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:-D :-D :-D :-D He looks very peaceful.

:-D :-D :-D Ann. OH would be mortified LOL But I won't let on :-D

Your photo is on the blog Jane ;-)

Thomas is obviously used to his harness Jane if he sits quiety outside and diesn't struggle to escape. Not too much longer for him now.

Vera I hope Mitzi continues to improve and that you find a solution as to what was wrong.

Mitzi seems a bit better today. She is still eating chicken, only a mouthful at a time but she keeps going back to it. She also sat in the garden for 10 minutes today and that is the first time she has been outside all week. She had lost about half a kilo in weight and, as she is quite a small cat anyway, that is quite a lot. I am hoping she will start to put the weight back on now.

I do think she is on the up now but I would like to know what has been the matter in case it happens again.

Any improvement with Mitzi today Vera?I really hope so.It is such a worry when you don't know what the problem is :-(

My horror is sitting next to me here on the patio .His lead is tied on to one of the chairs and he is lying quite peacefully looking down the garden.(probably hoping to spot a bunny).He just pesters to be outside all the time now :-S.Which is fine but it just means that one of us has to be there too.
I have just been watching a group of baby Blue Tits all screeching to be fed on one of the branches opposite the window feeder.The Mum or Dad was flying back and forth with bits of the suet pellets for them.They certainly know how to make themselves heard LOL.
I have been looking out for Hoppy(my one legged Sparrow) but I think he is no longer with us :-(. There is another one here now with a bad leg !!

Just reading back and I'm so sorry to read the concerns you have about your
cat Vera. I do hope that the cat improves soon, so you can relax a little.

We laugh at the cat's antics but it is a worry when you don't know what is wrong or how to help. It was really odd. On Monday she was her normal self, on Tuesday it was just as though she had given up on life. Yet she isn't sick, she doesn't appear to be in pain, she has just given up eating and, more worryingly, drinking.

However earlier OH, (who always says he hates cats), lay on the floor with her and got her to eat a couple of tiny shreds of chicken. Then a little while later she came out from under the table and made a noise at me which I interpreted as "give me more", and she has eaten another mouthful.

Jane, this is the only cat we have ever had trouble medicating. Others have sometimes been a bit difficult but this cat is a one-off. We tried the spot on stuff but only managed to get it on her once. She seems to smell anything in her food from a mile away and won't go near it. We've tried wrapping her tightly in a towel and I have a number of shredded towels to prove it. Yet normally Mitzi is a calm, home loving cat who seldom ventures beyond her own garden. Luckily neither we nor the vet have found any sign of fleas or worms so the vet said not to worry about it. The vet normally gives her a pill at her annual check up and we make do with that.

How lovely to see the heron. Still not much around here though we did have several young starlings around earlier. At the moment I am pleased to see anything in the garden

Oh what a worry for you Vera.Still not knowing what is wrong.I do hope Mitzi picks up.
It is distressing for both cat and owners when trying to get tablets down .
I have been so lucky with Thomas as he had his pills in his food and the liquid med I just squirted on his food.My last cat Solo was a nightmare when it came to medication.Like you it took 2 of us and even then not very successful :-S
I always use the Spot On Worm and Flea treatment.That can be a bit of a trial but much easier than the tablet version.

I have just seen a big Heron fly over the garden heading towards next doors 'lake'.It was really big.

You are right there Ann. We are definitely the cat's servants and we ought to know our place.

I've just had a call from the vet; good news and bad news. The good news is that the blood tests have shown nothing untoward, a slightly raised cell count and a little bit of anaemia but nothing to worry them. The bad news is that the blood tests have shown nothing untoward! This means that there is something going on that they haven't discovered yet.

Sarah, the vet, asked if we had tried giving Mitzi the medication yet and did we succeed. I think she has the measure of our cat, lol. She has suggested we have one more go but if we can't get her to take it fairly easily then we should not bother any more. It is not worth stressing the cat out so much. It is apparently to help her feel less nauseous but is not essential to her well being.

The vet is going to see her again early on Tuesday and, if she hasn't improved, then we will have to consider imaging. I feel an expensive time coming on.

Off now to offer the mistress of the house a little lightly poached chicken breast. Her slaves are getting sausages!

Lol Vera, she is in charge obviously

OH is back from the vet and is £146 lighter in the pocket and we still don't know what is wrong. The vet has taken blood tests and will ring when she has some results. We have a little phial of stuff to give the cat twice a day to help keep her hydrated.

The vet told us to be careful as the cat is handy with her claws as they found out during the blood tests. Does she think we don't know that? One sniff of anything medical and my meek, butter wouldn't melt cat turns into an angry, raging tiger. Last time anyone tried to give her a worm pill it took my husband, a nurse, two vets and three pills before they got one down her throat.

Anyway, OH put the required amount of stuff into the syringe, I covered my hands and arms with a cardigan and gloves and got hold of the cat. I held her front legs and head as shown by the vet and lay across her back half and OH got the syringe in the corner of her mouth. Even with me laying on her she still managed to use her back legs like some sort of bucking bronco. The surface she was on is now scratched to bits, I got a scratch on my wrist, through my cardigan, and when we let go of her she spat out the jollop we thought she had swallowed.

One cat for sale. Any offers?

Oh dear Vera, I hope your cat is ok and that the vet finds nothing seriously wrong. What a wasted day you had, don't you hate days like that?

It sounds as though Thomas hasn't lost his wandering instinct and, given half a chance, will be roaming far and wide again. You should have called him Rover. :-D

We've made an appointment at the vet tomorrow for our cat. She hasn't eaten anything for a couple of days and is just lying under our dining table where she always goes if she is stressed. I'm hoping that it is nothing very serious but I am quite concerned as she is 14 and we lost her sister to cancer two years ago.

It's been a bad day all round. The house painter turned up late as he had problems, then as soon as he got started it rained heavily and he had to stop again.

Then I went to visit a friend in hospital. Parking is appalling at the hospital so I decided to go by bus, a trip of an hour and a quarter each way. When I got there it was to find that she had been sent home just before. I was delighted for her but annoyed for me.

As there was a 45 minute wait for a bus home I thought I would have a cup of tea. Got my purse out and found I had the princely sum of 36p, so I went for a walk instead! Left home at 12.45, got back at 4.45 to find a message from my friend to tell me she had been discharged. What a wasted day :-|

Ann,I think I did today.I still think it might be a young Woodpecker.There is a lot of Woodpecker noise at the moment and very close to our garden.

I made a mistake earlier and left the back door open when I went to sit on the patio.OH was sitting next to me facing the back door(luckily).He spotted Thomas slinking behind my chair heading down the garden.I just followed him slowly and managed to pick him up before he got too far.I am sure he wouldn't have legged it ,but if he had got under the hedge he would have been gone.I do feel sorry that he is not able to go and roam as his instinct is to hunt.The positive side of having him harnessed is that we get no 'KILL' :-D. He has had a bit of a walk around now with OH ,but is now conked out again.I think he is still getting over the sedation he had yesterday .

Vera our Bird Bath is in the same state as yours .Pigeons are the worst culprits.Dirty Birds !!! Why would you poop in your bath???..Good job we have a long hosepipe to woosh out all the muck :-D

Poor Thomas he will probably be confused now when you finally take the harness off.

Good about your friend's cat Vera, she must be strong.

Jane have you seen the strange bird again?

That is really good news about your friends cat Vera :-D I had a call from the Vet today as I didn't see him when I picked Thomas up last night. Yes I have to keep him on the harness for at least another month!!!.This is going to take us up to about when we go to Pembrokeshire .Then it will be to the Cattery :-S

Poor Thomas - he must be getting fed up with his harness by now. Look on the bright side Jane, at least when he's on the harness you know he isn't getting into mischief somewhere.

My friend's cat seems to have been luckier than Thomas. She has seen the vets today and they are amazed at how well the cat has recovered, especially since she is 14 years old. My friend still needs to keep the cat in and prevent her from jumping but she doesn't have to keep her in the crate anymore. The vet wants to see her again in a fortnight.

Not much in the way of bird life in the garden at all, apart from the two sparrows that keep coming to the fat balls. They are getting quite bold now and aren't a bit bothered if we are close by. The pigeons and the blackbirds use the bird bath a lot and could do with learning some manners. They leave the facilities in a disgusting state!

Lots of Thrushes on the lawn tonight .One looks a bit strange wit ha longer beak.I am wondering if it might be a young Woodpecker. It is a shame when you find an abandoned nest with eggs.I wonder what actually makes parents abandon their nests.

Thomas has had his X-rays done today on his hip..Poor thing is still away with the fairies.Eyes like saucers !..All looks good on the X-rays but I think I will still have to keep him on the harness for a few weeks longer until his leg muscles get stronger .He won't be happy about that :-S.Better safer than sorry .

We have just filled up the bird feeders but we are not having to do it as often at the moment. We do have wood pigeons and collard doves coming to feed plus two regular goldfinches and a bluetit or two but not much else. Mr blackbird is very busy round the garden though.
Yesterday we had a goldfinch that was eating the seeds of a lavender, it stayed there pecking away for ages.

Sadly we also found when cutting down a rambling rose, an abandoned wood pigeon's nest with two eggs in it. We knew they were up there a month or so ago but never did see a nest. they must have been disturbed. And the nest was really well camouflaged.