Part 30 – Happy Holidays!

As a sideline, Sammie has very bad Gingivitis and it got worse.   We cleaned her teeth every year and she had to have anesthetic to do it. We decided since it had progressed to more severe gum disease called Stomatitis, to remove most of her teeth, with the exception of the back teeth and 3 front teeth. We removed 7 teeth.   We also did not want her to develop cancer from it. One reason was that in order to cure her from this disease or rather keep it controlled, we would have to give her shots of steroid.   This would increase her risk to become diabetic. We chose less teeth would be a better healthier option.

So here we go again, as in her first year with us, we removed 2 teeth. She came out of it beautifully, we gave her pain meds in her food which was chicken or turkey food. She loves that food and we used it last time. Regular food was too hard at first on her tummy.

After surgery we had to wait an hour after bringing her home to feed her so she would calm down.   The first thing she did was run to the litter box. Then she sat down on her mat to tell me she wanted to eat.   She acted a bit like a drunken person from the anesthetic. Her eyes were very glassy. So finally, we gave her a spoon of the baby food, and she ate it up and wanted more. We made her wait to make sure she didn’t get sick and throw up. We did this for the next hour.   The next 2 days we gave her pain medicine to her and kept the baby food around and started to slowly mix in her regular food.

She did let Bettinna know to stay away. She growled at her.   Bettinna missed her sister. (they now are BFFs and I will get back to my regular story next blog).

Happy Holidays

Sammie’s Tail Part 29

 

I keep thinking of the theme from the song in the movie Frozen.  The little sister wants to build a snowman with her big sister.   Bettinna often goes behind doors and sticks her paw out to Sammie trying to get her to attack her paws and they play back and forth.  Sammie does comply sometimes and many times not.  I think at first Sammie may not have been playing, but I see she does other times.   When she snubs Bettinna, when Bettinna asks her to play, my husband sings the song, “Do you want to build a snowman”. Sigh.  Disney should only hear about this.  Ha!  It took a good 6 months for them to begin tolerating each other.  Now they sit together peacefully. Sammie is the boss, but Bettinna always challenges.   Bettinna likes to poke Sammie if she is sleeping in her house.  Just like two sisters fighting.   I love them both the same and had no idea what joy they give us.   Bettinna is so into Mommy and Sammie prefers her Daddy.  Bettinna wants to be with us all the time, wants us to play with her and she loves to be picked up by Mommy only and cuddles like a baby in my arms.   Makes your heart go ahhhhh.

Sammie’s Tail Part 28

 

To make a long story short, Bettinna gradually got comfortable in the house.   She loved to look out windows and look outside from the little screen area.

We put a TV tray table there for her to be able to see out.  We bought a cat tree to fit in front of another window for those cold or too hot days.   She discovered the front window too and knew how to move the blinds with her paws.

I moved my office to the basement and closed the door so I could have privacy.   She figured out how to get in, so we decided let both cats enjoy the basement and expand their territory.  At first she was more nervous but gradually adapted.  She was more sensitive to food and I found the odd hairball and throw up.

Both cats did not like when I put the laxatone for hairball gel in their food.  To put it on their paws was hard without trauma and meowing.  So I am now using laxatone treat chews.  Bettinna loves them and with other treats she now sits on command and gives kisses on our nose, even without the treats.  I still need to capture a good video of that.  I will try again.

Bettinna seems to learn a lot and Sammie is adapting to her as well.  They are fighting or playing, hard to tell sometimes.  But they will work it out.  North Shore Animal league behaviorist was very helpful with my annoying freaking out type of calls.   These are my kids so I am more than sensitive perhaps.

 

Bettinna is so comfortable, I think she thinks she owns our house.  I am happy about that and would not want anything else.

Sammie’s Tail Part 27

We are really enjoying Bettinna.   She is loveable and loves to play with toys on sticks with strings, and I am getting new toys all the time to try to stimulate her and keep her interested with her extreme energy.   She talks to us and we are learning to understand what each sound she makes.  It is like a whirring sound with different inflections.  She even talks to herself.

I drove the behaviorist nuts at North Shore Animal League.   As wonderful and patient she was.  To understand what I needed to do when introducing them to each other.  When we first brought Bettinna upstairs it was overwhelming for her.  We took her into Sammie’s room, the room Sammie hangs out most of her time in.   Bettinna ran around and freaked out.

I thought, Sammie was not going to like this.   At first she would fight with Sammie and get very energetic so we would close the basement door and go back down there.  She seemed to be comfortable with it at first as this was her first home with us and she was comfortable there and it calmed her.   Still to this day, she loves me to pet her on the stairs and she lies down and waits for me to pick her up.

We thought if we put her in the basement she would calm down.   She really was still a very young energetic kitten.  Sammie was so quiet, with her silent to our ears meows and didn’t bother anyone.  Some people like that kind of cat.   But, I know Sammie is still coming out of her shell.  She was abused and had bad experiences, where Bettinna had less tramau it seemed or handled it better and was a lot younger.

When we put her in the basement, she figured out how to push the accordion style door open and climb up through the top.  All of a sudden she was upstairs walking around, and we were stunned and yes, impressed the same.  Ha!

We now have extra locks on all our doors where we don’t want her to go, especially the laundry side of the basement.  She got in and I yelled at her, and she ran back out.  So she knows.  Her paws are used as hands.

 

I love her smarts and energy and interaction with us.  We played with her tirelessly.  At first she would be a bit nervous and her skin would ripple back and forth a bit.  We found the odd hair ball and she threw up a bit.   Today that does not exist at all.  It may be her nervousness and adjusting to the food.

We have her on hairball treats and bit of hairball food.   She only likes dry food.

 

Sammie’s Tail Part 26

Enjoy these early pictures of Bettinna, first in the cage to socialize her for first 4 days, and this was her home to feel safe if need be once we opened it for her.

And more early pictures of Bettinna in our home the first 4 weeks.  Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

We really enjoyed the service at North Shore Animal League.  They are on our Favorite things as they are the largest no kill shelter.   To continue to treat her infected ears was to me, not a great start for our relationship.  We kept Bettinna in the basement for 4 weeks before introducing her to Sammie.  We would bring blankets and beds from Bettinna upstairs and Sammie’s downstairs so they could both smell each other and not be shocked.   I was hoping they would like each other.  Bettinna was doing really well.

She did not mind the large TV so I could pet her and watch TV at the same time.   Sammie was scared of the TV and did not want to go into the room or area of the room with the TV on.  Nothing seemed to bother Bettinna.  She is very pretty and seems very smart.   We started to use treats to see what she would do. I asked her to kiss me on the nose for a treat, and she did.   She even sat for me when asking her to sit.  Wow!  She is incredible.  Sammie is incredible in a different way.  People tend to like animals that interact with them, but I love them both the same.

We were definitely falling in love with Bettinna too.  At first, I was going to socialize her to have her adopted as I felt she was young enough.   I think she is under a year, but we did put her age at about a year.   The vet said she was full grown, but she was the same size as Sammie, and later on grew to be a bit bigger. Yet both of them are small female cats.