Thursday, February 12, 2015
Tomorrow is Cupid's Gotcha Day! She is turning 17!
We have taken to calling her the "old lady". I think it all started when the vet recommended a special food for her and the label said it was for "Senior Plus". I laughed and quickly informed Cupid that she was no longer just a senior cat, but now she is senior plus!
But mainly I forget how old Cupid is. While she doesn't jump nearly as well as she did in her younger days, she is still pretty spry. We play together every morning before I go to work, right after she gets brushed. She insists on being brushed each morning. Tomorrow, I throw in a few extra strokes and we'll see what we can't do about rounding her up a few bites of chicken 
Thursday, December 11, 2014
I'm not sure what it is about the pillows around here, but it seems everyone loves a big pile of pillows to lounge on. The weather the last few days has been a bit chilly and whenever the temps dip you can usually find Cupid seeking out some extra warmth on pillows or blankets. I think Benny would be proud!
Thursday, November 20, 2014
After Benny and Luna passed, Henry has been trying to have Cupid join his pack. So far, Cupid has been sending him mixed messages.
Cupid is more than happy to be part of Henry's pack when it comes time to eat. Whenever we feed Henry, Cupid comes right up and eats right next to Henry just like Benny and Luna used to do.
But, when it comes to snuggling and lounging around, this is the best Cupid can do. In her mind, they are totally cuddling right now.
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
About 2 years ago, Cupid was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. We had taken her to the vet because she was eating like mad and losing quite a bit of weight.
The treatment plan was to put her on a special food with no iodine and that would get her thyroid under control. It seemed to work at first, but the biggest hurdle we faced was that Cupid hated the food.
It got to the point where she became desperate for any food other than her "special food". After Benny and Luna passed things got even worse because Henry would just let Cupid have his food. Benny and Luna would never allow no kitty cat to eat any pug food, but Henry was more than happy to oblige with the cat's wishes.
Not only was the cat ravished and cranky that she never got to eat yummy food, but her thyroid levels weren't really stable. There were times everything would be ok and she would start to gain some weight and then times she would drop weight fast.
The pot boiled over about a month ago, when Cupid started throwing about a few times a day and having diarrhea. We took her to the vet and they reluctantly recommended putting her on an easy to digest food that would help ease her tummy issues. However, while on this food, her thyroid would go untreated, so this was not a long term solution. More like a try this for a few days then we will switch back.
Cupid was thrilled to be on the different food. She was like a different cat. She was so much happier that we talked to the vet about alternative treatments for her hyperthyroidism. We knew our options from before, a pill that a lot of cats react negatively to (vomiting, stomach upset) and a radioactive treatment to be done at a specialists to zap her thyroid.
The zapping option seemed so scary to us when we heard about it a few years ago. Mainly because it was at a specialist we weren't familiar with and Cupid would have to stay there for about a week. We'll that option seems a little better now because the specialist that performs the treatment is SEVO and that is where Henry received his chemo treatments.
At Henry's last chemo treatment we talked to his Dr about Cupid's treatment and she gave us all the details. The pros and cons and stories about how other cats they have treated have fared.
We left feeling much better about our options and at the Dr's urging decided we would get a baseline blood test, start Cupid on the thyroid pill and then do another blood test after a month. Why all the blood tests? Well it turns out that the kidneys are the only organ that benefit from hyperthyroidism. With everything pumping so fast they actually benefit from the increased blood flow. So, some cats have kidney troubles once their thyroid is regulated and things stop pumping so fast.
Once her thyroid is zapped, there is no going back. However, you can easily take her off a pill. So Cupid is currently on the thyroid pills and in a few weeks we will check and see how her thyroid levels are doing and if her kidneys are holding strong with her thyroid being under control. From there we will decided if we keep her on the pill or if we zap her thyroid.
Long term I'm not sure how any of this is going to play out, but right now Cupid is happy. She is eating better food, she has stopped throwing up, her diarrhea is gone and she is putting on weight. For the first time in a while she is playing again! Check out this video of this happy girl in action!
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Cupid hasn't been quite as glued to my side as Henry has been, but I can't sell her helpfulness in my recovery short. She did give me a most awesome leg massage right above my knee that surprisingly felt good. She has also been crucial in me learning to get around on crutches (which means she has tried to kill me several times). She loves to weave in and out while I am walking and if I take too long of a break, she will continually rub up against my crutches to urge me on. Everyone has been able to help in their own special way.
Side note, notice Henry is photobombing this shot will just the tip of his tail
Monday, September 8, 2014
This picture was taken a few days after Henry's first round of chemo when he wasn't feeling so great and might just prove that Cupid has some sympathy for good ole Hank.
Normally, Cupid will begrudgingly lay on the sofa with Henry, but Cupid's number one rule is no touching. But on this occasion, Cupid cut Henry a little slack and happily slept with him, even touching him, in hopes of helping him feel better.
Thursday, July 31, 2014
On our last visit to the pet store, Henry and I struck a compromise and we left with neither a fish nor a dog bed. Instead we bought a brain game. The one we bought has 3 different games that are all a variation of hiding a treat. One involves turning over little cups to reveal a treat, the other moving a disc to reveal the treats and the third requires the pooch to slide the cups to get the treat.
We thought this game might be fun for Henry and would requiring a little bit of thinking which would be a good thing. The easiest game seemed to be the one where you knock over the cup to reveal the treat. So we loaded up the game with treats and added the cups. To help Henry get the hang of things we even put treats in the open spaces. Freebies so to speak to get him interested.
Here's Henry's first attempt at the game.
Henry quickly eats all the "free" treats. He knows that there are more treats under the cups, but in typical Henry fashion, he decides he better hang back and ask for permission to eat the cover treats. He wouldn't want to cause a ruckus.
While Henry was waiting around for someone to uncover his treats, the cat became pretty interested in the game. So we gave her a turn. She certainly wasn't waiting for permission to eat the covered treats. She managed to figure out how to slide the green circle to reveal little bits of hidden roast beef.
