It has been another fun month in the life of Carrot. Lots of playtime, hugs and good food. It’s always fun going to hang with Carrot for a while — he is an eternal kitten.
It seems Carrot’s freak-out last month, when Cypress joined his room, wasn’t a one-time thing. We’ve added two new cats to his suite in the last couple of weeks. Sweet and fun-loving Randy and gentle, sweet Lorraine are very good-natured cats, and no threat to anyone.
Carrot, however, acts like we just released a pack of wild dogs into his room. Any time we introduce a new cat, Carrot growls, hisses, and runs away at a million miles an hour. By day two of having the new cat in the room, Carrot is totally fine again. I have no idea why he goes into “Stranger Danger” mode whenever we add a new cat, but I’m glad he gets over it quickly. Once the newbie has been released in his room for over 24 hours, they are accepted, and clearly not there to harm him in any way.
The Tabby’s Place staff was talking at lunch the other day about how difficult it is to express Carrot’s bladder (I know some people out there are saying “ewwww, not a good lunch topic”, but that’s probably one of the more sedate conversations you’ll hear in our lunch room).
Danielle, our Sanctuary Operations Manager, said she finds it easier if she puts him in a “pee shape” to express him. For some reason, I was thinking she meant “pea,” and I was trying to wrap my head around how making him into a round shape (and possibly dying him green) was going to help express his bladder.
In my defense, I wasn’t the only staff member that was thinking “pea” rather than “pee”! I finally understood she meant putting Carrot into the shape he would naturally position himself to pee.
I decided to give this a try. It definitely works much better, and Carrot seems much more tolerant to let his bladder be expressed in the “pee” shape. I’m not quite sure what he would do in the “pea” shape, though — probably think we were going crazy trying to bend him into a ball!
We also started Carrot on a new medication that helps relax his bladder, to make it easier to express him. At first, the medication made him too sedate, so we lowered the dose. He is no longer sedate on the lower dose, and it does seem to make it a little easier to express his bladder.
In other medical news, Carrot had some chin acne and needed a good face scrub. Poor Carrot also had another bout of diarrhea, and he is on medication to help clear that up.
That all the Carrot news for this month. Carrot would like to wish each of you a wonderful Thanksgiving. Because of you, Carrot can be thankful for his life, and all the love and care he receives at Tabby’s Place.