermittent meowing at 3 am, but mostly I was quiet. I am a very good girl.
Riley is a very bad boy. He is not afraid of anything. When Mommy brought Kesey back from going potty, Riley escaped our room and ran to the other end of the hotel. He says he just wanted to explore, but Mommy was very very scared until she caught him.
Just to keep Mommy guessing, I have decided that I do not like having my pills hidden in pill pockets or cheese. I think it ruins the flavor. She showed me the pill shooter and I rubbed my face on it to tell her that I would like to try the pill shooter instead. Now I rub my face on the pill shooter while Mommy pets me. Then she shoots the pill into my mouth. Then I rub my face on the pill shooter some more. I like the pill shooter because Mommy always gives me a couple of greenies afterwards. She tells me I am a good girl.
Also, this morning Daddy was getting ready to leave for a conference and he was wearing a black shirt because he almost always wears black shirts Monday thru Friday. Mommy asked him if he had been carrying a kitty around because he had all kinds of furs on his black shirt. Daddy said he was trying to go but that I had insisted on kissing him and rubbing up against his black shirt. Even when I get furs on Daddy, I am the good one.
Tiki
Tiki
So on Thursday, Mommy put me in the PTU all by myself!!!!! Riley is supposed to go with me and lick my head and distract me. So I showed Mommy, I gave her “what for” all the way to the v-e-t (5 whole minutes), the whole time in the waiting room, and then I gave the v-e-t people a stern talking to. Meow, meow, meow. They said I was a wiggler, but not a biter, and they like wigglers better.
They shaved 2 spots on the sides of my chest, made me wear electrodes, and put weird goo on me. They said it was for an EKG and an ultrasound, but I think I was abducted by aliens. They washed all the goo off, which made my furs wet, so I told them off. Meow, meow, meow.
The v-e-t people say I have hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy but am asymptomatic (I could have told them that part. I feel fine!) I have to take 1/4 of an atenolol (beta blocker), 2 times a day. Mommy thinks she’s fooling me by giving it to me in cheese or pill pockets, but I really like cheese and pill pockets so taking a pill is okay. My brothers want to take my pills too so sometimes they get treats. I think this is unfair. I should get all of the treats because I have to take pills and I am a good girl.
I have to go back in 2 weeks to see if atenolol agrees with me (so far so good) and then have another EKG in a year. So Daisy, do you have any advice for the newly diagnosed? Should I be eating nanners? Mommy & Daddy worry about me, but I think Pixie was a great role model. She fought this disease for a long time and I hope I can too! Mortimer is also my role model. I’m not sure if he has HCM, but he does have a heart murmur and takes medicine for it. He does not like going to the vet either.
P.S. Riley had to have a time out on Saturday because he chased me too much and made me hiss. I am the good one.
P.P.S. My heart mumur is a grade 3. They hope the medicine will make it be a grade 2.
Tiki, Kirby, & StanLee 