Sunday, September 28, 2014

Changes, changes, changes...

We spent Labor Day week in Land O Lakes, Wisconsin.  For ten days after we came home, we cut Sadie's Prozac down from every other day to every third day.  Carl went back to Wisconsin for a week and I discontinued Sadie's meds completely.  So, we are two weeks into finding out what kind of cat she is while off meds (again).  So far, crossed fingers, we've had no cat spats.  Sadie is more playful and more vocal and more alert.  She's up for longer periods of time during the day, she's not hiding in the bedroom all the time, she wanders from room to room.  We've only seen one instance of territory marking and we're now spraying areas we want her to stay away from with straight white vinegar.  We've only had one mess and that area has been sprayed repeatedly, also.  Litter boxes have been reduced by one, the one in the spare bedroom has been removed and there have been no messes there.  The two litter boxes that were in the back left corner of the living room behind a chair have been moved to the front right corner right off the foyer.  Not only are they easier to get to for cleaning but they are out where we can see the cats use them.  Neither of our cats is the 'shy' type, Sassy actually uses the litter box in the laundry room when I use the bathroom, just two girls doing their business together.  The cats still walk wide around each other but Sassy will follow Sadie and stay close when she's not sleeping.  This morning Sassy was up in the family room window (we have side by side windows there with a wide ledge and a cat perch mounted on one side.  Sassy will lay on the perch but prefers laying on the ledge, so she's just minding her own business and Sadie jumps up on the perch; both cats in the window, two feet from each other.  Baby steps.  When the weather is nice we have two windows on the second floor open all the time, the one in our bedroom is claimed by Sadie, the one in my craft room is used by both of them.  Sassy doesn't have her own territory but she'd been reluctant to enter our bedroom, she does that more often now.

We had been feeding Sadie a third of a large can of Friskies cat food each morning and Sassy a large teaspoon of Fancy Feast with Gravy mixed with a half teaspoon of water (Sassy just likes gravy).  Sadie would eat her food and then finish Sassy's.  While Carl was in Wisconsin I tried an experiment.  I opened one can of Fancy Feast, gave Sassy her portion with a little water, and gave Sadie the rest.  I figured she liked it since she was cleaning Sassy's bowl every morning.  Sadie is now eating more and both bowls are cleaned.  I suspect they would like Fancy Feast twice a day but that's too hard on our cat sitter so they eat dry food for dinner, we feed Iams Hairball Control all the time.  We've been experimenting with different litters, too.  I bought a bag of natural cedar, pine and corn clumping litter.  Smells fabulous, cleans really well and both cats use the box I put it in.  I don't think they are finicky about litter.  If they will use this, it certainly has a better odor and there is no dust, it's also softer on their feet than clay.

Sassy is in the craft room window, Sadie is on the bed and for the moment, all is right with our world.

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