...even Chip. Chip has spent the last week since she "checked in" to Chez Silsby, being quite clear about how she feels about me. For the first four days or so, she sulked in the back of her carrier next to her litter box. When I turned her litter box, she still refused to come to the front of the carrier and sat IN the litter box, as far from me as possible. If I dared to reach gently into the carrier for any reason (to clean her litter box, fill or freshen her water, provide her delicious high quality meals, etc.) she would hiss and raise her little paw and pull it back in a threatening gesture. She wasn't kidding. She slashed at me when I daringly tried to pet her or, God forbid, pick her up. I had to resort to picking her up with a towel due to her willingness to follow through on her threats. Once I was holding her, she would eat vigorously from the spoon and occasionally, look up at me and say, "I hate you!!" with one sharp glance. "Okay," I would say, "I know you hate me, just keep eating."
The most improvement we had gotten was that she would lie in the front of her carrier on her towel and would only hide in the litter box when I entered the room. Then she began to stay on the towel as long as I didn't come near her carrier. Progress, right? So, when she became sick, I thought, "Uh-oh, this isn't going to be fun. She already hates me, she sure isn't going to like pills down her throat twice a day." Even after spending much of the day together during our vet visit and subsequent trip to the barn, she was still spearing me with her "hate you" looks. Oh, well.
She wasn't eating so I was trying to encourage her by smearing a little food on her mouth - she didn't care for that either and tried to escape from her torturer with little spurts of energy. "Anywhere, but with HER!", she seemed to be saying, "Give me liberty or give me death!" I was concerned about her becoming dehydrated since she didn't seem to be drinking and wouldn't eat even wet food, so I decided what the hell, she already hates me and used a dosing syringe to squirt a little bit of "cat food soup" made of wet food and water into her mouth. Yup, she hated that too.
As I left the room yesterday, she was sitting in the front of her carrier on her little towel and I distinctly felt her say, "I hate you SLIGHTLY less!" I figured that was a start...
Tonight, I picked up Chip without a towel and without injury :) Uh-oh, I thought, she must be very weak from not eating. I had only managed to get her to eat a spoonful or so of wet food in the last two days. I put her on my lap and when I offered her wet food, she gobbled it with close to her normal gusto. Then she proceeded to eat a number of spoonfuls of cat food soup and some more wet food, too. All good signs. Then she was done for a bit and I cuddled and petted her - under restraint of course. All of a sudden, she was purring. Really purring. A really BIG purr from her little tiny snuffly body. Wow. Then she ate a bit more too.
Who would have thunk it? Love conquers all...with some help from cat food soup.
No comments:
Post a Comment