A place to be real about a life of chaos, with eight beautiful children, homeschooling, special needs, adoption, sanity or the lack thereof.........a rubber hits the road sort of journey that I thankfully do NOT walk alone!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

PUDDLES, POTHOLES, and PEE!!







Cute isn't he?!


Anyone who owns a cat or three in our case (and many more over
the years!) knows that awful feeling that sets in when the first puddle of urine
is found in some inappropriate place. That would be ANY place that is not in the
basement neatly located in the appropriate litter box!!!!


Now, there can be any number of reasons for the "accident" but all too often the "behaviour modification" conversation is initiated and the fear that there really is nothing wrong with them except they have an "issue" sets in.



It all started when we bought the new dog beds. What luxury! They were about four inches thick stuffed with fibrefill and cedar chips. They smelled so good....helped to combat that ever bothersome "doggy smell". It wasn't too long and we found that one of them had been used as a litter box! How disappointing.....
I quickly mopped, disinfected, bleached and washed
everything hoping it was just a one time thing. That lasted about 2 days when it happened again ..... and again.......

Now we had no idea who the offender was, but we now had to dismantle both beds. In an effort to give them a really good cleaning I left them outside in the rain for about 4 days. We had no trouble for three weeks and then yesterday......................


"MOM..........EEEWWWWW.....it stinks like pee.....someone peed on the dog bed again. Good grief.........outside it went. One hour later I received a call on my cell to announce the other bed was now sporting a nice "Puddle".


My day was already at high speed....I was off to gymnastics and then home for a quick lunch and off to soccer. I had honestly decided the dog beds would have to go away until we "adjusted" the offenders bad attitude!!!


The long story can be shortened by saying yet another call to advise Higgins (the cute one!!!) was crying and circling and pawing on the dining room floor. Three minutes later.....another call to advise the cat had pooped and Princesses new musical ballerina globe was smashed.....two very unrelated yet equally distressing pieces of news. Homeward bound to pick up the cat to take him to the vet. At this point the
attitude adjustment seemed to be a very bad misdiagnosis!!


OK.....cat in carrier on the way to the vet....the carrier balanced on the passenger seat with me holding it, my fingers touching Higgins through the cage in an effort to calm him. I glance over a mere 10 houses from home base to see him squatting and peeing in the bottom of the carrier.....Poor baby....something is terribly wrong.




I tip the carrier gently so that the pee runs to the back of the cage convincing myself that I will mop up the "puddle" when I get there. Seconds pass and I glance over to see that he is STILL peeing and the "puddle" is beginning to aptly fill the bottom of the carrier....Oh my .....I carefully return the crate to a "level" position when all of a sudden my front tire drops into a pothole!


Yup you guessed it pee sloshing... out of the cage onto my book bag between the seats. The cat has all four legs outstretched trying to regain its balance and is now sliding around the inside of thecage......YUP....sloshingMORE pee out of the cage onto my pants and between the seats. I one handedly called "Chief" and asked him to meet me at the side of the road with a roll of paper towels.


He arrived on the scene to find me using fast food napkins trying to dry off what I could. I had quickly emptied the contents of my book bag saving all........thank goodness. I instructed him to hold the bag open and we would put Higgins in it to absorb some of the mess he was covered with and this would keep him confined while I cleaned the cage. Keep in mind we are now in a grocery parking lot and escaping here would mean "sudden death by flattening"! I grabbed hold of the cat by the scruff and with a swift motion "attempted" to remove him from the crate.


He laid on the brakes and as I dragged him out I emptied more pee onto my pant leg and picture if you will a flailing "pee soaked" very frightened 10 month old cat as I removed him and stuffed him into the canvas bag.


By this point "Chief" was hysterical and I have to admit.....although unimpressed I did manage to find the insanity of the whole thing!


I emptied out a half consumed water bottle and decided I might as well collect a sample for the vet while I had 50 gallons available!!!!


$220 later......a urinalysis, cat bath and crate disinfecting, antibiotics, expensive prescription cat food for "too many to count" crystals in his urine holding hands and dancing with the numerous red and white blood cells, a pat on the back for obtaining a sample that would have been a nightmare to collect.....(I don't recall my collection of said sample to be much shy of a flipping nightmare!!!!!!) and a big thank you from my veterinarian as she chortled saying she appreciated her laugh of the day, I arrived home to be met at the door by Songbird advising "Skishee" just peed his
pants.................





Thank you to whomever suggested I stand in the line up to receive extra patience when the Good Lord was handing it out!!!!!







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