Two out of the three of us had a quiet weekend: I was recovering from a COVID booster and Doc was doing prep for a colonoscopy/endoscopy (and hopefully the end of the Summer of Poop).
But Toby is feeling better–after six months!–and gave us an array of meows and trips upstairs and demands for food and Sassy Looks while we sat on the couch:
This is not a drill: I made cat clothes and Toby wore them…for about 24 (glorious) hours. Why? He has to wear a glucose monitor to check how the insulin is working. It’s a human monitor that supposedly can stick on for up to 14 days, but we didn’t know if he would immediately try to lick it off.
So we had the vet put him in a medical shirt after they applied the monitor Saturday morning. He hated it. He looked like a sad, scared sausage in a casing–and that’s after I hiked it up from snapping around his tail.
I bit my nails for an hour or so and then thought, “Wait. I have baby clothes patterns. I have so much fabric. I can MAKE my cat a better shirt.” Reader, I did:
I used the Brindille and Twig free Ringer Tee pattern (last made for a human baby) and cut the back on the flat, adding an overlap for a placket. I finished all the edges with foldover elastic and used my trusty KAM Snaps.
He tolerated that shirt so much better (you can see he’s less mad about it) but the neck was still a little low. So I made another one that afternoon, using the neck binding piece from the pattern…and leftover fabric from a shirt for Doc (!!!). Reader, I died. It was so cute:
Toby deigned to wear his second shirt overnight and we took it off Sunday for supervised “naked” time. In hindsight that was a mistake, since he was having none of it when we tried to put it back on while we left for a visit Sunday. But he’d left the monitor alone for that visit, and it was still on Monday morning, so we made a deal that he didn’t have to wear clothes if he didn’t try to tear off his monitor.
Hooray for sewing, though–I solved a problem in about 20 minutes (and enjoyed seeing my baby in a handmade outfit).
Well, it’s a good thing we’re going to the vet today because yesterday afternoon I looked at Toby and said, “Wait, does your other ear have a hematoma now?” Reader, it does:
The ear on the left in the picture is the one that got misshapen from the hematoma three years ago. The ear on the right is the swelling level as of this morning, and it’s already crumpled. I guess now his little crumpled ears will match? (I am not handling this well, actually.)
So we changed our morning vet tech appointment to an afternoon visit with a real vet, to drain the ear and then learn how to give insulin. This poor cat.
I took the rest of the week OFF, originally to burn up some vacation time if I quit but now because I need a break from the promotion I got instead of quitting. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Anyway, it’s not going to be all sewing–Toby has to get more bloodwork today, I have to stain the deck and do outside things, etc.–but I’m going to enjoy not working (or posting). Just like Toby does every day:
Toby was still worryingly up and down after the last blog check in but we gradually changed out his food and started on a half dose of his anti-diarrhea meds last weekend and it’s been night and day from how he was in April. Now he’s almost back to normal, relaxed and curious and talkative.
There are a couple things that are still just a little off so we’re waiting on an appointment at an animal hospital for a blood draw (the mobile vet doesn’t do that) but overall he’s a much happier boy. And thus his parents are happier too.
Well, the vet didn’t see any red flags for serious problems, didn’t think we needed to run any tests yet, left us with “kitty kaopectate” and some probiotics to mix in his food, and told us to text him updates. (A vet that texts! And comes to your house!!) He was a lovely man, very reassuring–beatific, even–and handled Toby as little as possible to not stress him out.
Here is proof that he texts!
And here is Toby forgiving me for making him stay in the bathroom with a stranger for two minutes:
Toby seems tired today but he didn’t get a lot of sleep yesterday, between Matt and me being home and then the vet visit and all the washes required afterwards. The kitty kaopectate seems to be working, though!
We have the mobile vet coming in the window between 9:00 and 1:00 today and I’m barely holding it together. As you can see from this pic last Monday, Toby is mostly his usual self, and I bet we can address the other issues with some different food.
But my anxiety started whispering, “What if it’s cancer? What if we can’t fix it?” over the weekend and now it’s pretty much screaming that in my brain. So either way, it will be good to talk to the vet and get something concrete to worry about.
We’ll take all the good energy and prayers you want to send, and thank you.
Matt had a little bit of a head cold last week and then I picked it up, so I spent the weekend mostly on the couch attended by Toby L. Cat, M.D.
(He’s attending to his toe beans here, but he stuck pretty close all weekend.)
Matt was only stuffy and tired for about 4 days so I’m hoping I get the same. Entering day 3 today, with Dr. Toby on call.
Falalalala la la la la
(No ornaments got destroyed, despite how fierce he looks.)
Try to get the sun to move with the power of your paw:
