Cats and Grads

I'm in a hotel room in Murfreesboro, TN currently. My lil' bro graduates from MTSU tomorrow. So proud of him! :)

I'm actually really tired, so this won't be long. Just checking in.

I got to see my new kitty again today. I don't think I mentioned that in my catch up post. I came home one day from work and there was a VERY sad looking kitty sniffing at people's garbage bags on the second level in my building. So I coaxed him upstairs and gave him some food. And I just didn't have the heart to leave him out there so I put him on my back porch and kept him out there for about a week with fresh food and water and litter. I didn't know what kind of diseases he may have so I didn't want him actually IN my apartment as my boyfriend and I have 2 other cats that I didn't want to risk catching anything. But he was very sweet and obviously used to being around people.

I got him into the vet and turns out he's an oooold man. They're guess-timating about 15. (So, more a "cat" than a "kitty" really, but whatev...) It took them like 4 tries just to even determine he was a he actually. His fur was so matted they couldn't get through to his "parts" to see what kind of parts they were. We ran all sorts of blood work to make sure he was healthy and such. He was free of the super bad stuff- feline leukemia and feline AIDS, worm-free, etc. Turns out he does have hyperthyroidism which causes all sorts of symptoms like increased heart rate and high metabolism which in turn lead to an inability to put on weight, increased bowel movements and urination, etc, etc, etc. But the vet said it's fairly easy to treat so we've got some pills. He'll take those for a month then we'll check his levels again and adjust as necessary. Once we get that leveled out again it'll just be a matter of a couple annual check ups.

And my parents did me the huge favor of taking him to get shaved (the matted fur really was just ridiculous) and I got to see him for the first time after that today. And Oh. My. Goodness. This is one skinny cat. When I get my camera fixed I'll post pics (hopefully soon, before he fattens up too much, otherwise I'll just use John's camera.) But the point is that he is now on his way to becoming a much-loved, fat, content indoor cat. :) He is very laid back (my parent's 3 dogs don't phase him a bit) so we'll probably introduce him to our other 2 cats within the next week or so. Oh yeah- I named him Gus!

(And don't worry, the house sitter this weekend knows to give Gus his medicine while we're away!)

Anyways, it was a long, if tolerable, day at work today. Followed by a 3 1/2 hour car ride, so I'm going to head to bed now. Luckily this ceremony is NOT a morning gig. We don't have to get there til 12ish. My only worry is getting up in time to catch free breakfast downstairs :) Sweet dreams!