Snookums is gone

Friday we had to make the decision to say goodbye to Snookums. The medication that he had been taking to make him comfortable as long as possible had stopped working and he was no longer able to relax and nap comfortably even for fifteen minutes after eating. He got pampered and babied through his last few weeks. It's a relief to us to no longer be witnessing his discomfort. I'm not able to talk about this yet and don't quite have the strength to gather favorite pictures for a memorial post, so comments are turned off.

Anubis is out of the house for the foreseeable future - at least until he's sterilized.

We made the road trip to deliver Anubis back to the breeders (it's only half an hour, it's just a road trip because we live in such a small town now). The poor little guy gets motion sick ( bodily functions )

. He must've been so anxious, poor little baby! The breeders have a big shower room with all tile that's safe for him and they're currently taking turns to go hang out with him and hug him every now and then. He seems to recognize his kitty best friend through the door - she hears him yelling and comes to trill at him. Meanwhile, we learned that there is a mood stabilizer that can work for studs who are having too much testosterone like this (we started looking at breeder websites trying to search for a new kitten to keep Tristana company. She's never been alone in the house before today! In fact, she's only been alone in a room for a few hours at a time when Snookums was outside on a leash, or going to the vet). So they're going to consult their trusted vet about that as soon as possible and the hope is that he can be made comfortable and maybe even feel better enough to be out in the house and meet the other cats while we're waiting. We're all agreed that it doesn't look likely that he will ever be able to live with Tristana, but we are agreed that we will try by consulting the cat behaviorist after he's been fixed. In the meantime they have a potential temporary foster home that could work, provided the mood stabilizer is effective. They are not ruling out just having to fix him if they can't find a way to make him comfortable in the meantime otherwise.

The breeders were understanding and very sympathetic. And like I suspected might be the case, they have been having a pretty bad time as well. Their whippet puppy isn't going badly, as whippet puppies go, it's not ill-adjusted or anything - in fact he's a delight. But he is still young enough to need constant attention, and only one of their cats gets along with him. One of their cats - in fact the personal favorite cat of one of them - is afraid of him and having such a bad time that they are considering trying to rehome her with us, in the hope she might get along with Tristana. We will revisit the idea next month. It's a hard call for her since the cat is her baby, but the dog is her baby too. This is the cat who is both Anubis's best friend and Tristana's foster mother. She might not remember her though - they haven't seen each other since Tristana was a tiny child and she must smell different, plus it's been a few years. But they have similar fraidycat temperaments, gentle and sweet, so it might work.

Tristana seems to be okay so far - in fact she's been playing a lot as she's newly been released into the whole house - enjoying investigating all the old places and running up and down the stairs. She won't be left alone much since Wax works from home. I guess we'll concentrate on my sister's visit for now.