The Sedated Cat and the Leaking Roof

Fluffy in bed upstairs

The two, the cat and the roof, are not connected, except that they took place in the same room, and the shenanigans with the one led to the discovery of the other...

So, Tiger Fluffy Sheba, the name Tiger was appended after the vet techs described how it took three techs, and a vet, all bitten,to hang onto a fully sedated Fluffy Sheba in order to shave her, a biannual event, since her Persian fur isn't actually fur. It really grows straight out of her skin into felted chunks, impossible to brush, comb, anything, and rapidly build up to where they trip her up and tie her legs together.

Her skin is delicate as tissue paper, too, so you can't just grasp a chunk and clip, for fear of tearing the skin. She is very old, we think about 17, and I removed her long ago from an abusive first home, hence the biting and general hatred of humans. She will let me stroke her after years of trying, but even I am not allowed to shave her felted mats off.

Sooooo, I decided that rather than pay the vet northwards of four hundred dollars to do the required bloodwork, sedation, shaving, overnight hospital stay till she was in some shape to come home, etc., why not try it myself.

For the first time in my life I have tranquillizers in the house, my doctor having said have them just in case things get too much, okay? knowing perfectly well I would hang sooner than take them, Rescue Remedy being my go to, along with knitting and the labyrinth. Anyway, there they were, and I thought, hm, the tiniest dose might do this.

So I inserted one tiny pill in her mouth, taking her by surprise to do it, whereupon she bit me and I thought spat the pill out. So I gave her another. And realized after a while that in fact she now had taken two....hm.

Frantic internet search gave me results all over the place from It Will Kill Her StoneDead, you are a Criminal Owner, or words to that effect, all the way to, it can't poison a cat, but will result in prolonged sedation. So I voted for the second.

And did manage to get a ton of chunks off her. Now she's still pretty knotty, feels like a bag of marbles, but for her this is comparatively soignee. And she slept and briefly woke and slept and peed on the rug, and pooped wherever she fell down, and drank water and ate voraciously, half asleep, for two days. Yesterday she got up on her legs and staggered about a bit, so I was able to breath easier.

Then today, after a whole slew of visitors had come and gone, she suddenly appeared downstairs, had navigated the stairs alone and showed up, to HP's great delight, since he hadn't seen her since her last visit about a year ago. He can't do stairs, obviously, she lives upstairs, and she can not be carried unless you want to lose a finger or two. So getting them together is logistically like getting out of Iraq.

So this was thrilling, and I wondered if she was showing off her new haircut, or marching in protest at the indignities she'd been forced to endure while under the pills. I was so amazed, and so grateful I hadn't trodden right on her not seeing she was there, that I failed to get a picture. I hereby give you an older one, just to remind you who this demonic feline is.

This is the last time she ventured downstairs, and had a chat with Duncan



Notice Marigold lurking in the background. Duncan's MY friend, you can't have him..


During all the excitement, I happened to glance up at the ceiling in the bedroom where she lives, her choice, all the doors are open, but she disdains to mingle with the hoi polloi downstairs, and noticed DAMP STAINS, gah, scream, horror. The roof is leaking. This was after that night of the huge storm that stopped me from visiting my friend the other day.

And the HOA is hopeless at anything that requires action on their part, so I will have to see about getting our chimney people out again to replace the chase thing. I know what's causing it, since they pointed it out on their inspection in June, a chase around a pipe in the roof, cheap, rusting, nails popped. They mentioned that this is now common across the development, after the terrible winter we had. Sigh. But HS helped me by exploring inside the false roof, via my studio, to discover the pipe with raindrops running down it, right above where the stains were. We felt quite impressed with our detective abilities. And until it rains again, I think it won't spread.

So as I said, never a dull moment. One very bright moment this morning came when the shelf installing friend came over to present his bill, very reasonable bill, too,and agreed to take out part of it in art!!!!! so I gave him a guided tour of everything in the house, which is basically all available, it's just being stored on the walls, and he picked two little watercolors. Very cool. I love to use art as currency. And it saved us a third of the cost of the whole job. Not bad. And we had a great chat about art.

I have noticed that people who work in the building trades are very often good at art, knowledgeable about it, and very appreciative of houses that have a lot of original work around. It's a nice bonus.

So that's the quiet, uneventful day around here.