Firestar Update

We got to tork Firestar off again this week, but it was for his own good.

On Monday, Son and I stuffed him into his carry case again. He wasn't keen about that at all. We brought him to the local vet - with the remaining cans of his special diet. He hardly eats it. He's the second cat I've had that doesn't like canned catfood - of any kind.

While we waited in the lobby he sat and scowled at us. When his turn came we brought him to the examination room. The dog barking some place else in the building concerned him. The dental machine blaring in the next room convinced him he was going to die. Through all of that we got his temperature. The doctor came in and reluctantly agreed to put him on dry food. She suggested we keep a few cans - just in case. They took some samples and had us wait in the lobby again.

The tests came back normal, which meant he no longer had to take medicine, which meant I no longer had to stick my finger in the side of his mouth and drop a pill down his throat. Actually, aside from the fact that his teeth are so sharp, he took the medicine much better than Baby Boy or B.J.Honeycat did. Baby squirmed his head and BJ would try to cough the tablet up. Firestar just locked his jaw, making opening his mouth difficult. But once the pill got inside he swallowed.

When we got home I poured a regular amount of food into his dish and set it out for him. He went right at it. I was standing over him, a foot on either side, looking down. Suddenly, Firestar stopped eating. Slowly, he turned his head and looked up at me. I got the message. I walked away and he ate in peace.

Everything is back to normal now. His food now costs ten times as much as it did, but that's normal, too.

He may be annoying at times, but he contributes. For one thing, he alerted Spouse to a strange noise coming from downstairs. Spouse was afraid to go down alone and so called for me to assist. We went down and discovered water falling through the ceiling below where the kitchen sink was. Turns out our water filtering system developed a leak. We had to shut it off. Pity.

But, thanks to Firestar, we avoided acquiring an unwanted swimming pool/skating rink.

Cats are cool.