Greetings!
This was an interesting sky one afternoon
We've had clouds and sun, fall chill in the goose-honking air, wind and calm, with a couple of gorgeous fall days around 70 degrees. Ahhh!
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Well, today...it's about time to talk about Miss Karma.
She may enjoy watching the sparrows and grouse...
...and appear deceptively calm...but she does not take change well. She started licking/pulling all the fur off her belly back when I started tearing the only home she had ever known apart (packing for the move). She's always been an over-groomer under stress, but it has never stopped and we've been here over a year. Her self-mutilation has become an excessive habit...has actually gotten worse these past few months. :(
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I've been dealing with her scratching her ears till the fur is off and she bleeds. And she doesn't even have claws!
I have tried aloe vera on her ears and tummy...anti-tich spray and cream...but they didn't help. I got "calming" treats...which she doesn't like much and rarely will eat. I have "calming" spray that I have been misting her cloth collar with every morning. That seemed to help her sleep more soundly, but she still groomed and groomed while she was awake.
Meanwhiile she bleeds...from belly...
...and ears. *sigh*
Leaves blood spots all over her cat beds, my bed...
...and the pillow I have to use when I'm in my chair when she wants to come up for a cuddle. (Hurts when she steps on me--fibro.)
So this month I bit the bullet and ordered her a cone collar.
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Saturday morning the torture began with cat resignation.
I was acutally shocked that she didn't totally freak out.
She was baffled...and had trouble navigating...
...because she'd get "stuck" on furniture. She'd move her head or walk into something and just freeze there till I rescued her--LOL!
Her first trip to the litter box was quite an ordeal. (If she thought she was stressed before, eh?)
She couldn't get into the litter box because she kept getting "stuck" on the edges of the opening. So I had to show her how to move her head to guide her in. Then she couldn't get back out--LOL!
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She can't jump up on the furniture--or won't. She tried and almost crushed her windpipe and that was the end of that.
So I have a kind of handicapped cat at present.
She even walked into the snow shovel and got stuck-- ROFL!
Luckily, Miss Karma has always liked hard pillows.
She seems rather sad...but I am shocked at how well she is taking this on the whole. I expected a total melt-down, to be honest.
She has had a lot of trouble eating.
So she hasn't been eating much at all...so this morning I took the cone off while she ate morning treats and she was very happy. Not happy when I put it right back on again after she was done.
Even her patio door time...
...is a little strange.
Leah came over last night for craft night. Stamped return addresses on our Christmas envelopes and then she continued working on her Christmas gift tags.
Got all the gluing done!
Letting them dry well because the next step is cutting holes in each one so that she can string ribbon through them--and then they're done!
Here's what the backsides look like.
So, almost finished--tada!
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Since we had the bleed through with the Archival ink pads I wanted to try a couple other brands and ordered a Versafine black and a Memento black. The Versafine (pigment ink) had already arrived so we did some test printing...one of each single stamped and one stamped twice.
And already you can see they are shadowing through the card stock.
Maybe they always have and I never noticed? I find that hard to believe...but not impossible. I have been known to miss a LOT bigger things--LOL! I'll be testing the Memento that arrived this afternoon (dye ink)...and probably some other ink pads I already have. Now I am just plain curious. Maybe they all do this?
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I'm not sure how long I will keep the cone on Karma.
I've been taking it off for her to eat her canned food treats. (Did again while I was writing this...and she seemed to know she'd be trapped again soon so made a quick trip to the commode, too.)
Thank goodness she's eleven and sleeps a lot, anyways. Poor thing.
I read online (when I was snooping around about this issue) that calicos are notorious for not accepting change well. That's an understatement, eh?! I hope to keep her from self-mutilation long enough for her wounds to heal up and hopefully that might break this terrible habit. ??? But who knows.
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On brighter notes...
It came to me to switch the bird feeder direction so that possibly the wind wouldn't catch the roof of it and whip it about as much. So far so good! Much calmer out there!! But it hasn't been terribly windy, either. Anyways, the stabilizing project is temporarily on hold.
And I got these "animations" from Leah.
Ian mountain climbing...
...and tree climbing.
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Thursday morning my apartment is one of the randomly chosen apartments for an inspection by the State Auditor--accompanied by Federal Housing personnel (Navare)! So I will be able to report the kitchen flooring...over Navare's head, so to speak. Interesting!! (I'll also find out if I am in any trouble for all the things we've installed on the walls--LOL!)
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Anyways, it's already dark out. Karma had her dinner and I will now go have mine. Hard to get a lot done with a semi-handicapped cat in the house--LOL! I sure hope this works! Send some calming enegy or say a little prayer for Karma. Have a great week! :) :)
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"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."
Anne Bradstreet
