Today, Twirl came downstairs for a few hours to mingle with the group. She is still a bit irritated so I am going to order Star of Bethelem for her to mellow her out a bit. Here she is, minus her diseased ears

This sweetheart is Morgan, a truly exceptional kitty- I was so sad to see him go-

I met Jennifer today and she is a very soft-spoken, wonderful lady. She instantly fell in love with Morgan and after about an hour (she met the other cats here) she took him home with her. I am sad to see him go. I told her that he is going to be a special cat, an old soul or an ambassador kitty. He is also going to be huge. His paws are large and his legs are stout.

I could kiss Ben for doing this, but then I could also kick him. I love the orange kitties and the calicos. They just hold such special character. Mike wanted to keep him, but as I told him- “If I keep him, I can’t help the next one.”

The house has returned to order. The frantic scratching (marking) that has been going on since Morgan arrived has stopped. I had to smile though, I believe he knew he was leaving, because before he was placed in the carrier to go with Jennifer, he walked over to the couch and laid on his side on the floor. Using his claws he pulled himself up and back down the entire side of the base of the couch. It was as if he was saying to the others “I was here- don’t forget me.”

After they left, I let the cats back in the house. I had them herded into the enclosure. My four alphas went immediately to Morgan’s scent mark and proceeded to do the same thing. He may have “been” here, but they were clearly saying: “We are still here!”

Twirl is doing well. I took her off the pain meds today. She is not showing any signs of discomfort, has good appetite and is the master of head bumps. I am not sure when I will be allowing her into general population. I know she has to have her sutures gone first. She goes in for a recheck in a few days, I think she will be fine.

At my urging, Michael has started training Lei (thank God, it’s been a long time coming) Kody goes in the kennel during the short training session and she carries on like someone is murdering her. Yapping and yipping and jumping against the wire…man…give me cats any day! 🙂

Twirl’s anorexia was brought about by her whiskers touching the sides of the plate when she eats. A cat’s whiskers are very sensitive. The nerve endings to these vibrasse end at the ears. Every time she bent her head to eat and bumped the ends of her whiskers, oh my Lord, I can only imagine the pain signals it sent.

She is now eating off a marble cutting board. She is no longer hiding, hissing, or lashing her tail. She is now relaxed, laying in the middle of floor and headbumping me with great abandon.

I had the vet bill paid down recently, but today, I had to take Guinevere in. She has an ulcerated eye. I also took in a new arrival (came yesterday). A beautiful, 7 week old golden boy. The vet almost took him home! He is such a charmer and I think he was trying as hard as I was to go home with “Uncle Ben.” But Ben said he had enough animals, and when I suggested Morgan would be a great clinic kitty, Ben was again tempted, but said he was afraid Morgan would run outside and get hit in the parking lot.

So we come home and soon the phone rings. Ben has been telling his clients about Morgan. A family is very interested in coming to see him. With Ben as a recommendation, that is enough for me. I would love to keep him, he is beautiful, very sociable and has gorgeous blue eyes. He is darker than Prowler but he reminds me a lot of her.

But if I keep him, I have to go through all the motions of letting the clowder learn to accept him, and dealing with kitty terrorism from Riley, Matuse, Cole, and Sierra—-so this way, Morgan will be in a home with kids and only one cat. He will get a ton of attention, I am sure he will be very adamant about his new family paying attention to him.

Twirl has to be in such pain. She spends most of her day hiding under the futon. When I go upstairs, she will come out for a few minutes then she scoots under the furniture again. She quit eating this morning. I just sent hubby to the store with a list of different cat foods to buy to see if I can tempt her to eat. I called the vet to see if I could up the medication, but he says no, the pills are to strong and they are dosed out based on her weight.

She doesn’t care for me right now. She comes up to me and headbumps me, then hisses, backs away, headbumps, hisses. I know that the ears are so painful for her. I wish I could explain to her why they are and that headbumping should be off limits for now.

I took Twirl into the vet today to have her surgery. I felt so bad, but she is in so much pain and discomfort, I am hoping I am doing the right thing by her. They gave her a full check-up and that’s when they noticed she has these funny growths on all four of her foot pads. To me, they resemble planter’s warts. But the vets assure me that they are not warts. In fact, the vets say, they have never seen anything quite like this before. They are reddish brown and white, some growths are in the center of the larger foot pads, others appear on the nail pads. I authorized a biopsy to find out what in the devil this is. I wonder if maybe as a young kitten, she walked in something caustic?

Since there were so many hands in the room helping with this exam. The exam was to search for further evidence of cancer- they also determined she is four years old, not like the one vet at the other clinic told me- just over one year old. I swear, some vets shouldn’t be! Oh well, I am not going to start that rant about overpriced vet clinics where I seem to know more than the vets who examine my cats!

So, I just called the clinic, and Twirl has had her operation and is coming out of the anesthesia so she is still groggy. They will be keeping her overnight, because these ear flap operations cause the cat to bleed a great deal, plus she needs to be on pain meds. They have clipped her claws, and will call me if something untoward happens. Otherwise, we are in a wait and see status to see what the biopsy reveals. Poor little girl, she has to be so confused. I just hope that after the initial pain of the surgery goes away, she will be feeling no pain at all.

Came home to find Guinevere in a state. Her right eye is partially swollen, her third eyelid is almost covering her eye and it is rimmed in pink. I wonder if she scratched herself. I put some eye wash in her eye, and some ointment. But if she isn’t better by tomorrow, she gets to go with us to pick up Twirl so she can be seen. When it rains here, sometimes it really pours.