Hello, Bacon sponsors!
Our handsome friend Bacon has had an unusually active month. I’m happy to report that he remains in good health though his seizures persist. As I mentioned last month, Bacon now has a new soft-sided crate to protect him from injuring himself during his seizures. It’s roomy and comfortable, though the one drawback is that it’s a bit harder to see in when it’s closed. (But that might be just as well for Bacon so he can snooze undisturbed by curious human eyes.)
In less comfortable news, Bacon’s fur has become very matted. Bacon isn’t very diligent about grooming himself —he’s only awake overnight when no one is around anyway!—and has developed some painful-looking mats. Because he is so resistant to being touched, he’ll have to be sedated to receive a haircut sometime in the near future. I’ll do my best to get pictures of his makeover!
And though Bacon doesn’t like to be touched, I learned on a recent visit that he sometimes doesn’t mind giving out some contact of his own!
When I arrived Bacon was eating his dinner. Upon finishing, he is normally a little groggy from his medicine but will trot around, brush lightly against my fingers, and sometimes play a bit. Instead, on this visit I was met with a Bacon who was pacing, meowing, and generally agitated. As you can imagine, it’s hard to calm a cat you can’t touch. I tried speaking softly to him… and was surprised when he dove on my leg and started gnawing on my jeans! 
Over the next few minutes, he kept up hopping in and out of my lap, biting my jeans, and chasing me down when I moved away from him. He even marched right up to Sally several times and stared her down—and bops on the head from her did not deter him. Fortunately, he doesn’t bite very hard so I wasn’t injured at all. Mostly I was worried about him. This was a new behavior to me and I didn’t know where it was coming from.
With the help of the vet staff (and a second helping of dinner), Bacon calmed down enough to be safely left alone. Later I spoke to Karina and learned that she’s seen this behavior before. She said he’s even chased her out of her office! According to her, he just gets in a mood sometimes and it’s not clear why.
Bacon continues to be an enigma.
Perhaps the strangest part was that when he would calm down for short intervals, he would come and lean his whole body against me, as if for comfort. For a cat who barely likes to be touched this is very out of character. I can only guess that whatever was going on was as distressing to him as it was to anyone else.
It’s likely we’ll never know what goes on inside the mind of a complex cat, like Bacon. Thankfully he has a safe home and a lot of humans to care for and root for him.
In the spirit of thanks, I’d also like to invite you to our annual Thanksgiving with the Cats event on November 23. We’ll be hosting a silent auction and offering tours and refreshments, as well as a special Thanksgiving treat you can give to the cats! Please join us if you can!
Your correspondent,
Tara