ProfessorTomoe

11:17 a.m. CDT 20170708. Mrs. Prof can't find the plastic pan she uses to soak feet in for my Epsom salt bath. So, naturally, this gives her an excuse to tear the entire kitchen apart and do the equivalent of a spring cleaning. Sigh. I've advised her not to complain about the smell of my foot for now.

Mrs. Prof and I drank when we were in our early 20s, before we had our son. However, it was almost always in a social setting like a party and usually involved a competitor for the state drink of Texas, the frozen margarita.

Okay, here's the "new possible routine" we've worked out for Baker, who is appearing more neurotic by the day. We're still going to try the Jackson Galaxy technique of reducing his on-demand dry food and giving him 2x daily wet food (not to be left out). We're going to reduce this until his on-demand dry food (which gets replenished twice a day, BTW) is a mound a little more than a half-dollar in size, if that big. (Translation: his mound will have a diameter of approximately 30.61 mm (1.205 in), whereas it now covers his entire bowl.) On the other side, we're going to increase Baker's wet food supplement from just a taste to a full meal. We haven't agreed upon what brand of wet food to feed him (a vital decision), so input would be greatly appreciated here. Once we've got him down to the proper food sizes and timings, we'll start moving his bowls toward the vicinity of the door. It's obvious that he's not going to be able to handle a direct move from his current position (by the back door) to the cat door in the hall, so we'll move them gradually—several feet at a time, until he's comfortable with the move. One of these days, this will result in a move to within about two feet away from the cat room door. If we're lucky. Then we can start opening the door, bit by bit, like Jackson Galaxy suggested. Mrs. Prof is even thinking of temporarily installing a screen door. (Don't ask me how—she comes from a long line of family famous for jury-rigging things. Drives a planner like me insane.) This would have been so easy if it hadn't been for that one time that we tried bringing Loudmouth in and Loudmouth hissed at Baker. Because of that, we've got to go through the convoluted process of introducing the cats to each other. Otherwise, we might've let Loudmouth out and had a harmonious household, but now we've got Baker stressing out and barfing. Nothing is going to be easy about this introduction.

One of the things that some of you may disagree with—and even I'm not sure about—is the Jackson Galaxy line of "essences" for helping to integrate a cat. All I know is that we bought some when Baker was young and it worked. Well, we bought some more last night: the "Ultimate Peacemaker" group. We figure that Baker may need the Self-Esteem one, Loudmouth may need the Bully Solution (based on what he did the last time we tried to introduce him to Baker), and both of them could use the Peacemaker solution. This comes on the heels of Baker's double barfage tonight. He's got issues.

One step forward, two barfs back. Baker threw up twice. Probably from stress. Here's the deal. I finally went in with Mrs. Prof to see Loudmouth for an extended period of time. He was an ideal kitty-cat. He'd let you pet him just about anywhere, and he ate it up like it was going out of town. I couldn't stand for long, so it was a short session (during which I verified that the Trail Camera is on). On the way out, I let Baker get a good sniff of my hand. However, Mrs. Prof was trying to tell me (unbeknownst to my failing ears) that Baker had barfed. Twice. Both were green bile, from an empty stomach. Back to square one. She started to set out more wet food for Baker. (WTF?) I stopped her. We've since worked out a new possible routine, which I'll go into detail later. Meanwhile, Baker's feeding station is back to its normal place until we figure out what's going on.

Mrs. Prof finally got home from her Friday night gallivanting and tried to get Baker and Loudmouth to eat wet food. Loudmouth has no problem eating at any time, per Mrs.Prof. Baker, that's a different story. He wouldn't touch his wet food. We're leaving their wet food out for a little longer before taking it up for the night. In other news, Mrs. Prof finally got Loudmouth to play with a toy! Previous attempts have been unsuccessful, although he did play with the feathers on a scratching pad earlier. Tonight, though, he played with a toy on a string. Baker even played with the same toy for a couple of seconds after Mrs. Prof left the cat room, but he stopped after he got a good sniff of it. He did resume playing with it a bit later, though. I think I've finally got Mrs. Prof convinced to set up the Trail Camera in still mode for color pictures (hopefully). She hasn't done the actual setup, so I'm on pins & needles to see if she remembers to actually do it.

Oh, BTW: 8:51 p.m. 20170707. As usual, Mrs. Prof is out and about this evening. When she gets home, we're going to tackle a rather odoriferous problem: my left foot. I haven't been able to give it a good bath since I broke it. It's been wrapped up in gauze until lately, but when showers are concerned I still have to keep the orthopedic shoe on. I can't step on the flat of my foot, or even come close to it. Mrs. Prof has been wrapping my foot in plastic this entire time, but there's one thing neither she nor I have been able to do: give it a good washing. You can tell, too. We're going to chance that tonight, but in a safe way. I'm going to soak it in Epsom salts. I figure if they were safe enough to use when I had ingrown toenail surgery, they should be safe enough to use with just my surgical scab. So, she's going to mix up a tub of them and let me soak for a while, then do some gentle scrubbing on the rest of the foot (which is still sprained and broken in spots, if you'll remember). BTW, did you know Epsom salts have an expiration date? The pack we had expired in 2014. Had to buy a new one when we picked up some other prescriptions today.

I did go through a thorough re-check of my gastric bypass a few years back. I basically begged for a revision, since one of the pain medicines (gabapentin) had made me regain almost 40 pounds in a couple of weeks (if memory serves). I was told that my stomach is emptying normally and that a revision is not something that would be covered by my insurance. So, for now, it's my PCP and a bottle of Zofran, which he kindly refills when I need it. I hear you. Why does Afrin have to have a 3-day limit on it before it starts rebounding? It's the best stuff in the world for 3 days, then it'll kill your sinuses. That's when I need Sudafed, for the 3-day break you're supposed to take between Afrin courses. Anyway, I got the paper script today and was told to fill it on Monday, when I'm due to run out of my other supply. This one's a full 120 pill supply, not a piss-ant 110 pill one like my back doctor gave me. The question is whether or not CVS will honor it on Monday. If not, I'm screwed badly for a couple of days.

Serendipity can be a fun thing. Very much so. Case in point: Baker came into the living room after I woke up from a pain-medicine-induced sleep. He followed me into the kitchen, where I was getting tea, expecting to find his bowl of food. It wasn't there. You see, Mrs. Prof took the step of moving his feeding station—except for water—next to the cat room door this morning. Well, I had Baker on a psychological leash, so I figured I'd try and use it. I went back toward the living room. Baker followed, expecting me to turn right toward the laptop. Instead, I turned left, down the hall toward his bowl of dry food. I stopped at the edge of the hall and waited to see what he'd do. He looked at the food, hesitated, then inched forward toward it and finally took a couple of bites! I praised him with "Good kitty!" calls, then went one step too far by petting him. He backed off. No big deal, we can still do this. I repositioned myself farther down the hall, directly across from the food this time. After a lot of quiet urging and anticipation, he finally went back to the food and continued eating. This time I restrained my praise to the vocal type. He ate a halfway decent amount (even with Loudmouth softly meowing on the other side) before deciding he couldn't do it anymore. I praised him heartily. I don't know if this did any good whatsoever for Loudmouth's journey inside, but I think it may have helped with Baker's acceptance of him. Let's hope it's progress, at least.

You win the "Made Mrs. Prof Laugh" title of the week.

Mrs. Prof put the Trail Camera in the cat room last night, but she left it on video mode (grumble). Also, for some reason, it took infrared pictures. She took a couple of screencaps, so here they are: Not very thrilling, I agree. I think I've talked her into turning on another light in the room so the camera won't go into infrared mode. I've also convinced her to go back to still mode (I think). Mrs. Prof was giving Baker "a taste" of what she was giving the outdoor ferals: a mix of wet and dry. Baker got mostly dry, but he'd get a spoonful of wet. Now, we're going to have to reverse the process—transition toward giving him a small mound of dry for through the day, with twice-daily servings of wet at the door.

7:01 a.m. CDT 20170707. Zofran emergency. Right in the middle of eating breakfast, and I get the urge to throw it back up. Reach for the Zofran post haste. Crisis averted. Lord only knows why. I mean, I'm GERD negative. The only thing I can think of is that I had taken my morning pills about 15-20 minutes earlier and may have developed a gas bubble in my gastric bypass pouch. I really don't understand. I've got to ask for a refill of my Zofran today. I hope my doctor will refill it. Today is also pain medication refill day. In about 45 minutes, I get to call and ask for a refill of my hydrocodone. I then get to wait until they call me back, at which point Mrs. Prof can drive me up there so that I can pick up the prescription. It's all very convoluted, thanks to the current paranoia over opioid medications. I'm one of the people using them legitimately, and I have to deal with the crap resulting from those who are abusing them. Not fair, I tell you.

I think she did last night. Interesting note: shortly after 4:30 a.m., Loudmouth launched into a brief yowling solo. Baker, who was asleep in his "Scratch Lounge Classic" next to me, went to investigate. No sooner did Baker go out of sight than did Loudmouth cease and desist. Baker's now guarding the hallway leading to the cat room (the same hallway where I did my Superman impression when I fell and broke my toe), doing his "regal" pose (head up, haunches down, tail wrapped around his front paws) as if he's the one who determines the ones who go near Loudmouth. Oh, now he's decided that things have calmed down enough that he can go off and get some food & water. That's another thing Mrs. Prof and I had a discussion about last night. She comes from a family where you put things together first and read the instructions later. That won't do here. I'm going by instructions found here, which cover food changes. She has been pretty adamant that she's doing "okay." I disagreed. She had me read the article out loud, which I did. Here's the salient point: She hasn't decreased Baker's dry food. She skipped over steps A and B and went straight to C, in other words. We're going to work on getting Baker down to a small pile of dry, maybe an eighth of a cup or less, over the next few days. Wet food time will only take place at the door. She's going to have to get up earlier on "go into the office" days in order to do that. I hope she realizes that. To change the subject a bit, I should say something about Loudmouth's voice. It isn't pretty, Seriously. Unlike Baker, who was neutered as a kitten and retains a kitten voice when he deems it necessary to speak, Loudmouth must not have been neutered until later. He'd been neutered before Mrs. Prof trapped him at approximately age two, but he's got a post-pubescent voice. It's the epitome of scratchy. How to put it into letters ... REEOW comes close, with emphasis on the E, but you can't translate the sandpaper-like edge. He speaks in short bursts when people are around, and in medium-long yowls when he wants attention. One other thing you're going to notice about this entire affair is my lack of participation in it. Blame my broken toe, my back, my hip, and everything else for that. If I were to open the cat room door, Loudmouth would run out and I wouldn't be able to catch him in a million years. It's now 5:29 a.m. (I don't type fast when dragging thoughts straight from my brain), and all remains well. Baker's buggered off somewhere, Loudmouth has settled down, and I'm up at a nasty hour of the day. I may go raid the fridge.

Not a good lunch break, or anything else about today with that pup. Sorry to hear it.

@CritterKeeper, thank you very much for your research and other help with Loudmouth's situation! Mrs. Prof and I appreciate it, and it has helped us make up our minds as to how we're going to proceed. A bit of background first: Baker came into the house around the age of six months (after having been TNR-ed at four months). When we brought him in, we had him tested and dual-vaccinated over a period of about six weeks back in early 2015. He isn't due for another FeLV vaccine until February 2019, according to the vet's paperwork. As the vet said yesterday, as long as the vaccine is kept up to date, she thinks Baker will be okay. In any case, Baker wouldn't have caught FeLV as a kitten or a young cat, so that further reduces his chances of contracting FeLV. Back to Loudmouth: we've decided not to release him back outside. We're going to do whatever we can to get him to coexist with Baker. However, we are going to have a second snap test run in a few weeks, per our vet, and if it comes back positive, we'll have the IFA test run, just so we'll know what to expect—will we have a relatively healthy Loudmouth for a relatively long time, or will we essentially be offering him hospice care? We want to know. Now, the only thing that would prevent us from adopting Loudmouth is if he is incompatible with Baker. Baker is a bit of a scaredy cat and has some odd behaviors, like wanting to cover his food. He's also been the only cat in the house for several years. Loudmouth is "older" (not "elderly," thank goodness) and a bit more set in his ways, I guess. If the two can't get along together, no matter what we try, then @mlooney, we might have to take you up on your offer of adopting Loudmouth. This is going to be a saga, any way you look at it. I don't want this thread to be another journal—I'm looking for input from everyone, experts and fans alike. Loudmouth is in a bedroom-sized cat room, and will be there for some while. Please help us as we take him through the long journey out of it and into the rest of the house!

5:19 p.m. CDT 20170706. Damn. Looking at the previous post, I realize I forgot to call pain management doctor #3. I've had to deal with stomach cramps (and more) that have wiped me out today. The Parmesan sausage and coffee helped briefly, but the cramps soon followed. Spent most of the day unconscious when not in the bathroom. I'm not blaming the sausage—it was probably something that had just been overdue. To cross threads, if I may, I haven't heard a peep from Loudmouth, so that's kept the stress level down. We had a thunderstorm come through last night that officially brought 8,000 lightning strikes from 4:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. CDT. They kept everyone's stress level up, including mine. Might have been responsible for triggering (or at least planting the seed of) today's cramps. One bit of good news: I'm getting to where I can walk—carefully—without a cane through the house sometimes. I'm still clomping along due to the uneven gait the orthopedic shoe gives me, and I'm careful as all hell around computer wires on the ground (the things that caused my fall). I can't rely on being able to do this, though. I've still got pain from my sesamoid bone that makes it hard to walk at times. The podiatrist keeps telling me there's nothing that can be done for it, short of removing it, and that's usually worse than leaving it in place. I'll take his word for it.

8:41 a.m. CDT 20170706. Okay, now I'm not sure what the hell I've done to my groin. It's starting to feel less like a muscle strain and more like damage to an internal hip joint. The attacks have been getting fewer and farther between, so perhaps it's healing. Fingers crossed. As for the left big toe, I think it was a temporary irritation from the Bio-Oil. Mrs. Prof took a good look at it yesterday and pronounced it not swollen. Still lots of skin flaking off, but none from the scab yet. That may be due to the Vitamin E oil treatments we're applying to it. Overall feeling yesterday was sucky, for lack of a better phrase. Physically down for most of the day. Could have been due to the groin/hip issue or any number of other things. Still feeling that way right now, but a dose of @The Old Hack's good Parmesan sausage that I've just polished off should help pep me up a bit. That, and a cup of coffee. Still haven't heard from pain management doctor #3. I have his number now, so I'm free to call and set up an appointment on my own, according to my own PCP. BTW, I'm getting a "bridging prescription" for my pain medicine from him tomorrow, no appointment necessary—just call, wait for a call back, then go get it and have it filled on the appropriate day (I'll have to remember to ask about when that day will be). Fingers crossed that CVS won't try and screw me over on it. Mrs. Prof is working from her office today. Here's hoping nothing goes wrong, either health-wise or cat-wise (another thread).

Duly noted, and thanks. I'll pass it along. Mrs. Prof is still trying, though. She's fed the cats near the cat room door again. Don't know what kind of success she'll get, since there's a thunderstorm in the area.

Mrs. Prof is back from the vet, and the news is not good. Loudmouth is Feline Leukemia positive. Possibly worse than that, Mrs. Prof still wants to keep him. Our first cat, Baker, is vaccinated against FeLV for 3 years. For some reason, the doctor gave Loudmouth a 3 year FeLV vaccine as well. Because of the vaccines, Mrs. Prof asked about the possibility of the two living together. Here is a direct quote from the notes sent home by the doctor: I'm sure the doctor used more fluid language when conveying the information to Mrs. Prof. To continue, aside from a "tremendous" amount of tartar on Loudmouth's teeth (understandable for an outdoor semi-feral and which was removed) and some hair loss on the ears due to a mosquito allergy, Loudmouth got an otherwise clean bill of health. Which makes this decision all the more difficult. I have reminded Mrs. Prof of our joint, 50/50 agreement about what we would do if he had a communicable disease—let him back outside. (She did try and put that on me for a brief moment, but I nipped her attempt in the bud.) I also mentioned @CritterKeeper's suggestion of FeLV-positive rescue organizations, but she said the last FeLV-positive cat the adoption center tried to place stayed a year-and-a-half before they could find someone who would take it. Add to that the fact that the vet's judgement that Loudmouth is an "older" cat, and you've got a cat that possibly no one else is going to want to rescue. @CritterKeeper, Mrs. Prof is torn to the bone on this. She's not showing it, but I can feel it. She asked me to ask for your advice. If we keep Baker's vaccinations up-to-the-minute current, would he be safe around Loudmouth? Is our vet speaking the truth, or are we playing a game of life-and-death with our primary cat?

http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=2368 A wand maker.

She found a flat scratch pad with feathers on it. Baker played with and scratched on it for a while before she moved it into Loudmouth's room. I gather she'll reverse the process tonight. She might get her wires crossed over this, but I'll pass it along. Thanks! No need to worry. I'm interested to see what'll happen as well. BTW, she's very grateful for your support and wants me to thank you very much!

Superconducting toaster will leave the bread cold. Even a high-temperature one? A really, really high-temperature one?

Good luck. Hope the appointment helps.