Two black cats - The Accidental Smallholder

Posted: Monday 5 January, 2009

by Rosemary at 3:05pm in Cats 1 comment Comments closed

I had Cassius at the vet today for his routine antibiotic injection. He has cancer in the bone of his upper jaw, so he gets a fortnightly antibiotic injection and daily anti-inflammatory medication to delay the cancer's progress and minimise the side effects. He's so good at the vet. To be fair, he's had lots of experience. The staff always ask after him, even if we're in with the dogs. He also comes every morning and sits on the kitchen table, waiting for his medication (or maybe the saucer of cream that follows it). He's been with us nearly eight years and was probably between 6 and 10 years old when we got him, so he's doing well. The vet's very happy with him - he looks great, is eating well and has mad turns with his felt mouse (usually round our bedroom in the early hours of the morning - freaky!).

Felix was the subject of one of my New Year resolutions. Cassius never gets on the worktops, only on the kitchen table (see above). Felix, however, likes to lie on the kitchen windowsill - it's wide and south east facing, so gets the morning sun. To get there, he has to cross the worktop. Lately, he's started wandering along the worktop, rather than adopting a direct route, so I resolved that he had to be retrained not to go on the worktops at all, since it was unfair to expect him to distinguish between which bits he could walk on and which he couldn't. I mean, he's not the smartest cat in the world anyway. To support him, his windowsill cushion was removed, laundered and put back on the chair from whence it originally came.

Well, you know how New Year resolutions never last? Neither did this one. This morning, it was bitterly cold outside, but sunny. The windowsill was bathed in golden sunlight. Felix was sat there looking out, with no cushion. He kept shifting from one buttock to the other. So I gave him his cushion back and looked out the bottle of surface cleaner. Another resolution bites the dust, but, hey, I like cleaning!