Duchess is diabetic again

[cjsmith]

Well, dang. Here we go again: Duchess is diabetic. Her remission didn't last long! Poor kitty. (Poor my wallet.)

Well, ok, maybe Duchess wouldn't be unhappy if she understood the news. This will mean kitty treats twice a day.

Comments

[shadopanther.livejournal.com]

I used to always have indoor-outdoor cats. For about the last 10 years I've had just indoor-only cats. My late cat Bandit prompted this by being scared of the outside & not going out much. (I think Bandit got scared as a kitten by the neighbor's dog & her litter-mate scared by the same dog getting lost for 4 days. The litter-mate, however, still enjoyed going outdoors even after being found in a neighbor's garage 4 days later.) Other conditions around the houses I've lived at in the last 10 years have also contributed: busy street, holes in the back fence, back fence being the soundwall to highway 880.

Shadow grew up with Bandit and only tentatively goes outside a couple yards. If she were more of an indoor-outdoor cat, she'd also have to deal with the busy street here. (We've lost 2 cats and 1 kitten to that street & yet we've had 3-4 cats that have lived 'till other ailments took them in-spite of going outside here.) I think ideally I'd either live in a place that had a good chunk of open space (away from busy streets) in which to let the cat out or I'd have an enclosed atrium or screen porch with plants to let the cats out into.

How old is Duchess? We think Shadow is about 7 and we know Natasha is 5. Natasha is much more active than Shadow. It's like Shadow is "She Who Must Be Fed" and Natasha is "She Who Must Be Played With". It's because of Shadow's wanting to eat all the time that I've recently started calling Shadow "Hobbit Cat" for Hobbits' mealtimes of "breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies" and so on.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't think where I live is at all ideal for outdoor cats. I'm too close to Homestead, and in a previous apartment I lost a cat to a crazy neighbor. No one could PROVE he trapped and killed other people's pets, but the whole neighborhood knew it.

Duchess is about thirteen. Thirteen and lazy. :-)