Anubis's balls are back
21 Jun 2024 06:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cimoreneWe live in a house divided by Cat Divorce: Anubis tries to attack (play-attack??? Hard to say) every time he sees Tristana, who is tiny and terrified of him, so they can't be in the same place at all, so they have to be kept locked up separately, but they both start screaming and crying after, on average, 1 minute without one of us with them so we spend most of our time separated and babysitting cats.
The reason for his psychological disturbance is unknown; he was still a very new young adult cat when we brought him here, and he wasn't aggressive from the first sight of her - it was more like from the third time, after she hissed and ran away the first two times, like he flipped and turned into an MRA. Not to project human concepts onto him or anything.
He has an implant that was supposed to be blocking all his hormones to let him grow into his feet and become a little more graceful and adult without acne, stud tail, and peeing on everything, and he did come to us with his balls extremely shrunken thanks to this implant, but not all the way. Still, it's not completely predictable, so some aggression could be due to hormones anyway and it seemed like trying again once he's fixed was the best chance for them to learn to get along. So we've just been trying to wait. And Anubis was living with us anyway in the meanwhile, even though we had given up on being able to live normally or even to find out if we'll be able to ultimately keep him, because by then we got attached to him. And it's been over a year now, but we were initially all planning more like six months - life just got in the way.
Wax and I had just noticed that his balls seemed to be getting bigger a couple of weeks ago and checked with the breeders, who said that yeah, they knew it was wearing off and it was SUPPOSED to wear off so he can be paired with female cats for some dates soon! ... before Wax caught him standing in the enclosed porch spraying pee all over the little wire mesh baskets with our gardening tools in them. The hallway downstairs was already gradually becoming suffused with the smell of cat pee. We had been blaming Snookums missing the box by accident, but we quickly realized the real culprit was Anubis peeing on the wall. (We're going to have to remove a chunk of wallboard there, there's no other choice.) Since then she's seen him peeing in the porch again and the stink has gotten stronger and stronger. The breeders assure us they are going to try to speed things up, but there's only so much you can do; they still need to find a second female suitor, and in both cases you have to wait for the female cats to come into heat. (When we originally took Anubis here, the arrangements for this breeding stuff were all off in the future, and at the time I was thinking, well, our house isn't prepared to be peed on, he can't stay here without the implant, he'll just have to go back to them when it's time, but we didn't plan in advance and in the moment I find myself unable to demand that they take him back - I don't like being assertive and demanding - and Wax likes it even less perhaps - and then also we actually would also miss him! - and we know they have a new puppy who is apparently not house-trained yet either and I feel like it would be being a bother of us.)
So the only part of the house that doesn't smell like pee is the kitchen and dining room, the two rooms that I've been mostly living in with Snookums and Tristana all winter. The whole hallway smells like pee - even all the jackets and sweaters that have been hanging on the coathooks there, and even my backpack. So we've been getting more miserable about it without having much hope of effectively fixing the problem: we just have to wait since even if we manage to clean all the stuff that smells like pee, he'll pee on more things again. The breeders did tell us that you can get an expensive enzyme-based cleaner from the pet store that will successfully clean the pee smell up (although this will not work on the wallboard - it's absorbent). They also told us you can get a UV flashlight to reveal where the pee is, so yesterday we went on an expedition to the nearest big shopping center, Skanssi, over three bridges and about thirty minutes away.
The UV flashlight duly revealed last night that the pee isn't all over the entire porch, but is mostly concentrated on one window and the sill and around it - a window from which he can occasionally see Tristana in the kitchen and apparently he just stands there and sprays it over and over. We have not started all the cleaning yet and we are dogsitting through the end of the weekend. (My gut reaction was "No, there's already TOO MUCH PET right now!" but then I realized the dog won't actually make any of the problems worse. Except the problem of how to get through the door with only the correct animals.)
The reason for his psychological disturbance is unknown; he was still a very new young adult cat when we brought him here, and he wasn't aggressive from the first sight of her - it was more like from the third time, after she hissed and ran away the first two times, like he flipped and turned into an MRA. Not to project human concepts onto him or anything.
He has an implant that was supposed to be blocking all his hormones to let him grow into his feet and become a little more graceful and adult without acne, stud tail, and peeing on everything, and he did come to us with his balls extremely shrunken thanks to this implant, but not all the way. Still, it's not completely predictable, so some aggression could be due to hormones anyway and it seemed like trying again once he's fixed was the best chance for them to learn to get along. So we've just been trying to wait. And Anubis was living with us anyway in the meanwhile, even though we had given up on being able to live normally or even to find out if we'll be able to ultimately keep him, because by then we got attached to him. And it's been over a year now, but we were initially all planning more like six months - life just got in the way.
Wax and I had just noticed that his balls seemed to be getting bigger a couple of weeks ago and checked with the breeders, who said that yeah, they knew it was wearing off and it was SUPPOSED to wear off so he can be paired with female cats for some dates soon! ... before Wax caught him standing in the enclosed porch spraying pee all over the little wire mesh baskets with our gardening tools in them. The hallway downstairs was already gradually becoming suffused with the smell of cat pee. We had been blaming Snookums missing the box by accident, but we quickly realized the real culprit was Anubis peeing on the wall. (We're going to have to remove a chunk of wallboard there, there's no other choice.) Since then she's seen him peeing in the porch again and the stink has gotten stronger and stronger. The breeders assure us they are going to try to speed things up, but there's only so much you can do; they still need to find a second female suitor, and in both cases you have to wait for the female cats to come into heat. (When we originally took Anubis here, the arrangements for this breeding stuff were all off in the future, and at the time I was thinking, well, our house isn't prepared to be peed on, he can't stay here without the implant, he'll just have to go back to them when it's time, but we didn't plan in advance and in the moment I find myself unable to demand that they take him back - I don't like being assertive and demanding - and Wax likes it even less perhaps - and then also we actually would also miss him! - and we know they have a new puppy who is apparently not house-trained yet either and I feel like it would be being a bother of us.)
So the only part of the house that doesn't smell like pee is the kitchen and dining room, the two rooms that I've been mostly living in with Snookums and Tristana all winter. The whole hallway smells like pee - even all the jackets and sweaters that have been hanging on the coathooks there, and even my backpack. So we've been getting more miserable about it without having much hope of effectively fixing the problem: we just have to wait since even if we manage to clean all the stuff that smells like pee, he'll pee on more things again. The breeders did tell us that you can get an expensive enzyme-based cleaner from the pet store that will successfully clean the pee smell up (although this will not work on the wallboard - it's absorbent). They also told us you can get a UV flashlight to reveal where the pee is, so yesterday we went on an expedition to the nearest big shopping center, Skanssi, over three bridges and about thirty minutes away.
The UV flashlight duly revealed last night that the pee isn't all over the entire porch, but is mostly concentrated on one window and the sill and around it - a window from which he can occasionally see Tristana in the kitchen and apparently he just stands there and sprays it over and over. We have not started all the cleaning yet and we are dogsitting through the end of the weekend. (My gut reaction was "No, there's already TOO MUCH PET right now!" but then I realized the dog won't actually make any of the problems worse. Except the problem of how to get through the door with only the correct animals.)
(no subject)
Date: 21 Jun 2024 04:44 pm (UTC)I'm so sorry for the massive headache this is -- literally and metaphorically both -- and also, simultaneously, this is a hilarious mental image. Wishing you much assertiveness and may the breeders be cooperative and responsive in getting this resolved.
(no subject)
Date: 22 Jun 2024 07:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 21 Jun 2024 05:13 pm (UTC)You have all my sympathy. You really have upended your lives completely for this cat.
(no subject)
Date: 22 Jun 2024 08:59 pm (UTC)I hadn't thought of it that way, but yeah, our lives have been turned upside down.
(no subject)
Date: 21 Jun 2024 09:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 22 Jun 2024 09:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 22 Jun 2024 02:55 am (UTC)I hope you get everything sorted out.
(no subject)
Date: 22 Jun 2024 09:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 22 Jun 2024 07:56 pm (UTC)Balls sure do cause a lot of trouble, don't they? :D
(no subject)
Date: 22 Jun 2024 09:06 pm (UTC)Besides being so problematic for us, the balls are also bad for HIM: they're giving him acne on his face and making fur fall out of his tail and having balls shortens cats' lifespans and increases their risk of cancer! Also they look SO silly on a sleek short-haired cat.
(no subject)
Date: 23 Jun 2024 09:28 pm (UTC)Balls are definitely responsible for a lot of unfortunate outcomes in the lives of their possessors, from causing acne to starting fights! :D And you're right, looking absurd should be counted, too.