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inching back to normal
Jan. 5th, 2009 07:45 pm.
Man, what day did we take the cat to the vet? I'll be looking it up so I can find out how soon I'll be able to stop giving her eye drops. The poor animal's unreasoning fear gets a little more pronounced with each dose. She seems to be getting a bit better, anyway, though I don't know if I'd call this the dramatic results the vet said we might be seeing by about today.
It's pretty dramatic each time I set out to put the drops in. I've stopped petting and speaking consolingly before the eye drops because I don't want petting and quiet speech to equal imminent hell-liquid in her tiny cat mind. So now I just take her and restrain her with as little fuss as possible, clutch her strenuously and try to force her to be still while they hit her eyes. The first one is bad enough; the second one is trauma squared. I tried wrapping her in a towel one time, but it was mostly just one more thing to try and juggle. restraint value, practically nil.
So far, she doesn't seem to bear any grudge, which is darn nice of her. It's a big comfort to me that I can pet her when I see her a few minutes after she has fled the room with eye drops in. I, of course, leave in another direction -- heading for the bathroom to wash and, if need be, put band-aids on, my new scratches. Must avoid cat-scratch fever.
Sarah still pursues the cat around the house, despite our continual warnings to let her be. She wants to pet the cat. She wants to pick the cat up and lug her around. She wants to drag the cat out of hiding. She wants the cat to play with her. I told her that if the cat takes a dislike to her now, it could last for a long time. "You'll be ten, and the cat still won't like you... you'll be sixteen, and the cat still won't like you..." So she gets upset with the cat and resentful of us for interfering with the beautiful friendship she'd like to have occur instantly.
She was in the process of feeling unhappy and unloved tonight when I asked her if she'd help with supper. She came up and opened the two bags of salad greens we'd picked out at the store a couple of days back and started mixing about half of each in the metal bowl while I helped by cutting carrots and some cheese. She brought out the rest of the green pepper I'd bought for the tuna salad we had on Sunday, figuring she'd put it in but avoid eating any. She said it was part of why she didn't eat the tuna salad.
I didn't want to let the green pepper go without carefully determining the truth. First I opened the pickle relish jar and had her take a sniff. Yes, the sweet relish was positively something she didn't like. Then I did a discreet selling job on the green pepper, which I described as juicy, fresh, crunchy, and not spicy. She tried a piece. It wasn't so bad, she decided. Then I also found some grated parmesan in the fridge and she decided to add some of that too.
The salad and the tortelloni were ready at the same time. Cathy came up and we had a nice family meal together. Sarah gave herself lots of green pepper, which seemed to be getting better and better in her eyes. Cathy didn't eat much, but she had some salad, and it was good to have a nice, normal meal that we'd all worked on. If we'd had dessert, it would have been the banana bread Cathy made this morning, but we ended up stopping before we got to it.
.
Man, what day did we take the cat to the vet? I'll be looking it up so I can find out how soon I'll be able to stop giving her eye drops. The poor animal's unreasoning fear gets a little more pronounced with each dose. She seems to be getting a bit better, anyway, though I don't know if I'd call this the dramatic results the vet said we might be seeing by about today.
It's pretty dramatic each time I set out to put the drops in. I've stopped petting and speaking consolingly before the eye drops because I don't want petting and quiet speech to equal imminent hell-liquid in her tiny cat mind. So now I just take her and restrain her with as little fuss as possible, clutch her strenuously and try to force her to be still while they hit her eyes. The first one is bad enough; the second one is trauma squared. I tried wrapping her in a towel one time, but it was mostly just one more thing to try and juggle. restraint value, practically nil.
So far, she doesn't seem to bear any grudge, which is darn nice of her. It's a big comfort to me that I can pet her when I see her a few minutes after she has fled the room with eye drops in. I, of course, leave in another direction -- heading for the bathroom to wash and, if need be, put band-aids on, my new scratches. Must avoid cat-scratch fever.
Sarah still pursues the cat around the house, despite our continual warnings to let her be. She wants to pet the cat. She wants to pick the cat up and lug her around. She wants to drag the cat out of hiding. She wants the cat to play with her. I told her that if the cat takes a dislike to her now, it could last for a long time. "You'll be ten, and the cat still won't like you... you'll be sixteen, and the cat still won't like you..." So she gets upset with the cat and resentful of us for interfering with the beautiful friendship she'd like to have occur instantly.
She was in the process of feeling unhappy and unloved tonight when I asked her if she'd help with supper. She came up and opened the two bags of salad greens we'd picked out at the store a couple of days back and started mixing about half of each in the metal bowl while I helped by cutting carrots and some cheese. She brought out the rest of the green pepper I'd bought for the tuna salad we had on Sunday, figuring she'd put it in but avoid eating any. She said it was part of why she didn't eat the tuna salad.
I didn't want to let the green pepper go without carefully determining the truth. First I opened the pickle relish jar and had her take a sniff. Yes, the sweet relish was positively something she didn't like. Then I did a discreet selling job on the green pepper, which I described as juicy, fresh, crunchy, and not spicy. She tried a piece. It wasn't so bad, she decided. Then I also found some grated parmesan in the fridge and she decided to add some of that too.
The salad and the tortelloni were ready at the same time. Cathy came up and we had a nice family meal together. Sarah gave herself lots of green pepper, which seemed to be getting better and better in her eyes. Cathy didn't eat much, but she had some salad, and it was good to have a nice, normal meal that we'd all worked on. If we'd had dessert, it would have been the banana bread Cathy made this morning, but we ended up stopping before we got to it.
.
