Welcome back my Sweet Albert Supporters!

At the beginning of the month Albert was active, but as the month progressed I noticed him spending more time lying in his chair again. I think the changes in his medication are part of the reason for his lying around.

This month the Tabby’s Place team did a BG (blood glucose) curve (in which we test his BG every few hours across the span of a day, to see how well his current insulin dose is controlling his diabetes) on Albert. We’d like to bring his BGs down a bit, so we’ve increased his insulin dosage to 4 units, twice daily. Albert’s tenacious upper respiratory infection has finally subsided, so we’ve been able to discontinue his antibiotic. We’ve also been able to decrease Albert’s steroid dose to just once a day, and this dose seems to be serving him well.

My new routine with Albert is that I come in and see him lying on his chair. I go up to him, rub my hand down the length of his body, and say, “hi, Albert, how are you doing?” With that, he opens his eyes.

After he rubs his head against my fist for awhile, Albert starts lying on my hand. I continue talking softly to him, and when I see his eyes close I pull my hand out. Usually he opens his eyes again. So I put my hand under his head until I can pull it out and his eyes stay closed.

A staff member asked me what I talk to Albert about. I told her I read to him and tell him about my day. What I didn’t say was that, from time to time, I tell Albert about the rainbow bridge into cat heaven and describe the Tabby’s Place cats who are there, so he won’t be alone. I tell Albert I’m going to miss him very very much and will never forget him. When I’m having this talk with Albert, he always looks very intent on my every word.

This month’s photo finds Albert standing on his chair, looking like he is telling the world, “This is my chair!”

Albert recently gave us a false alarm when, on her way out of Tabby’s Place for the night, one of our staff members reached down to pet Albert and found him extremely nonresponsive. When even a gentle shake didn’t rouse Albert, she ran back to get our vet tech. Fortunately, all was well, and Albert groggily woke up shortly thereafter; Albert is a very deep sleeper, and it takes a lot to wake him up. He was just fine (other than a bit irked that we startled him out of his snooze).

Thank you very much for supporting Albert through this hard time in his life. Until next month,