Category: cats

Elvis the cat is completely blind and perhaps completely deaf. He gets along fine though and is a good groomer. My wife is away and I needed to clean his room today. As a result of his car accidents, his nasal passages and sinus’s are not quite right. To put it frankly, he snots a lot. The floor in his room was just a mess with boogs. I used a table knife and hot water with detergent to get them cleaned up.

But first I had to get him out of the room as I needed to vacuum also. I set him up in the master bathroom with a box, a bunk, food, and water. Then went to work. Vacuumed up all of the food crumbs and then washed the floor. Once it was all cleaned up, I put him back and he seemed to be happy again.

Elvis meows or howls at the top of his lungs 1. When he is hungry, 2. When he uses his box, 3. When he has found his bed and is ready to lay down. He seems to sense also when you walk through the room to check on him. Sometimes that will set him off as well. He wakes up hungry between 4:30AM and 5:30AM. So even though I am on vacation, I have been getting up each day. At the same time, I put out new feed for the other cats, change the boxes, and feed the birds. Then I can go back to bed until 7:00 or so.

Each evening, Elvis gets a walk outside and then walks around the kitchen while the other cats are fed. Here is a picture of Elvis on his walk singing his little song.

Harry and Hillard formerly fought. So much so that we kept one inside when the other was out. But at some point I grew tired and let them both be out. After a couple of years of that, they are rarely more than 20 yards apart when they are out. One is always watching the the other. If one is getting pats, the other will approach and act like he needs to be patted too. If one is watching squirrels, the other is watching him. It is so funny.

But today they both smell like the clothes fresh out of the dryer. Something about the hot sun of a warm day caused their fur to smell like hot clean clothes.

Elvis if feeling better now. He seems very perky.

Hillard on the other hand does not like his medicine and spits it out. He may have heaved a bunch of cat crunchies this morning. I only saw the evidence, not the cat responsible. I hope that either he does not need the medicine, or in the alternative, he is getting enough of it to knock out any infection.

Adah has become a bit of a frustration as she does not want to go outside. Even when she goes out, she “pees” on the rag rug on the garage step. Or else she uses a clean catbox inside. Between Elvis, Adah, and Tabbie, there are about 10 boxes per day on a rainy day. So today was a clear, warm day. Adah was to spend the day outside. I was working on my car. She likes to come inside the peaceful interior of the Oldsmobile Cutlass Cruiser. Her little gray exterior goes so well with the the Cruiser’s gray interior. So she was there in the backseat while I working under the dashboard in the front seat.

Now it is Hillard who gets to see the doctor. He had a bite on his paw from some overnight conflict. He will have 10 days of 1.5 ml of cephadroxil as Cefa-drops. He is pretty easy to medicate with the supplied syringe. I put it in the corner of his mouth, get him to unclench his teeth and squirt as 2 small shots.

Elvis had to go to the vet today. He was making messes on the floor when he did not make to his box in time. The vet evaluated his stool and gave him a pill for spirochetes. He seems a bit better this afternoon.

It has been quite a while since I have written about Elvis. He is still very much a part of our lives. He is our only permanently indoor cat. He has take over my daughter’s room since she is off at college. Since he is completely blind (we think), it is remarkable that he finds his way around the room. My daughter’s American Girl dolls sit atop their bunk beds under the window. Elvis finds his way up there to sit in the sun beam when he wants to. He comes down and uses the litter box (there are two in diagonally opposite corners) and to find his food. His feeding station has a bowl for half a can of wet food twice per day. Two flavors of crunchy food in an oval bowl and a deep large water bowl.

Elvis walks outside every day that it is not too cold, windy or wet. He used to follow a tapping or dragging stick but something has changed and he is not too good at that anymore. My wife wears flip-flops when she takes him. But since she is out of town, I have been trying to get him to follow my shoes with mixed results. He likes to walk in the gutter next to the curbing. This slight trough keeps him in line until he wanders off in an odd direction. Each time the ground changes texture, he stops to sharpen his claws (leave a paw mark). Whether he can smell those or it is just to let other know he stopped by I do not know. He had a possible stroke in December but seems mostly recovered. Sometimes he walks in a small circle in his room. That might just be because he needs to walk. He is always affectionate when he gets pats or is being held. He is a sweet old cat.