Floyd Isn't Well

Floyd came home with a cold. I gave him his antibiotics morning and night. I’ve never been sneezed on by a cat and it was rather gross as a booger flew out his nose and on to my hand. But he seemed to get better as the week went on. I had a follow-up veterinarian appointment with the SPCA in two weeks to get his last shot and general check up.

I noticed the day before his check up his left eye looked watery and droopy. When I took him in I mentioned it and the veterinarian did a dye check in his eye and said that he had a scratch on his eye and gave me an ointment to apply to his eye twice a day.

After two days of the ointment Floyd’s eye looked worse so I decided to take him to a local veterinarian. They luckily squeezed his in that day. Turns out that Floyd had a scratch but more importantly had conjunctivitis in both his eyes. The new veterinarian said that the ointment only twice a day was useless. He gave me a different antibiotic and different ointment and said if it didn’t look better in three days to come back.

Friday night Floyd’s eye didn’t look improved enough so I called the veterinarian and got an appointment for the next day.

Floyd has three ulcers on his eye. There are three things we could have done. One – Put a cone on his head and see if he is the one causing the damage while continuing treatment. Two – Sew his eye shut and let it constantly be moisturized and out of harm’s way, also with the cone and continued treatment. Three – Take him to an ophthalmologist and see what they would like to do.

I chose option one. So far his eye seems to be improving. We have two more days of intense treatment to see if this is going to work before we have to take more extreme measures. All prayers are welcome.

The really sad part is he hates the cone. He sleeps most of the day and at other times looks sadly at you saying with his eyes “please take this off me.” I’ve tried to take it off and let him relax a bit. But as soon as I do he wants to lick and rub his eye. The last time I tried to allow him some freedom he went for his eye and when I pushed his paw back he took both paws and rubbed as hard as he could trying to get in any rubbing before I pulled both his paws back and returned the cone. It was such a toddler kind of move I laughed even though it was pitiful at the same time.

Every time I see him all I can think of is the movie Up with the “cone of shame.” My poor kitty.

Newest Family Member

Meet Floyd.

Floyd is the newest addition to our family. Hubby is not big on cats. He’s a dog man. I on the other hand LOVE cats. I’ve owned one or two cats most of my life. When I asked Hubby if we could get a cat he told me that he didn’t want one but my desire to have one was more than his desire not too so I could get one.

I went to the SPCA and was specifically looking for an adult cat. No kittens. Kittens are too much work and bite and scratch without even thinking about it.

I walked around and looked and pet the different fuzzy cuties that needed a home for over an hour and a half. I kept being drawn back to this little black guy because even though it said he was only four months old he was laid back and relaxed. But no. I needed an adult cat.

I was honestly about to give up because there wasn’t a cat there that fit the bill for the entire family. That’s when I saw a young couple with a baby get out the little guy I had been eyeing. They pet him and he sat there. No abundant friskiness or trying to climb them like a tree. Then the baby reaches over and yanks the cat’s tail. Hard. The cat doesn’t scratch, doesn’t bite, and doesn’t even meow. He simply turns and looks at the baby, and moves his tail out of reach. The couple hems and haws and eventually tells the volunteer that they would have to think about it and puts him back in his cage.

They thought too long because as soon as they walked out the door I pulled his card and said I wanted him. He had to stay and get neutered but I got to pick him two days later.

Floyd is perfect. I thought he was laid back at the shelter but he is completely laid back even in the land of bears. The girls loud squeals make him look or wake up from a nap but not run and hide. Bonus since I wanted to get a cat for the entire family to enjoy. He is a complete love bug and would rather be in your lap or at your feet than anywhere else. Even while we eat dinner he sits under the table and just hangs out. Doesn’t even beg. He does like to sleep on my head when we sleep at night but even that is tolerable. He is so loving and awesome that Hubby has accepted and loved him like everyone else. I guess the guys have to stick together in a house of estrogen.

The only thing wrong with him isn’t even his fault. Floyd had a cold when I got him from the shelter. A cold that turned into something so much worse. Too long for this post so come back tomorrow for one of the most pitiful sights you have ever seen.

First Board Game

Hubby and I are gamers at heart. We love to get together with friends and play traditional and non-traditional games. Hubby likes the non-traditional such as Settlers of Catan, The Great Dalmuti, and Munchkin. I completely understand if you have never heard of these games but some of them are quite fun and I’d play all of them over Monopoly any day. ESPECIALLY Monopoly with my best friend. Love her but you have never seen cut throat insanity until those dice are in her hands.

Since we love games so much we have often talked about how much fun it is going to be when our girls are old enough to have family game night. It was going to be a huge perk of being a parent. The girls being so close in age I wanted to wait on an actual board game until Kaitlyn was 3. We have played the Go Fish mechanical game and the flipping Ants in The Pants game. All fun but lacking in the set in stone rules.

I knew Candy Land would be one of the, if not the, first game I bought for the girls. Out shopping last week I saw an “original” version and decided to get it. “Original” meaning it wasn’t computerized, jumbo sized or modernized with some Nickelodeon character.

After dinner Hubby brought out the game and you would have thought it was Christmas. Teagan was beside herself happy. As Daddy set up the game he explained how to play to the girls. It took us some time to fully pick our colored guys. Kaitlyn has only really played with dolls so she didn’t want to let her guy go. Certainly a precursor to what was about to happen.

Being their first board game we had to say the rules over and over. How to pick up only one card. How to move to the colored squares on the path. Staying on the path. Within the first two minutes this proved to be too much for Kaitlyn. She didn’t complain, or whine, or throw a fit of any sort. She calmly got up from the table, walked into the living room and called for me to turn on Cinderella for her. I guess she’s not ready.

Teagan, Daddy and I continued with our game. Teagan got noticeable better through the game. Counting her squares and moving along. The destination cards threw her for a loop but she took the explanation okay. Or so I thought.

We were close to the end and Teagan got a destination card that threw her back behind me. She was okay with moving until she saw I was going to finish before her. Her patience was frayed and I saw it in her eyes. We moved a few more squares and ran out of cards. That broke her. I’m not sure if she thought that was it and the game would just be left in limbo. Her face went red as she started grumbling incoherently with sparse words of “no” and “but…but” came out. Trying to explain that I just need to shuffle was no use so I just did it and quickly set the cards back up.

Two more moves and I won. Teagan at this point started inner whining and tears started to glisten in her little eyes. I quickly told her that she still needed to keep playing so her or Daddy could win. She ended up winning but was worse for the wear.

Normally she would want to do it again but no fuss was made and she actually looked relieved to be packing up the pieces. My poor little girl. It was just this side of too much. Although I wish I had videotaped it since it was the culmination of every raw emotion I’ve ever seen in her all in 15 minutes. We will play again and soon, it is part of growing up. Even if it stole a little bit of her innocence.