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July 16-31: Bob Continues to Develop
Towards the end of the month, I happened to be sitting in one of the chairs in the study when Bob jumped up to sit beside me. Fred had his phone handy, so he got this picture of Bob and I. Bob has knocked the keyboard off its shelf and onto the floor a couple of times; when he did it this afternoon, he stayed at the scene of the crime and stretched out to take a nap; that's how I caught him in the act:
Nancy and Karl were going to be gone again towards the end of July, so I volunteered to come out and get Dora and bring her back to my house for the duration. We are always happy to "cat-sit" her. Here are the movies from the last couple of weeks that I thought were interesting enough to include here in the album:
July 17: Cats on a Wheel (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls) |
July 21: Bob and Dora (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls) |
July 22: Dora's Best Performance on the Cat Wheel (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls) |
July 26: Bob Gets Cleaned Up (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls) |
August 1-31: The Cats of August
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August 4: Dora Comes for a Visit (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls) |
August 15: Zack on the Cat Wheel (Solo, Unbidden) (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls) |
August 24: Bob Gets Cleaned Up (again) (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls) |
October 15 - November 2: Bob in Florida
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November 6-9: Bob Wasn't Broken, But He Got Fixed Anyway
Bob was gone over the weekend, and we picked him up on Monday. Usually cats just stay two nights, but they were fine with letting him stay the third. Better they watch him closely after his surgeries anyway.
Fortunately, we have lots of room in the townhouse, and we could give Bob the entire guest room, so there was the opportunity for him to run around a bit. Not that he did much of that in the first few days, and he did have to wear his little collar for a few days so that he wouldn't gnaw at his sutures. He didn't show much inclination to do that- at least not after the first day or so.
We went in to visit with him frequently, as we are doing in the pictures at right. After the third day, I brought in the other cats one at a time so they wouldn't forget him, and at the end of the week we were able to take the collar off and let him out.
I might say that we found him favoring his left paw, holding it off the ground when he was just sitting, and I thought I could see him limp on it just a bit. It didn't seem to keep him from doing much, but when it lasted ten days or so I took him back to the vet so they could take a look. They didn't see anything, and just told us to keep watching him. It did seem to improve, but it didn't go away entirely, so I took the vet's advice and ordered a kind of "nerve-deadening", anesthetic-laced cat treat. I began giving him those in the weeks before we left for Florida after Christmas, and continued giving them to him there. When we didn't notice the behavior any more, we again followed the vet's advice and took him off the treats. The behavior did not recur; the vet said that in the first few days, if a cat feels pain in a paw, he will hold it up, and they will often continue to do so long after the pain actually goes away. The medication will relieve any pain that there actually is, and so the cat learns quickly that it doesn't hurt to put the paw down.
November 26 - December 2: Heading Into the Holidays
Here are a couple of movies that I'd like to include from this particular week:
Bob watched the dancing lion go through his routine and seemed totally unconcerned. (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls) |
One evening I was alone in the study working on this photo album. Well, not quite alone... (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls) |
In early December, Fred got a new computer for his house, and we set it up here. As is so often the case, the empty box proved to be an enticing cat toy:
The cats had a good Christmas, getting lots of treats under the tree (and hiding under it on occasion). We had a good Christmas, too, and late in December took both Zack and Bob to Florida with us. You'll be able to see them on both the first album page for 2017 and also on the Pets page for that year.
You can use the link below return to the index for 2016.
Return to the Index for 2016 |