Fun with pets

I will warn you now--this is not pretty.

As most of you know, we have two cats (the one really great cat having died a couple of years ago...still miss you, Roo kitty!): Mouse (long fur) and Smokey (short & greasy fur).

They have diarrhea. And have had since last night.

We had to buy a Bissell SpotLifter from WalMart last night at 10p.m.

What first clued me in was the somewhat formed turd & residue on Mousey's cute little kitty behind. That rapidly became less cute as this adventure wore on. There comes a point in every pet-owner's life where pride goes out the window (and I'm sure we'll see this in triplicate once our little Bean is here)--I grabbed a washcloth, wet it well with warm water, and while Mouse was distracted by the really smelly food I put in her bowl, I proceeded to wipe her butt. And no, she didn't like it much. Apparently, she wanted me to leave the fecal matter where it was, so that she could scoot across the carpeting.

How do I know this?

Because as soon as I was done wiping her butt (and then trimming her butt fur, which admittedly we'd let get too long, by the looks of it), she went to the litter box, her butt exploded, and then she proceeded to scoot along the carpet.

Which prompted the 10p.m. trip to WalMart for the above-referenced SpotLifter (which is great, by the way...we really like it and it works well).

Now normally our cats are pretty healthy (well, except for The Diabetes that Smokey has), and since Smokey pees a lot, I thought I'd get him some Purina One for urinary tract health (I just figured that Mouse would also benefit from this variety), and we've had them on a 1/2 canned, 1/2 dry diet since Smokey's diagnosis. I figured that maybe the change from the Indoor Cat formula to the Urinary Tract Health formula caused a little tummy distress for Mousey.

Well, as it turns out, for Smokey, too.

Yes, his butt is also exploding, and he doesn't stop with diarrhea. No, Smokey goes for broke with vomiting, too. Luckily, Patrick was very quick, and picked up Smokey and popped him on the vinyl floor in our "dining room." I tell you, it sounded like someone emptying a bucket. I'm not sure how much liquid Smokey had in his tummy, but it sounded like a whole bunch. But, it did give us a chance to try out the "hard surface cleaning power" of our SpotLifter (which Patrick said worked well). And, I must admit, that as soon as I heard the sounds of Smokey begining to urp, I lost it. I started laughing so hard I was snorting. The whole unpleasantness of it just washed over me, and I guess to keep from crying or going insane (which is probably debatable, as I apparently think it's hysterically funny that our cat was vomiting), I laughed. And laughed. I laughed all through the urping, and laughed through Patrick's testing out of the "hard surface cleaning power" of the SpotLifter. I 'm just happy Patrick understands my sense of humor.

So, I did some research on-line, and they advocate taking up food for 24 hours. We'll keep an eye on them....and hopefully they won't die before Monday (as much as I love the cats, I'm not sure that I want to pay emergency room vet costs for what may be as simple as their food isn't agreeing with them). I'm sure we'll get lots more use out of the SpotLifter, too, before the weekend is over.

On another note, Patrick will be going back to Cleveland, but because of various shutdowns of the plant that he'll be working at, he doesn't have to go until Wednesday after our next doctor's appointment (8:30 a.m. for those of you keeping track--this is the big one, where we get to video the ultrasound!!!!), so I will have him home for a few more days.

Which is good, since it may take both of us to corral the cats should their butts begin exploding again.