I am aware that my posting has been down as of late, but there's a reason for that. Well, a few reasons. For one, I've been reducing my sugar intake and that pairs up with less brunch posts (though I am determined to try out some things that aren't just fresh fruit arrangements). Mostly though, we've had an interesting couple of months involving cats.
It all began with a friend posting an ad from Kijiji on a social media site. The ad was a cry for help from a person who was looking for a home for their pets while they underwent a medical emergency. We took in the cats and for a while, everything was hunky-dory. All six cats seemed to tolerate each other (I should say 4, one of the adoptives ran to hide in the basement and one of ours was completely sketchy). The adoptives each had personalities and other traits that mirrored our cats' and it was kind of neat discovering them. Then one day, something changed. I'm not sure if the balance of power amongst them switched or the other guys were just getting comfortable here, but they became the dominant group. The old guy in their group began sitting on top of our old guy wherever he chose to rest and would stay there until he pried himself up and moved. The polydactlyl one would chase around our small one until she hid under something (kitchen island, bathroom cupboards, etc.) and wait at the edge taunting her. The one who hid in the basement came to the top of the stairs, not brave enough to come out, but still would stand his ground at the cat door, preventing the other cats from getting to the basement (where the litter box is...and yes we tried opening the door, but they still wouldn't go past him). This very quickly progressed to our cats peeing other places. The one we caught we took to the vet and he had a 'possibly stress-related urinary problem'. Great, he peed all over our family room chair, the bathtub and the front hallway multiple times. In comes a litter box for the spot by the front door. What a wonderful way to greet house guests! Still though, it fixed the problem and in no way is that a bad thing. Then, though, our cats began showing up with scratches on their faces and bodies (vet said the body ones could be stress-related). One day, our old guy was not sitting properly and had a really swollen genital area. We immediately took him to the vet and they diagnosed him with 'crystals' in his urine that was blocking the tract. Now, this most likely was a result of us feeding him a blend of generic food and the more expensive high-protein food we usually feed our cats (6 cats is pricey) and not his normal vet food. I am taking full blame for this, even though the vet said it can be brought on by stress. Anyhow, we then had to monitor the old dude AND keep the other cats separate and the two factions separated from each other. The result was each floor of our house having either one, two or three cats cordoned off. Our cats are all back together post-healing, but still separate from the other ones for now. We are trying to get things dealt with, but it's not feeling fair to either set of cats.
Now, I realize that this makes the other cats seem like jerks. On their own, they are EXCELLENT cats. Very snuggly and sweet, but put 6 cats together and they are going to form a hierarchy of some sort and most likely, as happened, the two sets of three would stick together and be against one another. One set was bound to become the alphas and it just happened to not be ours. It's been a very stressful experience, for the cats especially, but us as well. I think fostering is a great and important thing and one we will probably do again, but maybe not until our cats have lived out there life stress-free.
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