Merry Christmas everyone ;)
We just got back from Norway. I went to visit my family-in-law for Christmas, since I hadn't seen them in over two years. The kittens were taken care of by my friends for those couple of days, and when we got home they were all still there and seem to be ok :)

I must admit I had some problems with leaving them behind. With one of your babies having runny eyes and one of the others vomitting a lot lately, you do not exactly feel like abandonning them. But we managed and they are still alive. And we got cuddled to death upon returning, which is always nice. You kind of miss finding something fuzzy in your bed once you've gotten used to it.

I love travelling, I really do. But there are two downsides: 1) travelling to the location and back home is exhausting. 2) you leave behind your most precious 'possession' and hand over their care to someone else. And although the trip is usually very fun, you cannot help but think, just once a while, about those fluffbunnies that are waiting for you at home, and you do worry. Are they alright? Are they sick? Are they fighting? Are they peeing on your bed?! (etc etc) It usually does not last long, not even five minutes, but still :) It is always nice to come home and sigh with relief that everything is exactly the way it should be :)

So, next up: New Years !!!

I hardly dare say it out loud...but I have been abe to leave my bed and couch without any protection for over two weeks without finding it violated.
It is a relief to not have to check the sheets in the evening for urine, and just be able to roll into bed at 1 am without having to change the sheets.

Same for the couch. All they do nowadays is sleep on the couch, and thank god for that. I prefer them thinking of it as a sleeping spot instead of a litter tray. I have not checked the other places of the house that thoroughly, but since these spots were the most popular ones back when, I feel rather safe for now.

It has been a long journey, but it has been well worth it. I finally have a clean household with five happy cats, who eventually learned how to behave (as far as a cat can behave).
Now lets all hope they do not change their minds on the function of the bed and couch again...

It has gotten to the point where I spend half an hour every morning and every evening to medicate this colony. And it is getting harder. Arwen needs a spoon full of anti-biotics every morning. Luckily she is used to it from when she was small so she does not protest..much.

All of them require special food for their intestinal problems. And all of them get a spoon full of yoghurt a day, for the same problems. And it takes a while to feed each kitten a spoon of yoghurt. Lulu,Trini and Arwen aren't a problem, but Prinny does not like the taste of it, so I have to grab her, dab her chin in the yoghurt, so she is forced to clean it of. Falcor is weary. He likes the yoghurt but not the treatment that follows: getting his eye treated with anti-biotic ointment.

He is giving me the run around as we speak, and I have to go to work soon. He knows I still have to treat him so as soon as he sees me, he hides under the bed. Who said again that having cats was de-stressing?

Today I read up on the virus that has our Prinny in its clutches. And I am taking extra precautions now. Since the virus spreads through the use of litter trays, all kitty litters will be scooped out twice every day. All kitty litters will be emptied out at least twice a week to be scrubbed down with bleach(I know this is toxic to cats, but its the only way of killing the bug, dont worry, I ll rinse them thoroughly afterwards).

Vaccuuming around the kitty litters will be an almost daily activity. And after two months we will draw blood again to see if Prinny is still positive. You see, the "benign" variant of this disease exits the body in most of the cases as far as I ve read. And I will be damned if I am going to let my entire colony be infected by this thing.

Other than that, there is not much I can do. No one, including the doctors knows much about this disease. It is an incredibly illusive disease, and although the benign version is very contagious and frequent, the malicious mutation is not. It is very hard to diagnose any cat with any of the variants. Treatment does not exist. With the benign version the cat either sheds the virus after much vomitting and diarrhea, or stays a lifelong carrier. The malicious one just kills you in two ways: wet or dry stomach infection (it is more complicated than this). Either way, you are dead after one year of contracting it. If you live longer with the virus than that( as far as I ve read), you are likely never to develop the malicious variant. And even this info is not certain. With FIP there are no certainties. It is basically all guesswork.

Ok so today I was to get at least some of the results from the bloodtests right? What did I have tested? Feline aids aka FIV, Feline leucosis aka FelV, and a form of feline intestinal infection aka FIP. All lethal, all incurable, all dormant(like human aids), and all possible in stray cats. Mine have been in shelters and have been found in the streets so all are likely to have any of these illnesses, although some more than others (Arwen, anyone?).

Why did I have it tested? It costs a ton of money, true, but I am considering taking in stray cats regularly(working together with a rescue and stuff), and I want to get them all vaccinated and protected against what those cats might bring in. But how can you vaccinate if you do not know if they do not have the illness already? So I had them tested. That way, if anyone is sick, I know I cannot shelter strays, coz then I might actually contribute to distributing the disease by infecting the strays.

So, what were the results? FIV and FelV are negative. FIP is actually harder to test, and has to be done in two stages and even then it is not certain. The test showed that Trini, Prinny and Arwen have infections in their body, and it also shows that Trini and Prinny have infections which are FIP-like. Arwen does not have the same pattern(that kitten is always sick). The doctor reassured me though, that Trin and Prins patterns may also be caused by say a chronic mouth infection, which Trini has( she needs to have her teeth cleaned this year, they told me so last year while giving her shots), Prin is already somewhat older, and might have the same problem, although its not as clear as in Trinis mouth. He also mentionned that FIP is actually a very rare disease. It exists, but it is usually found in places like a cattery, where one will die after the other from the disease. Lulu is completely clean,btw

Boy...I am beat. Really beat. And I aint the only one. This was a rough day on everyone except the men of the house. One's not home and the other escaped the unfortunate fate the ladies had to endure.

Today was the day we went to the clinic to have blood drawn. Believe me, it sounds easier than it is. I went to work with four cats in carriers. One big carrier that held our Prinny, Trini and Arwen, and a small one for our Lulu. And off we were...

You know, it is amazing how stress can change any cat. At home, it is definitely our Prinny and Arwen that are the most vocal. Lulu you will only hear when she is really trying to make a point or when you send a distress signal, and Trini only makes one very high pitched 'meee' when the food is done. Well, when travelling I got an entire choir going with just the Trini and Lulu alone. The other two, believe it or not, were quiet.

Once there, the doctor drew blood and they spend the rest of my shift in hospi. I must say, Prinny has always trusted in me, but I fear that bond has been damaged a bit...she is more than shaken by this experience. Then we still had to get home. We got lucky with the transfer from the bus to the tram, but the weight of four cats was taking its toll on me, and at some point the cats all decided to move forward, tipped the basket and the gate caved! Luckily I was standing in front of the front door, which has a cave-like appearance, so i was able to hord them back inside. Arwen literally scared herself half to death and bounced of the floor to the door to the floor again. All three were completely shaken and hissing.

Today our cleaning lady came over for the first real time. Well, the cats arent used to seeing so much activity so early in the morning and they were most dismayed they were disturbed during their morning nap.

And then the vaccuum monster came...They do know that thing, and hate it with a vengeance, but they arent used to seeing so much of it ;)
On top of that there were all these weird product smells. They definitely did not like the consequences of her visit( I do!!) Prinny decided to reside with me in the couch, since that seemed to be the only way to be safe from the vaccuum monster, the constant walking about, and the smelly products.

And the cleaning lady wasn't that keen on our Arwen for that matter. She had trown up a hairball in the middle of the hallway *grin*. The woman does not have any pets herself so she had no clue what it was, only that it came from the cat. Although still occasionally coughing(still some hair left), our Arwen is feeling much better after getting rid of that thing though.