Feeding the cat.

Mickey is still a little skinny, and not eating as much as it seems he should (or perhaps the recommendations on the can are biased). He ate a bite or two of the dry when he arrived, but hasn't touched it since. He will eat the canned readily, but stops long before he finishes. He seems to like company while eating, and will eat more if you tap the bowl or move it in front of him after he wanders off, but again not as much as it says he should eat.

So, for now, we're shuffling the food back and forth between him and the fridge several times a day until he eats it. Thankfully, he doesn't seem to have a problem with the refrigerated food. The eventual goal is to get him to eat two meals a day, one dry, one wet, but we figure since he's a little thin and under the weather now, it's better to just get him to eat, and deal with schedules later. Personally, I wouldn't mind going with all canned, but M thinks that's a little much money wise.

In the interest of disclosure, the dry stuff is felidae, and the wet is innova chicken something flavor, in the large cans. We picked them out of lists recommended online, because a) that's what the store in town sold, and b) they were cheaper than some of the other options that looked pretty comparable. Not much to say on the dry stuff, but the wet does not smell nearly as terrible as I was expecting. Essentially like the canned chicken you buy for yourself. This makes the larger (and thus cheaper and less wasteful packaging-wise) cans much more reasonable, since it doesn't stink up the fridge unreasonably. I'm not fully sold on the fact that it contains apple and carrots and other non-catty things, so we may experiment with other brands later too.

Mickey arrives

(Mickey is not a dog, contrary to the title of the blog)

(or a mouse - the name is a little unfortunate, but it is what it is)

Mickey is a barn cat from M's parents house. They tend a small community of cats ranging from true wide-eyed ferals to what are probably the neighbors pets simply allowed outside. They've started working on a TNR program to get their numbers down. Mickey was part of the last litter, four years ago. At the time, we promised to take him, but lived in dorms, then rentals, and other places that frowned on pets. But this Friday was the day.

It was all surprisingly uneventful. He's always been a relaxed little loverboy, but not only did he sleep on my lap for over an hour on the ride back, but let me clip his nails right there in the car without any fuss whatsoever. I was not expecting that from a cat used to being on his own devices for four years.

One of the side effects of being in the great outdoors is he has a bit of a head cold, or sinus infection, or otherwise nasty snotty nose that he likes to rub cat boogers on you with. Pretty much all the cats there had this to varying degrees. The kittens got antibiotics for it when they were small, which cleared it up, but the caught it right back again. Apparently, this sort of thing can be hard to squash in cats, but we're hoping for the best, that it really was a cold that kept getting passed back and forth ad infinitum, rather than a true chronic sinus problem.

Oh yes, and while tolerant of most things, he *does not like* the antibiotic (liquid in a dropper). Touching the face is not looked kindly upon. It does seem to be working so far though. The first day was terrible. He was groggy from the vaccinations, and the snot turned from a little pale yellow, to a lot of dark brown - almost a dark red or orange color. (sorry for the t.m.i.). I guess that must have been the root infection draining, because things got dramatically better by Sunday. It's not 100% gone, but he is no longer disgusting, wheezy and sad.