A Morgan inspired post — One hell of a week | For Animal Lovers

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Editor’s note: Morgan passed in early January. She is missed. I promised to post some stories from her early days here that make me smile. I hope they make you smile too! This was written in 2013 shortly after Morgan joined our clowder. It chronicles the chaos she caused without intention.

“Necessity is the mother of invention.”

What? I’m adorable! I came with friends.

Quick background: I went to the local animal shelter to donate towels and came home with a one-eyed cat. She was younger than I thought. After introducing to my other three cats I found out she had one-celled thingies in her digestive tract. All the cats had to be pilled 3 times a day for a week. So starts the saga….

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The meds — oh yes, different pills for different sized cats.

Bringing a new cat home to an existing brood is always stressful. I am not sure if it was more stressful to the cats or to me. I am a worrywart so it was me. My two lady cats took to her right away. Yes, there was hissing but very little.

My drama queen guy cat was the king of hissy fits. He actually hit me on the head and said, “What were you thinking?” Seriously!

Day 1 and 2 were uneventful as I kept her isolated to get the feel and smell of the house.

Day 3: Jake, who is a tall, long cat overshot the litter box and peed all over the bathroom where I had set up a spare box. We had a conversation. He said his equipment is too big for the small litter box. (Believe me it’s not small — the box that is. Not sure about the equipment as I am not an expert in feline genitalia.) He said he couldn’t help it if he was well endowed. I just rolled my eyes. There is an acre of litter boxes elsewhere that he could have used. I had to clean the bathroom.

Day 4: Initial medication is liquid, $120. No one likes it and everyone spit, foamed at the mouth and sprayed it all over. Called vet for a different form. I got pills. The vet took pity and charged me $20. I had to completely clean the kitchen.

Day 5: The pilling starts. One cat won’t take pills so I crush it in food and wait all day for her to eat it. One cat takes them in pill pockets. Jake is cranky but takes them normally. The little one ate the pill pockets. All this took most of the day. Pilling cats is a full-time job.

Day 6: The crushed food cat won’t eat the food with the pill (so she didn’t get her dose) but the pill pocket cats still take it that way. Jake a.k.a. Crankypants is even more cranky.

Day 7: The pill pocket cats have learned how to eat the pill pocket and spit out the pill. I have another discussion with the vet tech. I plead with her to move in for a  week only to hear roaring laughter. She says I need to toughen up and quit the “coochy-coochy stuff.” I am pissed (that’s a technical term) but not at her. How can such little critters get me so flummoxed. Each cat gets put on the washer and they either get my finger in their mouth or a syringe-like pill plunger. Only one pill goes in back of the washer, ok maybe two. Jake is beyond cranky. He is considering going to court for emancipation.

Day 8: I am businesslike and quick. All cats are pilled in under an hour. I find one pill crushed on the bottom of my shoe. I consider it all a success. Jake loses emancipation case as he cannot inject himself with insulin. Judge dismisses.

Day 9: I am cutting the time down to 30 minutes now. I am on a roll but I did have one clawing incident that drew blood. Battle wounds. I am expecting a purple heart for this. Chocolate helps heal.

Day 10, 11, 12 and 13: No big deal. Done in less than 10 minutes. In fact I am considering starting a business, Cat Piller for Hire…or maybe Have Pill Plunger Will Travel.

Thanks to all the readers who gave pilling advice and sympathy! Thanks to my cats who did not spend the week under the bed which was a miracle.

22 thoughts on “A Morgan inspired post — One hell of a week | For Animal Lovers”

  2. Getting medicine to go down the throat of a cat is over the top crazy. I never could pill Z and when she got really ill at the end I just started giving her shots. But she ran from me and let me know I had broken her tiny trust. I felt more than terrible. I just stopped giving her the shots because I knew where it was all going to end. The vet came to the house for her yearly exam and shots for us. He pilled her once and I found the pill at the bottom of the steps in the basement under a bit of carpet. She was sneaky.
    This post made me laugh out loud.

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    • Jake wasn’t bad as he got older. Hazel would sometimes eat it in pill pockets. Mollie was a pretty firm no most of the time. I got to a cranky point here and when I put her on the washing machine she knew I meant business. Gracie I was never ever able to pill. If I got it in her mouth, she spit it out. She had terrible teeth when we adopted her. Even though we eventually took out all of her teeth, I think she had mouth trauma from the old pain. She was a great cat. It was awful how poorly she was taken care of when young.

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  3. I’m enjoying your stories of the early days with Morgan. Thanks so much for sharing and as you do I hope your memories bring a smile to your face and peace to your soul.

    Pauleen D

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    • It was a full time job. Interesting note especially for you, a longtime reader — as I looked at the original post I saw comments from some old blogger friends that no longer blog. Kind of sad. Many were great writers.

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  7. OK – seriously – I laughed my way through this “incident report” even though I totally know how hard it is to do this stuff. You had your work cut out for you BUT you got through it AND you had added a cat to the gang in spite of “The Great Pilling Incident”. Looking back at things like that which were major pains in the behind YET being able to laugh is a gift time gives us and in the end it’s TOTALLY worth it……Another fabulous flashback.

    Hugs, Pam

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