Icy Indy

Nobody is allowed to have ice in this house unless Indy has some too. At the first sound of ice he comes running. If he does not have his own ice to play with, you will absolutely not be allowed to enjoy your icy cold beverage in peace.

Indy's Trick

Mom says "jump on the post" so I jump up onto the post.  My sisters do not perform this trick nearly as well as I do. 

(Mom says please excuse the giant mess of cat toys and boxes.)

Vet visit and outside inside

Mom:

Georgia's trip to the holistic vet went pretty well. She was happy and purring and friendly the whole time (not normal vet behavior for her). The vet said she sees a new cat with Georgia's twitching problem about once a month and has been able to improve their conditions. She's a conventional vet first and says there's probably nothing to be done for her conventionally, which is what we expected, so we're glad we tried this vet who has had some success with this before. We're trying some herbal and homeopathic remedies and will see if there's any improvement in two weeks. We really liked this vet because of how comfortable she made Georgia and how much she obviously cares about cats. She also talked about the importance of a cat's diet and high quality, low or no grain food, which we think is so important for overall health. A lot of vets seem to have no problem recommending junky food. Sometimes the bad foods can cause symptoms like Georgia's, but she's already on a diet the vet says is really good. Too bad it's not an easy fix like that though.


Indy:

Well we are back to FREEZING temperatures and can't go outside. But we're having lots of fun playing inside with our outdoor enclosure!





About halfway through this video you can see my naughty sister try to trap me!

Weather = good

So some kitties seem confused by our weather. We are too. It keeps going from abnormally to warm to abnormally cold and back. We've had good weather for the last few days. Today it is supposed to be up to about 7 degrees Celsius (45ish Fahrenheit) and with the warm sun and his long fur, Indy can (and will) stay outside a long time. We don't live in a warm place for winters, the temperature just fluctuates a lot and we just got through a long time of -20 to -30 temps and colder (like -20 Fahrenheit maybe? we're not good with that scale). Anyway, we're a bit above normal temperatures for this time of year and we're loving it. 

Here's us outside just a few minutes ago. 

We also wanted to share this link that dad stumbled upon: How to tell if your cat is plotting to kill you. Don't get scared it's just supposed to be funny. 

Outside Again

Georgia shows she likes toys by sleeping on them.

Here are two videos from today. It is so warm that everything is melting. The enclosure is getting rained on but that doesn't bother Indy much. 

In this first video Indy is very happy to be outside and is playing like crazy.

Watch closely at the end of this video...somebody makes an escape! (Don't worry, Mom brought her right back in.)

Got Out!

Look at this!

Mom heard the ball rolling all night last night. 

Indy played and ran and pounced and played. He loves this shape, it's about 6 feet long now. In this little video he gets a little frustrated or tired and whiny, you can hear him complaining.

Zoe has been playing with it too. Zoe and Indy like to bat the ball back and forth to each other. Mom took lots of video. This toy has been quite the source of fascination around here. 

New Favourite Toy

Indy:

Well I haven't been able to go outside yet because the snow and wind just won't stop. I don't mind though because I got this great new toy! I've spent the whole evening talking to the ball and chasing it around and around...

Mom:

and around...and around...and around...and around......

The girls haven't discovered the new toy yet, because unlike Indy, they sleep about 12-14 hours a day. Zoe will probably go crazy for it, and guess what we think Georgia will do? Yep, fall asleep on top of it, of course. 

Edit: Just wanted to add a link. It's pretty great. It comes in pieces so it can be extended or made into different shapes. 

Want Out!

It has been very cold here, but is supposed to get above freezing later today. Indy desperately wants to get outside so mom said maybe if it's not too cold he can go out in the enclosure for a few minutes. He can't make it the whole winter without being allowed out!

Here are some pictures mom just took of us relaxing.

Mom:

Poor Indy, he doesn't sleep much at all during the day so he needs constant entertainment. We noticed that if he gets too bored he'll actually go up and poke Georgia, and then cry out as if she was biting him, even if she's not! We're careful to watch carefully and not blame Georgia for this.

In other news, Georgia has an appointment with a holistic vet coming up in just over a week. We decided to try this vet clinic because we've heard good things from people who've been there. Georgia's behaviour is still all over the place sometimes and we have some concerns with her. She gets in moods still about once every day or so where she'll attack Indy or Zoe or us if we try to touch her or move her. Sometimes even when she's just relaxing she'll start twitching and she seems to be distressed and confused. This doesn't last long, but stresses them all out, especially Georgia. It's hard to explain how she's acting and seems to be feeling, but we want her checked out, especially since we don't remember her doing that before the last month or two. Doing some quick internet research on her symptoms turned up these articles on Feline Hyperesthesia. http://www.petplace.com/cats/feline-hyperesthesia/page1.aspx http://www.lclarkecushingvmd.com/showpracfaq.cfm?FAQID=178&Private=0I don't like diagnosing the cats myself especially with something I know so little about, but this describes her behaviour pretty well. The vet clinic suggested it could be a skin condition, neurological, maybe psychological. We're not overly concerned about it, and she's happy, relaxed, social, and playful about 90% of the time, but if we can do something to help her we want to get on top of it early. We've tried handling situations differently, feliway, different food, more attention, all that stuff. Compared to the first few months she was here, she's a million times better, but some of this behaviour seems new. Of course it's likely just another part of a long, tough adjustment to being indoors with other cats that we all have to get through. It has also been almost 6 months since her surgery and a good thorough check up will be good. The holistic vet uses natural and conventional medicine, and the appointment is 1.5 hours long and very thorough. They also try to be unlike other vets and cats apparently do well and are very relaxed there. So we're actually looking forward to this appointment and will hopefully find out she's ok and ways to help make her feel better soon.

Back Again

Wow sorry we have been gone for so long. School has just started again for Mom, and while she really didn't want to go back, we're glad everything is back to normal around here.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to wish us a merry Christmas and happy new year! We were left alone for a few days over Christmas. Mom worried the whole time, but we were just fine and well taken care of.

We have some good video from the last few weeks, but we're still trying to figure out how to edit it and post it so hopefully soon. But here are a few pictures:



Kind of like bunk beds:

Mom and Dad turned a table upside down and set this little robot bug free inside it. We LOVE the bug.

Indy loves this remote control car. He's usually scared of fast moving things like this and mom and dad were surprised he kept chasing this car. But then they realized that of course it is quite fitting that he likes it so much, his name is Indy!


Zoe doesn't fear much. Not the vacuum, the remote contol car, not even getting hit by the little cars repeatedly because she's on the track.

Dad picked out this giant snake for us for Christmas.

As she does with all toys, Georgia fell asleep with it while playing.