CAT-astrophe!

The first picture I ever saw of Miss Egglita.

Worst title ever, I know. But it makes me snort, so, as my boyfriend would say, feh.

We've had some kitty issues lately. My two good friends recently adopted kitties and one has a cold that makes it keep rubbing his nose until it's all raw and bloody and the other accidentally got too friendly with the sick kitty and got a POW to the eye which made it swell up and get all irritated. We spent a good part of last night at the animal hospital's ER. Thankfully, the nice doctor said it didn't look like there was anything too bad but gave ointment and instructions to monitor it lest it gets worse. My poor friend is probably on par with the boy and I when it comes to animals (we're a pretty tough couple but show us a crying kitten and we will basically cry too) but I was glad we could be there for her. I wasn't there but apparently another cat was brought in and it was yowling in pain and covered in a blanket and my boyfriend still has a lump in his throat because of it.

Now we come to my cat, oh my darling cat. I guess I should call her our cat because my boyfriend gets all snippy when I say, "my" but since he doesn't stop by here too often- sorry sweetie pie, Egg's MINE.

Egglet was found on the street by his mom. She was spayed and declawed and the friendliest, most human-loving cat ever. She was obviously not a stray but no one claimed her even though Elliot's mom fliered the entire town and called vets and everywhere else to try to locate her owners. Now she already had a cat and Egg seemed to be nervous around her because she had a peeing problem so we (I) adopted her. You guys, I love my cat. I say it often but I love her so goddamn much. I can make myself cry trying to think of what I would do if I didn't have her. Oh, oh here I go. What the hell?! She is my heart. But she still has bathroom issues. She'll go in her litter box and she does defecate in there but then she gets on these cycles of peeing on select walls in the house. First I did research on why this would be and got a near heart attack. Do NOT use the internet for any calming purposes. The reasons they gave me for why cats stop using litter boxes were urinary tract infections, diabetes, horrible pain associated with the litter box etc. I took her to the vet in Istanbul in my panic who said no, no she was fine but maybe the litter was too hard on her paws because she is declawed. Then I did research on declawed cats.

Holy God, do NOT USE THE INTERNET FOR RESEARCH ON HEALTH OR DIAGNOSIS. Do you know what declawing is?? They don't remove the claws, they amputate the last joint on the paws! Augh!

I mean, I'm not here to judge but poor kitties! Anyway, we switched to another litter in Istanbul and that seemed to work out fine. But then, she still had times when she peed on my hallway rug and wall. She likes peeing on soft rugs, this is the constant pattern. I think she gets annoyed or mad at us and does it to teach us a lesson. But now she's doing it in the new apartment here in Boston and it's not because we disrupted her life, she's been here for two months! She just started regularly peeing on the walls and secret corners and I don't know why. She has all her food, I clean her litter box almost immediately after she uses it because I know she has some bathroom trauma (she hates pooping. She will use the litter box and then run like a mad banshee out of there and frantically wipe her paws on the nearest thing. Which is usually my rug), and I play with her and give her more love than she can possibly need. She's a very affectionate loving girl and she needs hugs, literally. She will follow you around until you pick her up and then position her front legs around your neck and just rub her face all over your shoulder and chin and hug you back as you hold her close.

I'm going to try a new litter and box today and then call the vet tomorrow. Even sprays that are supposed to divert kitty attention from certain areas don't work. She's becoming a psychotic devil cat who manipulates me and plays games with my poor heart because even when I'm so, so angry with her I'll break down in a few minutes later and start petting and cooing and loving her. Damn her giant yellow-green eyes.

My little Buttlet. Because sometimes, she's more of a butt than an egg. God, she's still so wonderful.