Cat Reviews and News

Today’s Dia de Muertos kitties are an unusual selection taken in a hurry with my smartphone. My DLSR data card threw a wobbly and doesn’t work (neither does the backup) so I had to rush out and grab some quick garden shots and it was soooo windy!

Join me for some Dia de Muertos Black Cat fun!

Here is a selection of the hand-painted cats ready to be arranged for the local Pinehaven Gallery Craft Show. The annual gallery is a fundraiser for the school and people from all over New Zealand show their handmade art and crafts.

With the building work across the back I struggled a bit to find something to lift my spirits and find something cat lovers would love.

Then, I came across the pattern Laura Lunsford created. Her models are predominantly fabric with stitched faces and elements but I knew my way forward was to paint the all the unique Dia de Muertos features myself! It was a lot of fun.

Yes, I sold some of my Dia de Muertos CATS at the Gallery which was exciting! The fun thing is that the handmade and hand-painted look means that each cat is different. No one will have a cat exactly like the others! The colours look wonderful against the black fabric background too.

The ‘sitting’ cat looks really charming but the ‘stood up’ cat looks lively and ready for action. I am not sure which I like best, how about you?

I aim to grab a new data card for my camera this coming week and challenge myself to process the photos in a new software package I am reviewing soon. Until then, have a good week everyone.

Late Addition: I am including a link to Etsy if you want to try Laura’s pattern!

It’s been a difficult couple of weeks with a lot of nose across the back fence (builders) but the bright light on the horizon was a trip to Neko Ngeru Cat Cafe for a cheese tasting evening! I was sooo looking forward to cheese at the cat cafe!

A company called The Cheese Wheel discover and showcase New Zealand’s best artisan handmade cheese. They showcase it to customers in monthly boxes delivered to the door. It’s a human version of the cat lady box and we were were invited for a tasting.

As you can see Neko Ngeru resident cat Delilah had her eye on the tasting plates of customers!

The presenters took us through four different and constrasting cheeses from Brie to Blue with tasting tips, and questions about what we, as tasters, could actually taste, from words like nutty, smooth, creamy, woody and so on. Smell, texture, colour and taste all matter with cheese.

Of course….

The cats kept stealing the show as you can see but, we were very interested in the new world of artisan cheese makers.

The supermarkets in New Zealand stock a wide range of cheeses that taste of nothing in particular (just creamy, or cheddar-y etc.,) so it was really awesome to discover some people really do care about the cheese New Zealand can make and the future of NZ cheese.

My eye was caught by a gorgeous black cat with golden eyes called Kohl. I admit my two photos are not very good (I was too busy enjoying the cheese) but I want to point out how essential LIGHT is to show off Kohl’s fur. See how the light gives him shape and texture?

There was a lot of clear ambient light, nothing too bright or fussy, and do you see how much the gloss of his well kept fur shows? Light!

Of course everyone wanted his photograph!

After a long recovery from major perineal uresothomy surgery, our hero tabby Toulouse is finally exploring the great outdoors again! I could not resist capturing some of his first adventures with my DSLR, including a playful butt shot (at the end of the post!)

Toulouse spent almost an hour exploring close to home, rediscovering his favourite haunts before coming indoors again and crashing in one of the window cat beds.

From his vantage point Toulouse can see the layout of the houses marked on the other side of the fence. They are extremely close which is why the new trees I was checking on are so important to us. He jumped down to take a look so I walked away (a trick that usually has him scampering back to my side) and he did.

Okay, so I was slightly frantic trying to get the shots, and the photos ended up a little unfocused. I think that, like many of us, I need to work on my eye focus skills! I’m dreaming of the day when my Canon camera can magically lock onto eyes using eye-control autofocus. Until then, practice makes perfect and I keep trying. (Sadly I can’t afford a mirrorless eye autofocus camera as they run into thousands of dollars!)

I know Pete Cusack, of Timmy Tomcat blog enjoyed my camera reports and he would have loved to see the development of a camera finding and focusing on cat’s eye eye without human help. Funny how these thoughts come to you.

Saving the best until last, I was happy a got a shot of Toulouse’s bare butt disappearing over the fence and one of him back inside ready to nap.

Toulouse was rushed to the After Hours Vet on Monday night at 2.30 a.m. and then stayed at our local veterinary surgery for two nights to monitor his recovery before coming home for a night. Then things took a serious turn so you are getting a major Toulouse surgery update sooner than we expected.

As you can imagine this turned our world and our sleep patterns upside down but he is OK. Here’s what happened…

Toulouse Last Monday

He was not healing as he should.

The kind of blockage that caused our overnight vet visit usually follows a set path. Pain relief is administered and then a catheter is put in to allow the cat to pee. This then flushes out a lot of the crystals and debris that blocks up the cat. With the help of urinary food the cat’s issues often resolve. (Yes, it is longer and more complicated…)

After two nights at our local veterinary surgery with vets we absolutely trust, Toulouse was not getting any better and our vet Dr. Alice felt he might need more serious surgery or the painful problem would recur often and could easily put his life at risk.

Toulouse needed a perineal urethrostomy (see description below). This is major surgery but, thankfully, Lower Hutt has New Zealand’s finest feline veterinary surgeons who visits locally to operate.

Our local vets insisted Toulouse would be totally safe with Dr. Andrew, who has a lot of important qualifications, and who they value very highly indeed. So, we moved all our commitments around and turned the world upside down to make sure he could attend the Friday clinic at PetVet for an operation that would save him a lot of pain and future suffering.

A perineal urethrostomy (sometimes referred to as a PU) is a surgical procedure that is most commonly performed on male cats with a urinary obstruction. This procedure removes the narrowest part of the urethra (the tube that transports the urine from the bladder to the exterior of the body), allowing easier urination along with a lower risk of re-obstruction.

VCA Animal Hospital (explainer)

Toulouse was delivered (nil by mouth from 9 p.m. the previous evening) to Dr Andrew who spoke to us about what he would be doing and how we would need to monitor Tooly when he went home. Then we left the boy at PetVet for his perineal urethrostomy and an overnight stay for monitoring at the clinic.

Medication

After coming home Tooly is on Gabapentin (2x per day) and Meloxicam (x1 per day) with a Fentanyl patch (for stronger pain relief) that will be removed in four days time by our local vet.

Cone of Shame Struggles

Saturday we were able to collect Toulouse from PetVet.

Apparently he caused much amusement to the vet nurses as he is a wriggler, and he charmed them all in spite of not liking his ‘cone of shame’! The nurses said he would need the hard plastic cone to avoid licking his incision so armed with this, we took him home.

• The first thing he did was bolt straight out the cat flap and across the garden but, being woozy I managed to grab him and bring him back inside!

You can see from the photograph that the cone stayed on for a bit….. OK it stayed on for about three minutes then he wriggled out of it and we had to rethink the protection of his incision and the Fentanyl patch he might be able to lick.

We reverted to the more flexible circular collar (blue in the photos) and bandaged a trainer sock firmly on to his paw with the patch.

We had a packet of two of the socks (you know the kind that look too small to fit a human until you put them on and they stretch?) This stops him nibbling at the patch and keeps him away from the incision although we are keeping a close eye on his behaviour and later added a second sock to make absolutely sure.

Hungry Toulouse

When we got him home Toulouse ate and ate and ate. Two full sachets of urinary food with his Gabapentin! The medication makes him slightly spaced out and keeps him less agitated while he is on crate rest which is no bad thing.

• The crate rest will be for three weeks; with two more weeks of house arrest.

Patient of the Day

The nurses awarded Toulouse a certificate for being their brave Patient of the Day after his serious surgery. We are very proud of this and I will get it framed for him.

I will report further as Toulouse gets better.

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Savannah Pawtracks

This week saw the passing of our great friend and blogging colleague Savannah from Savannah’s Paw Tracks. She along with Seville and Dash had several adventures together that crossed three blogs over a period of time. They were fun and her loss is a truly sad one.