aramis87

Oh, she's lovely!

Artie is going to pee in a moment ...

Also putting his mattress and pillows into an allergen case.

Take all the current litter out of the box. Give the box a thorough cleaning, then run some diluted bleach around it. Drain the litterbox and let it air-dry. When the box is completely dry, put it down in it's usual place and put the new "litter" in the box.

If you have multiple cats, you'll need to arrange something where the sick cat is the only one who can access that litterbox (and that the sick cat can't access a second one, either).

Check with the vet; many times you can refrigerate a urine sample overnight if necessary, but it may depend on what time the lab stops by their office to pick up samples.

If all else fails, you can bring the cat to the vet for them to collect a urine sample. This may entail then keeping the cat in a cage and periodically checking the litter there; or (more likely) the vet will insert a needle into the cat's bladder and draw a sample directly. For obvious reasons, cats tend to dislike this second option.

When he said "out of state" or whatever the exact words that he said, I pretty much interpreted his meaning as "liberal, Democrat, or minority". But since that's my interpretation of what he said, I went with what he actually said. [Well, fairly close, it's not an exact quote.]

It's crazy how all the things conservatives are scared of are so far away and in distant places yet as soon as they see it first hand they're like "oh shit, I was just an asshole."

I watched the Utah governor's press conference and he literally says something like, "I've spent 33 hours praying it was someone not from here, someone who came in here, someone from out of the country". Like dude, you have an entire echo chamber set up to make and keep your people angry, your entire political machine is geared to keep them angry, and y'all have advocated for the right to shoot people for so long that you literally can't take their guns away, and you thought oh, it'll be someone from out of state? He was so upset he was almost crying. Still can't admit any of that, though.

You monsters!!

You pay so you can access the front page of imgur? Okay then!

Keep some dry food available at all times, so they can snack as they please, but feed them wet food a couple times a day for their main meals: dry food is harder on their kidneys and increases their chances of diabetes in later age. (Both kidney and diabetes issues are manageable with care, but it's much easier to avoid them if you can!)

Figure out their favorite flavors, including 'odd' flavors like duck and venison. Those flavors may change over time, so verify favorites once a year or so. You'll want at least one, preferably two, "best" flavors for each cat. Then do not feed those flavors to the cat, except to verify they still like them. When it's time to give them medicines, you want flavors that they don't eat everyday and that will definitely pique their interests.

If your cat ever needs appetite stimulants, get the transdermal versions. There are two: mirtazapine and ciproheptadine. Mirtz is more commonly used, but it makes some cats very agitated and meow-y. For those reasons, I tend to avoid it: I'm giving appetite meds to the cat because it's feeling poorly, and I'd like to know that any odd behavior is due to their health issues, not debate myself over whether it's a health issue or a medication side effect. Ciproheptadine is less common but has less side effects; you should be able to get it made at a compounding pharmacy.

To use: wear surgical gloves, put a dose on your finger, and gently massage it onto the inside of their ear. Their appetite will perk up in about an hour. Alternate ears, and clean the inside of the ears with a damp cotton ball every few days, to avoid medication build up.

If you have other meds to give, pull their regular food, then give them the appetite stimulant. Wait until they're hungry, mix the meds into their regular food and feed it to them.

Don't give churu's or similar gravy as a regular treat; you want to be able to use them to mix meds into.

Get them a cat tree for the living room, someplace they can be tall. Arrange furniture so there's something for them to sit on at most windows. If you can put beds in a couple of their most-favored places, that would be great!

They're going to be cautious in a new environment and with new people. Ask if you can bring something from their old home to your new one, to help them settle in: the blanket they slept on (don't wash it!), something like that. Find out what food and litter they had in the old place and start out using those at your place so they'll feel a bit better settling in, then slowly transition both over to whatever it is that you prefer.

Put them into one room to start and give them a couple days to settle before slowly introducing them to the rest of the house, especially if you have young children, dogs, or other pets.

They'll likely take some time to truly warm up to you; be patient.

At first, don't just bend down and pick them up or bend down and pet them: their instinctive reaction is that something is coming out of the sky for them. Instead, stand a couple feet in front of them and dangle your hand where they can see it. They'll consider, approach, sniff, then likely brush your hand. This is the signal that it's okay to touch. Eventually they'll adjust to you and you won't have to do that, you can just bend over and touch, but at the start it just makes them tense, especially in a new location with new people.

Probably other stuff, but I don't remember.

I don't see any cats in this picture.

^^/s

If this is actually your cat, you might get him checked for acromegaly.