The trouble with pets is that they don’t use their words. By that, I mean, they don’t talk to us in plain spoken language.
Is it really that hard? Then again, maybe it is. We start learning how to speak around the age of 3, give or take. It’s been said that the average dog’s intelligence is on par with the average 2 year old. Cats are probably fairly similar. That means they missed the speaking boat by about a year, which sucks for them. Or rather… it sucks for us.
See, we’re having pet troubles now, which would be very easy to solve if they could just talk to us about it, instead of just laying around, or meowing all the time.
On the one hand, Elliott the Cat has kept Jami and I up every night this week. It’s not constant, mind you, but every couple of hours, he’ll wander through the room with something very important to say.
“Meow. Meow meow. Merrrrow. Meow meow meow thhrrrbt meow.”
Then he’ll jump on the bed and, because we clearly didn’t hear it, say it all over again right next to our head.
“What, Elliott?! What do you want?! Use your words! Or better yet, don’t! It’s 4:00 in the damn morning!”
“Meow.”
We tried closing the bedroom door last night, and it worked some. He woke me up at 2. Then he woke both of us up at 4, when Jami wanted to let him in. She didn’t hear him start and stop at 2, so thought it would go on longer than it would have, and I was too sleepy to form a coherent sentence stating as much. Once in the room, he rambled on, talking about this and that for what seemed like half an hour, climbing around on both Jami and I before finally settling down. He then woke us up again around 6, but that’s fine, because that’s when the alarm goes off anyway.
We’re going to try the closed door approach again tonight. Cross your fingers, please.
On the other hand is The Squanto. He’s in a pretty bad way right now. He had a worms last month, which we picked up on right away and immediately treated. I don’t know what happened since (or how he got them in the first place), but he’s not been the same since. He’s not had much of an appetite, and has been very lethargic. The blood work performed at the visit to the vet yesterday showed him to be extremely anemic. That explains the appetite and lethargy. Also, There was an odd lump on his back leg that, when poked for a cell sample, actually turned out to be full of blood. Blood completely absent of white blood cells, no less.
Poor little guy is just tired all the time, and has no energy whatsoever. I’ve been feeding him by hand, trying to get him to eat, and will probably go for some of the more expensive and meaty soft foods, if only to get him back going again. If only he’d use his words, we could get him what he wants, and he could tell us where it hurts.
The vet recommended an ultrasound to see what was going on in that leg of his, but I need more information and more thought put into it before I take him back down the rabbit hole of excessively expensive and taxing procedures. I’ll probably get a second opinion.
Until then, we’ll be watching him as closely as time allows (we do have to work, after all), and trying every trick I know to get him to eat…
Wish us luck with both the kitty and the puppy!