Friday cat blogging: ‘Roid Rage Rampage
My Senior Veterinary Consultant thinks nobody wants to read about my cat, but I feel obliged to put something up before I go away for the weekend.
The last time I wrote about Stripes the cat, she was on a massive dose prednisone. This is a steroid familiar to many people with a variety of illnesses, many of whom will know that it can cause siginificant emotional and psychological changes. It’s no different for cats, it turns out.
Stripes is becoming a monster. For starters, she eats a ton, and is steadily gaining weight (this is an old photo). But she’s also more aggressive and adventurous. She jumps on top of the tall furniture. She wants to go outside now – so we bought her a harness and a leash, because we are the weird people in our neighborhood. And most importantly: she has won the alpha-cat struggle. The dethroned incumbent, whom I will call Solid, now mopes around the house with a hangdog “WTF, guys?” expression. How the mighty have fallen.
The other important development in Stripes’s life is that the vet no longer thinks she has FLyPS. I have amended the LickStrong logo to reflect that fact. Of course, the vet still isn’t sure what’s wrong with Stripes, so there will be more testing.
In the meantime, let’s everyone bask in the irony that I – with my chronic illness – now have a cat who also has a chronic illness. If I had a previous life, I was definitely someone awful. I just can’t imagine who.
One of the humorous moments of the early days of my type 2 diabetes diagnosis was when my type 1 husband told our five cats that they’re not allowed to become diabetic since both their humans were now.
I hope the vet figures out what’s wrong with kitty soon.