Meet "MAURICE"
our new cat
On a sunny afternoon in early April I drove to the local Animal Rescue League armed with a cat carrier and a light heart, I was going to pick up our new cat and bring him home. We had lost our 18 year old "Peanut", better known as "Sweet Pea", a few months before and felt it was time for a new addition before our slightly (sic) spoiled dog "Lola" became too comfortable being "the one and only".
Maurice had been picked up as a stray, he had been very ill with a temperature of 107. The wonderful people at the Animal Rescue League, realizing he was an exceptional cat, put him on intravenous fluids, gave him ice baths and alcohol rubs. For a while it was touch and go but their good care pulled him through. The stress of another change of home caused a relapse with a very bad cold and conjunctivitis, an inflammation of the eye which can be caused by a bacterium or a virus. After three trips to the Vet and two antibiotics which did not work, and at the suggestion of our Vet, I ordered some L-Lysine, an amino acid which works against Herpes, the virus usually involved with cat conjunctivitis. Actually, it works for human Herpes too, I hear. Don't worry, you can't catch cat Herpes, it's species specific. Incidentally, you can buy L-Lysine at the grocery store, cut it to size and crush it. Make sure to ask your Vet how much to give your cat. I did this while waiting for the Viralys. We were very worried that "Mo", that's what we call him, would lose his sight, but he will be just fine. The vet bills were high; fortunately with Mo having been so ill, I bought pet insurance. I never bought insurance before because all the companies I called covered young pets at a reasonable rate but as the pets aged the premiums became too high. The Animal Rescue League suggested "Pet First Healthcare" . I called them and liked what they had to offer. I could not be more pleased. They reimbursed me promptly and without a hassle. By the way, the website does not list all of the available options, you need to call them.
For the last 50 years I had been cleaning sand boxes and was getting really tired of it. So, before Mo became used to the sandbox I decided to treat myself, and him, to a self cleaning toilet. Oh, why didn't I splurge long ago? He took to it right away and I am sure he enjoys always having a clean sand box. Read about it, I just can't say enough good about it. There were a few glitches at first but customer support is superb and everything is working fine now. Customer support usually takes a message and calls you back so you don't have to wait on the phone. I think it's unrealistic to think that the Cat Genie would save money though; some granules are lost with the feces and you need to buy some now and then as well as the sanitizing and maintenance solutions.
Maurice truly is an exceptional cat but that is what you would expect from a red male cat. We have had several red cats and they were all very very nice cats, especially the males. We thought perhaps we were prejudiced but when I told our Vet how great a cat Mo was, she exclaimed "well, he's a red cat!". So it seems that the temperament is color and sex linked. What do you know?
Best Toy Ever
Best Toy Ever
