Smoky came home from the hospital on Monday. He was SO ready to come home. He was pressing his nose up against the bars on the carrier and purring and making it *very* clear that he was done at the hospital. Surprisingly, he was a very good patient. He’s a nice cat but he can be pretty high strung and he doesn’t handle change well so I wasn’t sure how he’d handle being there. But, he was good. Everyone was sad to see him go as he was, apparently, very affectionate.
He already looks better, seems happier, and is less skittish. He has his appetite back and it eating lots of food. We have him confined in our guest room and he’ll be there until 10/22 when his radiation levels will have dropped to acceptable levels. Then he’ll be released back into the general population.
It’s funny, when he was first brought back into the house we took him straight downstairs and into the guest room in the carrier. The guest room door locks from the inside and the outside since the lock on the handle doesn’t work very well. All of the animals, except Bucky, took turns spending time outside the guest room door and either squeaking, whining, whimpering, or scratching at the door trying to get in to see Smoky.
Smoky was initially pretty stressed out when we let him out into the guest room. He was panting. For cats, unlike dogs, that a sign of extremely high stress. When you add in the fact that he’s in heart failure that’s generally not a good sign. I spent some time calming him down and making sure that he was petted and loved on and eventually he relaxed into being back in the house.
Bucky clearly knows that Smoky is home but hasn’t shown any interest in trying to get in to see him. Scratch has managed to get in twice and Rerun once. Both times we’ve gotten them out without incident. Smoky was pretty shaken up when we first got him home and set up in there. It was a very good thing that he had his own space to decompress and readjust. Now he’s more interested in what’s on the other side of the door so whenever we go in to visit him we have to make sure he doesn’t get out. All in all, everything seems to be fine. When you go in to visit with him he purrs up a storm, he hops up on the bed and rolls over for belly rubs and chin scritches. He’s happy, and that’s just awesome.
I’m heading down shortly to give him his night time does of medication, some more food, and some more attention. I will admit, I can’t wait till he’s a part of the pack again, but it is nice to be able to spend time with him without any of the other animals demanding attention.
I’ll try and get some photos of Smoky The Happy Cat tomorrow.
~Kelly
The Books are Taking Over... 