Cleanup Crew

Pips, as a senior cat, and as well, a cat, has the occasional bout of upchucking her dinner. She almost never upchucks hairballs, leaving that predilection to Lila, who seems to do it on a regular basis.

No, Pips just occasionally (and with no real regularity) decides that her dinner is best deposited somewhere very shortly after it has been consumed.

Pips is 12 years old now and in general very good health. She is trim and muscular, active daily and loves to chase that elusive red dot. (Who knew that military lasers would end up being the ultimate cat toy?) She is my #1 cuddle buddy and loves to snuggle on me when I am watching tv. She supervises absolutely every activity I do in the house, and is eager to head outside for some fresh air when the weather is fair, even in winter. (She's not fond of the -30 deep freeze we've been currently experiencing, however. I wonder why.)

These bouts of regurgitation occur without any warning. She has a good appetite, eating her food most of the time with gusto. And every once in a while, she will give one gag and then up everything comes. Not the usual hack hack hack of a cat working up to a good puke. This is weird, and usually contains, besides the obvious catfood, quite a bit of frothy mucous. She is not feeling ill afterwards, which leads me to believe the presence of the mucous means her stomach rebels against adding more to that limited space and up it all comes. She is quite ready to eat again very shortly thereafter.

I fed the cats their wet food when I came home from work today. They were all milling about and meowing at me, convincing me (yeah, right) that they were starving all day long, despite having each had a bowl of kibble in the morning before I left the house. After eating , they all wander off to do cat things.

Pips climbed up onto the top of the cat tree and promptly puked up her dinner. This is in the front bedroom and I was in the living room. I heard a sound so turned the volume down on the radio and then heard her jump down and start to meow in a bit of distress.

When I made my way to that room to investigate, I found her with catfood smeared from the tip of her nose up between her eyes, and a couple of paws that had been dipped in the same. Don't ask me how she managed all that, as it was a first. I had brought a couple of paper towels with me so wiped off her face and paws and proceeded to find out where the rest of the mess was.

The top platform of the cat tree has a sheepskin cushion cover from Ikea as padding. No foam cushion inside it, as it drapes nicely on the platform, offering the cats a soft and warm place to sleep. She left her mess there. So I took it down and cleaned it up, wiping up the catfood as best possible from the sheepskin. The wool is about 4" long, so you can imagine it was a bit tricky. I left it on the table to dry before brushing it out and returning it to the cat tree.

A short time later, I heard Aska in the kitchen and found her doing her best to brush out the sheepskin... with her tongue. I am sure it smelled tasty (that food had been inside Pips for less than 5 minutes and probably wasn't even warm yet) and as Aska is a bottomless pit when it comes to food, she may have thought she'd hit the jackpot!

Needless to say, I took it away and gave her a good dose of hairball remedy to follow the cathair/sheepwool she just ingested as she gave cleaning it her best effort!

New Slippers

There has been a vilification of Crocs all over the internet, pointing out their ugliness, their wide-footed lack of style. There are, however, proponents in favour, who wear them with everything from work uniforms to wedding dresses. You can bedazzle the shit out of them if you want bling on your feet for that formal night out. Splash paint on them to make custom Pollock-esque footwear.

A number of nurses I work with wear them everyday on the job. At work I prefer something with more lateral support that will stay on my feet when I have to move suddenly and quickly. Sometimes, you just gotta run for that basin when someone is puking their guts out! So I wear New Balance shoes as I have narrow feet and they have narrow sizes in some styles.

But at home, I prefer something I can slip in and out of easily, something that has some arch support and some cushioning. My feet have taken quite a beating over the almost 3 decades of nursing and some squishing comfort is a must. So I bought a pair of Crocs.

What do you think?

I think they coordinate with my pjs quite well! And they are "dual comfort" so even more comfy that the usual everyday uglies you see adorning the feet of people everywhere.