cats

there has been a plethora of pee going on.  not ok. it was getting ridiculous.  and despite my threats that if they didn't stop it, i was going to take them to the vets for check ups, they kept on doing it.
so first to go was nadj.  she hadn't been to the vet in about a million years.  she is 15 and has been healthy, and in indoor cat, so i stopped taking her.  i tried taking both her and seamus mccat when we first moved to this house, but neither of them would have it, and pawpi was the only one who went that time.  seamus mccat had an episode about 10 years ago that resulted in many many trips to the vets and $1500 of tests and emergency visits, extreme kitty weight loss and then one day she just got better.  so she hasn't been since then either.  she is 13.

so nadj went to the vet.  she has been looking thin lately and is awefully boney.  eric keeps saying that he'll be surprised if she makes it another 6 months.  well, the vet thinks otherwise.  she is on the border of having thyroid, kidney and liver disease, but far enough from them that the vet says no medication.  instead she prescribed some nasty ass wet cat food that makes me barf when i scoop it out.  nadj ate it but it was apparent that she didn't love it.
the peeing did not improve, in fact it got WORSE!
it got so bad that i told eric i was done and started researching no-kill shelters. i was so upset and frustrated.
eric texted me off the ledge, so instead i made a vet appointment for seamus mccat.
in the mean time, we locked fuzzy in the kids bathroom, and then the other two in our bedroom/bathroom.
i asked the vet to find out what the penalty for last minute cancellations might be, seeing as seamus mccat can be tough to catch.  no penalty!  but i really wanted to get her there.  so 1/2 hour before the appointment, i went in there and just picked her up, wrapped her in a towel and tossed her in the box.  she was NOT happy.  last time she was put in the box she peed all over the place, that was a million years ago.  she does tend to pee in terror. like, whenever the vacuum is turned on.  thankfully, we now have hard wood floors in the bedroom and those don't get vacuumed.

eric totally put these floors in - cut plywood into planks, installed, sanded, stained then coated.  they are awesome!!!

 luckily she held it together and no pee happened in the car.   she did really well at her exam, but the vet was worried she might have the jaundice, asking me if i thought the inside of her ears looked a little yellow, and what i thought of the whites of her eyes. the vet also commented on her lack of teeth - the teeth that she tore out while fighting with eric when we tried to put her in the box when we were trying to empty the house of cats for the open house when we were selling.  needless to say, she stayed in the house during the open house. and she did pee all over when they were trying to draw blood.  so they kept her for a few hours to try to not traumatize her too much, and they clipped her toenails, too!  seamus mccat was put on the nasty food too.  bleck.
turns out she doesn't have jaundice, her liver levels came back totally fine!  she just has a yellow tinge to her inner ear skin.  she doesn't have any kidney or thyroid problems either.  so no health reasons for her to be peeing.

the vet went on to say that fuzy was probably too young to have a medical condition causing him to pee.  she did go on and on about how they all love fuzy!  he hasn't been in there since they picked his berries, but they remember how awesome he is.  they would be surprised tho how huge he is, probably double in size by now!
so after about 10 days of being sequestered, fuzy has been set free to roam the house.  his bed is still in the kids bathroom and he does sleep in there sometimes.  his food  is in there, too, as well as a little box.  but now he has TWO litter boxes - the original one in the laundry room, too.  lucky him!
nadj and seamus mcat are still locked in our bedroom/bathroom.  this arrangement seems to work.  there has not been any aberrant peeing happening.  fuzy seems a little bit lonely, but at least i get to cuddle with him some without nadj getting mad at me.  we have swapped the nasty wet cat food for dry, which seems to make everyone happier and one of my favorite things is being able to hear the cats snacking or getting a drink of water during the night time.  we have committed to keeping them separated for the rest of eternity. 
everyone seems happier!
AND, from all of this drama, eric put in new floors in our family room!!

fuzy gets to roam free

so now we are almost carpet free.  all our floors are miss matched, but we went with the dark in here to contrast with the surrounding kitchen flooring.  we decided it would look better to go with something totally different than trying to match the existing flooring and have it be a little bit off.  can't wait to get rid of the rest of the carpet!!!