From the Cat Front

To everyone who contributed to my cat-vet bills, thank you all from the bottom of my heart.  With your help, I paid off the last bills from poor little Silverstreak, checked in Silversun for a thorough physical and treatment, which included an overnight stay in the hospital and some take-home medicines.  Yes, he's got some unspecified kidney disease, the same thing that killed Streak and Dot, just not as severe.  With the use of the medicines, he should recover completely.
The problem is getting the medicines into him.  Twice a day I have to get a small pill down his throat, and he fights like a demon to avoid that.  If he even thinks I'm coming to give him a pill he runs and hides in some inaccessible spot, like the top of the closet or under the computer-desk, so I have to sneak up on him maybe half an hour in advance, pounce on him and wrap him up in a towel -- a spectacle which gives Rasty much amusement.  Then there's the fun of holding his head (Silversun's, not Rasty's), prying his jaws open, poking the pill inside (I take care to wet it first, so it'll go down easier), and shoving it far enough to the back of his mouth so that he has to swallow it.  Once he's lost that battle, he's usually willing to hold still while I put the antibiotic salve into his eyes.  I always pet him extravagantly afterwards, which he accepts as his due, but the moment I let him loose from the towel, he hops off my lap and marches indignantly away.  I have to do this twice a day.  *Sigh*
And then there's the special (easy on the kidneys) cat food I'm supposed to feed him.  He absolutely refuses to eat the stuff, and there's no way I can shove a full meal of that stuff down his throat.  He'll only deign to eat fresh canned food, and not much of that, either.  I tried feeding him people-food, the sort he normally can't resist (boiled chicken hearts and livers, chopped to cat-bite-size, with the other medicine powdered on top of it), but he'll only eat a little and then walk away.  Not that he's losing weight, but he's not putting any on, either.  
He spends the rest of his time moping, either wandering around the house yowling plaintively or sticking close to me and nudging me for petting.  He's pretty obviously depressed, missing his lost family.  Cats are said to be solitary beasts, but I've seen that they do indeed have a form of society -- and they're smart enough to feel the loss when it's gone.  He's grieving, and he's lonely.  
I promised Rasty that I'd wait a "couple" months before getting any more cats, but May is the usual time for kittens in this part of the world, and I won't wait any longer than that.  I found that the local Petsmart has a "re-homing" service, and I'll sign up with them the next time I have to go up to the plaza where it's located.  I'll also sign on with the Animal Welfare League, which is famous for re-homing pets.  I hope they'll be tolerant of my conditions;  I want a short-haired female, just old enough to eat solid food and too young to be spayed, with five distinct toes on each forefoot and discernible intelligence.  A little pale-pointed Siamese would be about perfect.  Considering how my tomcats for the past ten years have spread their genes around the neighborhood, I expect I'll find something suitable here in town.  All I have to do is search hard enough, which I'll do.  Seeing how Silversun has always been gentle and playful with kittens, I think a sweet little female will be just what he needs to cheer him up.  It'll be good to see him play again.
No, I'm not attributing human characteristics to my animals;  after years of observing this bloodline of cats -- and breeding them for intelligence -- I've seen that they do have very human-like emotions and thought-patterns of their own.  Yes, I've hung around with Furry fandom a bit, and the point where I diverge from them is the assumption that an intelligent animal must have a human-like body.  Why shouldn't a cat remain a cat, and just gain workable thumbs and high intelligence?  
The same holds true for dogs, horses, and other fuzzy critters -- or feathered, or even scaly.  I think it would do humans good to have a lot of intelligent non-human neighbors around.  It just might make us a little more respectful of the natural ecosystem we all share.
--Leslie <;)))><    I