Drive-By Update

Just to close out an issue I mentioned a couple of weeks ago: earlier this week Emmett went back to the vet for a check up and he was given an official clean bill of health. No more UTI for the Emmett!

On the same trip, we also took Happy in for her annual exam and shots and we got more good news for her. All of her blood work looks good and her renal values are holding steady, which means her chronic kidney issues are being well-managed.

Good news all around!

Bad Picture, Not Bad News

Yesterday, two of the herd went to the vet. We were worried that Emmett had a urinary tract infection and Cocoa needed to have some blood work done to check the status of her (previously iffy) kidney levels.

Neither kitty was happy with this trip.

Yes, it's a horrible picture but it just defined the trip too much not to share. Cocoa yowled approximately every second and a half (not an exaggeration) for the whole 40 minute trip and Emmett did his best to become invisible underneath the towel in the kennel.

The end result of the vet visit (aside from a bit of a yowl-induced headache) wasn't too horrible. Emmett did have a urinary tract infection but he's been dosed with an antibiotic so that should take care if it. I'd prefer he not be sick at all, but at least a UTI is better than the bladder stones Chloe once had (and had to get surgically removed). And in better news, Cocoa's was given a very positive thumbs up on all of her tests.

Emmett will have to go in for a recheck in a couple of weeks but at least his hiding isn't like icepicks in my ears.

There are Two Kitties in This Picture

Emmett Pillow

Apparently Olive thinks Emmett makes a good pillow.

Emmett doesn't seem to mind.

This Happens Constantly Now

Emmy & Ollie

Emmett and Olive are becoming quite the little friends. Most of the time their interaction is play-fighting, but recently Olive has started licking on the other kitties, particularly Emmett. Of course, their grooming sessions seems to devolve into roughhousing, too, but I think they enjoy it. And they are really cute.

RIP Little Octopus

Like all kitties, Emmett has a favorite toy. Or should I say had? Because apparently, he destroys the things he loves.

Of course, it didn't help that the octopus happened to be Olive's favorite toy, too. While Emmett would carry it around everywhere and pull at the little top tuft, Olive liked to try to pull the legs off and then groom the top puff. So it wasn't exactly in pristine condition when Emmett got his mitts on it.

But yeah, we're gonna need another octopus. Hopefully we'll be able to find one, but while we search I've trimmed the puff down so it is just legs now. Not near as cute, but Emmett is tossing it around as I type (and ouch! just slammed his head into a cabinet while playing with it - he's pretty clumsy for a cat) so hopefully we have some time before the octopus is totally unusable.

I think the next step of destruction will be when we start finding legs scattered through the house.

He's a Keeper!

Just a little kitty update. Emmett is officially a Zimmermann now!

He and Olive have been getting along so we decided, yes, he is perfect Olive-entertainment and thus gets to stay. Because when they play together, it means that Olive is not harassing Gidget (and the other kitties, too, but she bothered Gidget the most), which means Gidget is not grumpy before bed (because Olive loves playing right before bedtime) so Gidget is back to cuddling at night. This makes me happy.

Added bonus: Olive has seemed to even out mood-wise thanks to the added Emmett. She's still a bit people-shy (we attribute that to a physically-not-nice former owner) so having the new kitty excitement split between her and Emmett seems to have eliminated the times where she would hide under the couch.

Also, her manic periods seem to be gone, too, likely because she has a willing partner in playtime to tire her out. She isn't quite as lap-cuddle-friendly as our more established kitties are, but she's showing some signs of growing in to it.

There has been one little kink in our plan for a calmer house, though: Emmett's bedtime cuddling. Which sounds great - because kitty cuddles are awesome - except for the fact that if anyone touches Emmett during the night in any way that might be considered a pet, he starts purring. And he is loud. Seriously. He wakes me up purring and I sleep with earplugs in. And once the purring starts going, he starts tromping around the bed, sticking his little nose under hands to demand pets. It's magnificently cute, though I might encourage it more if it didn't happen at 3am.

Regardless, Emmett gets to stay, Olive has a friend and we now have seven cats again. Honestly, things with these seven are calmer than when we had just six!

Test Driving a Playmate

Please meet our newest insanity:

This is Emmett, a 7-month old kitty that Dan & I (tentatively) adopted through the vet yesterday. The idea is that he will be a playmate for Olive so she stops harassing the heck out of our other (slower, less energetic, geriatric) kitties. We ended up doing the same thing way back when we first got married - we had gotten 6-month old Nibby who harassed the dickens out of then 10-year-old Ashes. A few months later we brought Chloe home and the two of them ended up pretty inseparable, leaving Ashes alone to nap in the sun. We hope the same thing will happen here.

But, just in case it doesn't, we have Emmett for a two week trial run. Since this is a bit faster than our normal acclimation schedule, we've moved things up and Emmett is currently out-and-abouting (supervised) in the general pop. Well, theoretically. He takes forays outside of his room but currently is hiding in the litter cabinet, watching the world go by. Most of the kitties are either avoiding him or stalking him when they see him wandering around. Except for Olive. Olive likes to stalk him at all times and will stare at him while smack talking in chatters and hisses. She's swatted lightly at him a couple of times, too, but not in an aggressive way. (Though I had them both playing with a ribbon earlier and a couple of times she forgot she was supposed to hiss at him.) I think she's just trying to work out who is dominant. Emmett seems happy to be the one to back down so as soon as Olive clues in to this, I think they will settle the hierarchy without any real fussing.

Hopefully this works out because Emmett is a complete doll. He's amazingly soft (an admin at the vet's office referred to his "mink coat") and has the loudest purr motor I think I've ever heard. He's lovey and sweet and apparently learned at the vet that if you are squatting down and he reaches up to pat your chest, you will pick him up. Total doll.

Wish us luck!