One remark I would like to make though – the day before we took her to the vet she scratched the area of the lump furiously which makes me believe that perhaps it was a ganglion. But who knows. This is Mary.

Since we came from the vet though, she has been acting strangely. Mary is not a very playful cat and only my husband ever seems able to get her in the mood. But lately, you look at her or move in her direction and she hops like Tigger from Winnie the Pooh and bobs her head back and forth like one of those cheap head bobbing dolls people tend to put on the dashboards of their cars. And then she would just attack the carpet. Last night it looked like she was trying to bite my husband’s pants.

Who knows where this behaviour comes from. As I said, this is Mary and there is a very good reason her name is what it is.

As mentioned in a previous post, Mary recently went to the vet to have her teeth cleaned. We made that decision a week before while the vet was giving her an injection as her skin flared up again.
Fortunately, Mary couldn’t associate the trip back to the vet for her teeth with me. My husband dropped her off in the morning and collected her again in the afternoon. All I could think of the whole day is “my poor baby, alone and scared and drugged in a place which doesn’t hold fond memories”. I couldn’t wait to go home to see her after work. I was expecting a drugged and goofy cat, but she seemed no worse for the wear. The vet said we should keep an eye on any swelling of the gums, but Mary didn’t have any issues afterwards: clean breath and clean toofies.

So why are we taking her back to the vet barely two weeks after her last visit?

I don’t know whether I am an overly paranoid human companion, but Mary has a lump in her neck. It isn’t something under the skin either, so it is not an abscess. The lump is connected to deeper tissue and we feel this warrants a trip to the vet. I would rather Mary hate me for a couple of days (or weeks, you never know!) than have her fall ill if we could have prevented it with early detection.

I think this time around I dread going to the vet as much as she does.

This leads to a bit of a concern regarding the cat’s collar – not only must an owner make sure the collar itself is stretchable, so it can easily slip off if their wearer is in danger of choking or worse, but it should also be ultimately able to tear or snap to get them out of a jam. That being said, the collar not being as fixed as it could be does lead to the more rambunctious feline losing more than their fair share.

And this presents a difficulty in and of itself – what about the tag?  One can only have so many collars around the house, especially with a cat that goes through them like most people go through underwear.  And of course there’s no way we would allow Mary out without a tag on her collar.  If she were lost and someone picked her up, they’d have no recourse but to deliver her to the SPCA, which (like many well-intended animal organisations) is animal welfare- and not animal rights-oriented, and largely a bureaucratic farce, so definitely not a place I’d like my girl to ever see the inside of.  This is assuming, of course, that those who find her have good intentions and aren’t just out to steal her for themselves.  And who wouldn’t want to?  You’ve seen her pictures, right?

To cut a long story short, the pain of having to have a set of pre-engraved tags, or having to rush about looking for an engraver and/or pet tags while her majestic-ness sits at home growing more inclined to pommel any people-flesh she sees exposed with her incredibly long claws while we sleep, is not conducive to a healthy cat-and-person relationship.

Imagine our glee (srsly, glee) at finding a little collar called the Rogz – it’s a little plastic tag doohickey that allows one to scribble/print down the relevant details and snap the tag together themselves.  Also handy if you need to change said details.  You can check out their site for more info (and no, we’re not getting commission from them, just appreciating the product), but the pic below gives an idea of what it looks like:

Plastic Rogz tags

The following images show Mary wearing her own Rogz tags – obviously they suit her rather… er… active lifestyle:

Cat and tag caught unawares

And from another angle

Waking with a camera up the schnozz

Cat, unamused.

However, be that as it may, recently we found ourselves crossing this line with Mary.  Not for the reasons one would imagine, though – it was simply the least complex solution in order to stop our silly Siberian from over-grooming a wound.  The Victorian collar option was out, as the wound was outside the area, meaning she could still reach it with her hind legs.  We’d tried bandaging her paw, but that led to her toes becoming painfully sensitive for some reason.

As a last resort, we bought her a blue cat (or dog, more the humiliation…) shirt, tore off the very badly thought out sleeves – she could barely walk with them hampering her movement – and put the thing on over her collar.  Needless to say, little Miss Fluff was very indignant about the whole thing, but it paid off in the long run (+/- 3 weeks, cringe) as her wound finally healed.

Adjustments around the collar area.

Final tweaks around the collar area.

Finally shirt is on...

And not even a solid under-shirt scratch...

... can stop Mary keeping her distance from the those shirty savages.

When outside for the first time, Mary checks to see if anyone is watching her misery.

And like many before her, uses grass to feel better.

Heading out into the cruel world.

Finally at rest, plotting her revenge.

We were going through a good patch, with plenty of love and purrs and cuddles, but I don’t know how popular I will be after her being locked up inside last night. It doesn’t matter that the decision to lock her up was made by my partner *and* I. Someone has to be blamed and it will most likely be me.
We had a very good reason to lock her up inside. Mary lost two collars (with tags) in three days. I don’t know how, or where, but I do know that she ain’t going nowhere without visible identification.

I went and bought two new collars with two new tags so we will have to wait and see whether these last.  Watch this space!

I was absolutely mortified! Firstly because she makes herself at home in someone else’s flat and secondly because she plays with someone else. Mary does not like to play with me. She plays with my partner yes, but not with me. I kind of feel betrayed to be honest. At least she is not a problem. I am thankful that the neighbour is not complaining about her spending time in his flat, but instead, that he welcomes it. I still can’t help taking Mary’s “disloyalty” personally. Should I?!

On a different note, we are back at the battle of the food. We managed to get our hands on a few precious pouches of that veterinary food, but that has run out. She now refuses to eat anything else. She will nibble on some biscuits, but pulls up her nose at anything else. We cooked her some liver, I even tried to simulate the vet food by boiling chicken and rice and making it in to a moosh. Not a chance. I bought her chicken loaf, but that is not good enough either. I am starting to get really worried because she is losing weight (and no she is not eating at the neighbour’s either).

Tonight we will go and get some fish. I am sure she will eat that. In fact, I know she will eat it. But that will also mean that chances are her skin inflammation will be back soon.

After all this, she still thinks the neighbour is better than us.

Damn cat.

Her skin condition is worsening. We have tried, as you already know, everything as far as food is concerned. We have taken her off fish, she is getting sick of the chicken, and last night my partner boiled her some raw steak and kidney. If you think chicken stinks when you boil it, then boiling steak and kidney is sure to make you gag. The smell has crept in to everything. You can smell it on my partner’s clothes, his hands….. and to top it all off, Mary has zero interest in the food (lord alone knows I don’t blame her!). She did not even so much as feign any interest.

In the pictures below you can see some of the irritation on her skin (and no, it is not ring worm). The base of her tail is full of tiny little scabs and the fur is thinning in the area. It is clear Mary is uncomfortable – she is constantly over grooming, her tail is always twitching and she is incredibly vocal. These are all signs we have come to identify when the skin flaring is especially bad.

Wish us luck, we are leaving for the vet in about 10 minutes!

On the inside of her leg

On her neck (raw and moist and scabby)

Mary’s food has still not entered the country. We tried to alternate the only cat food she would eat (whole pilchards and/or sardines), with fresh, boiled chicken and meat. This really grosses me out, and plus the smell of boiling meat just plain stinks and makes me feel ill. But it is Mary’s food and it is what she likes and what is good for her. It is just as well we got in to the routine of feeding her this meat, because after a visit to the vet on Sunday, we were told to take her off the fish immediately as it just compounds her skin allergies.

Yes, you read correctly. Mary was at the vet. Again. Saturday night she came inside all wide eyed, her head full of stinky gob. She had bits and pieces of dislodged fur all over her head. That only meant one thing: fight. We inspected her and found no obvious wounds.

The next morning (Sunday morning) was a different story though. Mary had a nick in her ear that turned in to an abscess overnight. I opened it up and took out quite a bit of gunk, but it was clear she will have to go to the vet. Happy happy joy joy. It is just as well because Mary’s skin was flaring up again and it was time to get that treated.

The vet cleaned up the wound a bit, gave Mary an injection and then gave us antibiotic tablets: a four day course. She gave us extra tablets for next time it happens, as Mary seems to form abscesses very quickly.

As per usual, madam is not a happy camper. I have fallen out of favour because as per usual, it is all my fault that she had to go to the vet and I am a beast and a monster for force feeding her tablets every day. Never mind the fact that I boil her stinking meat and cut it up for her and make sure it is the right temperature….. ungrateful little brat!

I have no idea how long I will be paying for my “mistake”, but I will be sure to keep you updated.

The vet’s waiting room

Waiting for the vet

One very unamused cat

Mary’s vet is the best vet in the world!

The first visit entailed injections. We went to the vet to get more of her prescription food as she was all out, only to be told the food won’t be available in the country for the next 3 months as there is some or other problem with customs. We called around everywhere. All surgeries were out of stock. We fed her on ordinary cat food pouches. After 3 days, we noticed Mary’s irritable skin condition was back. This confirmed what the vet suspected: there is something in the food that irritates her skin. Makes one wonder what they put in it….

Anyway, so off to the vet we go. She got a shot to help relieve the condition. We were worse than dog poo. Oh wait hang on no, I was worse than dog poo because somehow this was all my fault. This put us in a difficult position. What is she going to eat? We can’t feed her ordinary food! The vet suggested some other food (which was ludicrously expensive, but there is no price on Mary’s health!), but madam rather starved herself for two days than eat it. We tried absolutely everything. We even bought her fresh raw fish. She just was not interested. We were desperate. We finally found a tin of food called Lucky Pet Supreme, containing whole pilchards or whole sardines in jelly. This she happily ate. I was worried at first that it was because she was so damn hungry she would eat just about everything and then as soon as her hunger were satisfied she would pull her nose up at it again, but so far so good! I don’t know what effect it will have on her skin because the injection lasts about a month or so, so we will just have to wait and see.

The next visit saw Mary stay overnight at the vet’s. She came in one morning with a fat bottom lip. Literally. By the evening the swelling had not gone down, so off we went to the vet. Somehow she hurt herself on her bottom lip and in the space of a day the wound developed an abscess which had to be drained. We had to leave her there overnight and pick her up the next day after work. It was painfully difficult to carry her to the cage and leave her there. I wanted to crack. My poor poor baby.

When we collected her the next day my partner and I were like little kids on Christmas morning! We could not wait to have kitty back with us again! She was equally happy to see us. All these visits meant she had to stay inside for a day or so after each visit – we did not want her to run away because she was upset with us (you never know with Mary!).

I am pleased to report that she is doing well and I sincerely hope it stays that way. I really can’t afford to lose the teeny bit of popularity I worked so hard to get!

Mary and I always had a bit of a strange relationship. She is so much daddy’s little girl. She looks at my partner with complete and utter adoration in her eyes and it is clear that she worships him. The moment I touch her or look at her, she starts flicking her tail. Sometimes she would simply get up and move to a different spot, sometimes she would move to a different spot and settle with her back to me, sometimes she simply walks away, sometimes she would lick herself where I touched her.
In the beginning when she joined our little family, I was the third wheel in the relationship. At one point it actually made me feel resentful towards my partner because the cat liked him better than she liked me.

It was a long, hard journey to build a bond with her, but eventually it happened. That was until recently when it dawned on me that she really actually does not like me, she just tolerates me for the sake of it.

Mary and I are now in the process of rebuilding our relationship and it is a struggle. Every now and again I have a breakthrough moment with her. Let’s hope it works!

Fast asleep under Daddy’s blanket, on Daddy’s side of the bed