Conference misery::feline_v1

    It sounds like Delia is doing just fine ... so are everyone else!  
    That is great to hear!  Hopefully, you can have a BIG, HAPPY party
    on Saturday!
    
    Julie

it's official....Dillycat and Sadie are fast friends!  For whatever reason, this
kitten has decided that Sadie is her pal.  Sadie is so bemused by the whole
thing - she lays quietly while Dilly climbs over her, nuzzles her big nose, and
generally hangs out with her.  Sadie is so gentle with Dilly - she nuzzles back
so softly, and she very carefully checks Dilly over when she first comes in to
see Sadie in the evening.  Last night, when our play time was over, I closed up
the house and got Sadie's dog cookie out of the cookie jar and said, "crate"
which is Sadie's cue to trot down to my room and get in her crate.  Down the
hall she went....with a fluffy white and gray kitten trotting behind.  It was
absolutely adorable.  When Sadie went into her crate, Dilly plopped down right
beside her, outside the crate, and leaned against the crate to keep her company
while I finished getting ready for bed.

I'm buying a dozen rolls of film this weekend....these two are so cute 
together and noone is going to believe me without pictures...

    Sounds like we need another west coast feliners' dinner so we can all
    see the pix.
    

    Whatever happened to that Feliner's photo album that was compiled a few
    years back?  I never got a chance to see it and have been wondering
    where it currently resides.
    
    If anyone has any info please let me know!
    
    --Roberta
    

    For awhile we were duplicating pictures and several personal
    albums developed.  i believe there was a proposal to have one album
    made
    up that would circulate but it never got off the ground.  I've taken
    mine to the west coast feliner dinners a couple of times.  I wouldn't
    trust it to the interoffice mail or U.S. Snail.
    

well, last night again, I missed a wonderful photo opportunity...Dilly was
playing with Sadie's tail - Sadie is a happy dog and that tail is usually
going at some level of enthusiasm.  Last night, Delia was playing with the
kitty tease and ended up at the end of the coffee table where the tail was
sticking out - merrily flopping about as Sadie watched the game.  Well, this
looked like a wonderful toy to a little kitten -- and she pounced on the
tail, capturing it quite smartly and nipping it just a little...Sadie said,
"URF!" and yanked the tail around close to her hip and spun around to see
her little buddy laying on her back and looking adorable....typical kitten
ploy.  Sadie just placed her head between her paws on the floor and watched
Dilly....and for the rest of the evening, she was much more aware of where
Dilly was in relationship to the aforementioned tail.  I told Sadie that
Dilly didn't mean it -- and they are still acting as friends, so I think
Sadie understands.

I'm getting a really fast color film tonight so I don't miss anymore of these.
I'm still kicking myself for missing their nap together. 

Oh well, tomorrow, Dilly comes out to play with the family....and I'm sure
there will be pictures when Dilly and The Flash begin to play.

we are FREE!!!  Saturday morning, Dilly came bouncing out of her room and ran
smack into The Flash....the flash gave a half-hearted hiss...but, WAIT!  You
smell like that paw I've been trying to tempt out to play for the last week!!!
I LIKE you! 

........ and they were off.....The Flash in the lead, Dilly in second
place...and Hannah huffing and puffing in the rear...

And here they come again....Dilly in the lead, The Flash catching up fast...and
Hannah huffing and puffing in the rear.....

And, in the third lap....The Flash is back in the lead, Dilly is a fast second..
and Hannah has retired to watch the race from the window sill.....but, she is
getting better at keeping up.  In a week or two, she will be back in racing
form.

Dilly has decided that she, too, wants to claim the "crows nest" on the cat
tree...The Flash has actually had to back down and let her have it for awhile -
until Dilly decided other things were interesting.  I was surprised, but Dilly
stands her ground and doesn't get pushed around.  She is silent about it...The
Flash talks about it alot...and complains to me.  I have no sympathy...I like
seeing a fluffy white and grey kitten sitting on top of the cat tree....

Dilly does sleep very soundly at night now....she is a well-exercised kitten
these days....and The Flash is walking around with a twinkle in her eyes again..
Hannah and The Flash both have taken to Dilly with no negative feed-back...and
I don't think Sam even knows she is 'out' yet...she is played-out by the time
Sam cruises the house to see that all is well with his domain in the evenings.
Sam is strictly a nigh-cat, you see, and Dilly starts early....by 8:30 PM, she
is snoozing on my shoulder or in her bed.

All in all, Dilly has settled in quite nicely...now, if Sadie can just remember
to NOT wag her tail when Dilly is behind her, things would be perfect.  Poor
Sadie still gets her tail nipped at least once a night.  It doesn't seem to 
have affected Sadie's affection for "her" kitten, though...they are still fast
friends.

the first new-kitten trauma has been survived and now I can talk about it...

the night before last I got home at 7:00 pm - when I reached down to pick up
my kitten, she looked like an alien - her face was desperately puffed up and
miserable looking.  I grabbed Dilly and headed for the car, yelling at Marge
to call the vet and tell them I was coming.  When I got there, Dilly was
immediately given an I.V. to reduce the allergic reaction and a shot to keep
it down for the next 12 hours.  The vet and I guess that Dilly got a wasp.
I took her home and spent the rest of the evening using bug spray outside where
I thought they might be getting in, and looking for a wasp nest anywhere near.
No nest...but they are traveling far for water these days.

Dilly was sleepy the rest of the evening...but I knew she was feeling much
better when I woke up at 3:00 am and she was digging around in the tissue box
on the headboard...trying to get the tissues out. 

Now, the room where I've seen a wasp is closed during the day - I check before
my intrepid hunter gets a chance at any beasties from outside.

    Poor baby.  I notice wasp nests under the overhanging eaves(?) of
    my house, hidden against the boards that run perpendicularly across the
    eaves(?)
    

    Oh my God.  How frightening for you, and how painful it must have been
    for Dilly.  But I'm happy to see that she came thru it with flying
    colors.  It was always a big fear of mine with my first cat, Bandy.
    
    He insisted on racing around the yard and taking kamikaze leaps at
    bees and hornets, and I was afraid he'd get bit inside his mouth if he
    caught one (which I'd heard was worse then if a bee tried to sting
    thru his fur coat).
    
    You note has made me more aware, though, of where I'm living now
    (the top floor of an old home) and tonite I am going to go home and
    spray outside around the windows.  I've been seeing a multitude of
    those yellow and black wasps careening arouund the screens near where
    the kittens play.
    
    Nancy

    The important thing to remember is that if you see your cat with those
    symptoms, puffy face, swelling of the lips, tongue, etc, agitation,
    and/or  any difficulty breathing, you get them to the vet ASAP. Cats 
    can easily go into anaphylactic shock, and that can be fatal within a 
    few minutes.
    
    One of my cats was bitten by a spider a few weeks ago and we got home
    to find her foaming at the mouth, agitated, and her face completely
    swollen.  We rushed her off to the vet for a shot of epinephrine and
    she was fine within an hour or so.  It is very scary, the important
    thing is to try not to panic.
    
    Dream had her spider bite exactly one week from when my husband had his
    near fatal asthma attack, so for weeks I have been dreading Thursday
    nights... we managed to get through last night with no incidents! 
    Phew!  One thursday night I am rushing Ken to the emergency room, the
    next thursday night I was rushing Dream to the emergency room!  I need
    a vacation!! :^)
    
    Jo

    Jo,
    
    How did you know it was a spider bite and not a bee sting?  Big, gross
    spiders occasionally get into our cellar and Taja likes to chase them
    around.  I'm sure they're the biting kind too.
    

    
    Also on the spider topic, do all spiders bite?  
    
    

    Educated guess on our part.  We have lots of spiders in our house, but
    have never had a wasp, or bee problem.  We thought she might have
    gotten into ant spray that was used on the spiders that morning, so we
    took the can along to the vet.  He gave Dream a shot of epinephrine, a
    shot of antidote in case it was ant spray, and a shot of antibiotic. 
    Then once she was calmer he examined her and found a small hole on the
    underside of her gum.  The bulk of the swelling was on that side of her
    face, with that eye being swollen shut too.
    
    By an hour later, she was back to normal behavior (no agitation) and
    the swelling was starting to go down.
    
    Another important thing to remember, put the cat in a carrier as soon
    as you recognize these symptoms.  Once they become agitated they can be
    dangerous to try and handle.  The cat won't recognize you and may react
    negatively to being picked up or handled.  You could be bitten badly if
    you aren't careful.  Dream did manage to bite the vet when he was
    trying to inject her with epinephrine.  Luckily it wasn't a bad bite,
    just broke the skin, no punctures or anything.
    
    Jo

a very important point - all spiders are venomous.  They have to be as they
have no teeth and must use venom to kill and then pre-digest their prey
so they can get sustainance.  While the vast majority of spiders are not
dangerous to humans, and their bite may not even be noticed, a kitten
that weighs 5 and 1/2 pounds is going to suffer a much greater response
to the venom.  Rule of thumb:  spiders OUTSIDE the house are your friends
because their prey are the nuisance insects to you and your garden...inside,
they are a potential health hazard to your cats and should be killed or
removed.

re: remaining calm.  I want to re-emphasize the need for calm, efficient,
and quick action when you see your cat in Dilly's or Dream's condition.
My vet said my quick action saved Dilly's life.  I suggest you devise
a plan of action and make sure that:

		1) you know the quickest way to a vet at all hours of
		   the day and night.

		2) your cat carrier is easily reachable and usable...
		   clean it up after each use and wrap it in paper or
		   a lawn garbage bag to keep it free of dust and
	 	   debris.

We made it just find....in fact, Dilly and the Flash were trying to
open the door to the bathroom (the suspected room which is now closed)
when I left this morning....she probably wants a second chance to
prove her hunting prowess.  She ain't getting it.

    Marlene:
    
    I'm going assume that they all do bite - I got bit the other night and
    it's painful as hell.  Ting got bitten by one and by the time we had
    got home it looked as if his face was about to explode - we got him to
    the vet just in time and he ended up spending 4 days there.
    
    Does anyone out there know anything about "recluse" spiders - I've been
    hearing some very bad things about them and there are supposed to be
    alot of them in Marin and Contra Costa.  I heard that they can be fatal
    to humans.
    
    Giudi

brown recluse spiders are an import from the far east...presumed initial
entry point is Houston.  They can be fatal.  They are brown with a white
spot on their abdoment.  Kill on visual contact with spray.  Do not slap
one on your body, brush it off.

    
    Thank you ladies...
    
    
    

I watched Caylith chase a medium-sized spider under the rug the other day.
The spider went under in a crevice between the tiles of the floor.
I flipped back the rug and removed the spider while she watched me.
So lately, she's been flipping back the rugs in the bathroom and kitchen 
and scrunching them up, looking to see what else she can find!

Actually, I've noticed a couple evenings that her bottom lip was a little 
swollen... but I suspected that it was a reaction to the cat-nip-filled
scratching box that she's so fond of.  So I've been picking it up during the
day for moderation's sake, and it seemed to help.  But now that I'm warned 
about the spiders, I'll keep a better lookout for her.

Thanks for the warning,
Tanya 
(who's still getting moved in and chasing spiders out of the moving boxes!)

Dilly at play:

on the cat tree, we have a free-swinging wedge that I call the swing.  A cat
can enter it from eith open end, or through the hole in the middle.  A few
days ago, I entered the family room to see Dilly sitting on a platform of the
cat tree, calmly watching the swing go around with a very dizzy Flash in the
swing...each time the swing stopped moving, Dilly swatted the Flash on her
head, thereby sending the swing into wild motion again.  Dilly liked this
game very much.  The Flash fell out of her swing after awhile and staggered
off for a rest.  Dilly flashed her innocent blue eyes at me and looked
adorable.

Dilly and Sadie's game:

Sadie walks up to Dilly while she sits on the couch.  Dilly rears up and
wraps her front paws around Sadie's nose and nibbles on Sadie's whiskers...
Sadie stands very still and wags her tail very happily.  Dilly nips Sadie's
nose and cheeks, and poinks her little claws into the bridge of Sadie's nose.
Sadie seems to think this is fine....so does Dilly.  Sadie then noses Dilly
over on her back and snorfles all over her tummy.  If a kitten could giggle,
Dilly would be giggling.  They both seem to love this game.

Hannah and Dilly:

Hannah has finally accepted defeat...she has tried to groom Dilly, but the
kitten will not stop wiggling, and squirming, and well, there's all that
fur to deal with...so, after some really impressive fur balls from Hannah,
Dilly is back to her own grooming - while Hannah watches very intently.
I get the feeling that the conversation goes something like, "and don't
forget to get that tail nice and smooth...and make sure you have your paws
clean between the toes!".....poor Dilly, she thought she was going to get
away from nagging from Mom, only to run into Missy Hannah, the family nag.