Sunday, beautiful Sunday

 There was a big storm front that moved through here last night, and this morning, we woke up to 70 degrees and beautiful sunshine.

We are going out to walk at the park where we see the deer all the time, while it's still early.  Then, a trip to Costco, a stop at the pharmacy, and then treating ourselves to a visit to another local brewery.

Dave has decided that we need to get out in nature every weekend... I guess it had to be his idea, HAHA!

We'll see how long it lasts...

I'd go by myself, but it's not necessarily safe these days.

I can't remember if I blogged about our cat Frank getting sick.  

He's only a year and a half old, and we lost a kitty who was that age before, so it was a scary time for all of us.

Almost 2 weeks ago, Frank's behavior changed completely and suddenly.  After a normal Frank day, on a Tuesday evening, Frank became terrified of the kitchen.

He crouched on the dining room side of the threshold in the doorway leading into the kitchen, and stared, hackles up, pupils dilated, for hours.

It seemed that he saw a gang of poltergeists in there or something.  It was so weird.

He also stopped vocalizing (he's normally VERY talkative), playing, cuddling with his brother, etc, and took to hiding.  He also will not go into the bathroom, for some reason.

We gave it a day, and he was still acting really strange, so Dave took him to the vet.  In the meantime, we moved a litter box into the living room.

The vet palpated him, and said he seemed FINE... no intestinal blockage, no bladder issues (PHEW!), so he did a blood test.  The blood test shows inflammation somewhere in the body, and a couple of the other numbers indicated pancreatitis.

He explained that un-expelled hair in the stomach can cause a blockage of the pancreatic duct that empties into the stomach, and this can cause the pancreas to "back up," and become inflamed.  This can be quite painful, apparently.

SO, Frank was given an injection of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication, and a bag of sub-cutaneous fluids because he was dehydrated (We hadn't thought about the fact that the kitty water fountain is in the kitchen).

Since his visit to the vet, we've installed a second water fountain in the living room, and are keeping the litter box in here, too, because of his lingering fear of the kitchen.

Frank has gradually been improving, and yesterday, he even jumped up onto the top of the front door, using the covered litter box as a launch pad!  This was wonderful to see.

He's also been more vocal, playful, affectionate, and has ventured part way into the kitchen to eat for several days in a row.

He seems to be more comfortable going in there, without the enticement of food, if I am in there already. However, he will only go about as far as the stove.

My guess is that he became afraid of the kitchen because he probably had the onset of pain while eating in there, OR while back using the litter box.  That's all we can figure.

He still won't go THROUGH the kitchen to the laundry room, where the litter boxes are normally kept.  We're REALLY hoping he gets over this completely, and will go back there again eventually.  I don't like having litter all of the wood floors in the living room, and we don't have room for one in the bathroom, where he won't go anyway.

I miss him coming into the bathroom with  me. He and I had a routine when I would take my shower in the mornings.

The vet said nothing about dietary changes or anything, so we made that decision on our own.  All cats are getting hair ball remedy on the regular, and we are changing the dry food to a hair ball remedy formula.

Hopefully, this will help Frank to process hair more efficiently, and will keep this from happening to him again.

Okay, that's my report for this week!  Time to get OUTSIDE!