Sweetpea Manor Musings

My big project was a trip to Italy with a cruise to the Mediterranean. We were gone 19 days. We flew to Rome via Heathrow. Got there two nights early thus had a day to explore Rome. Next we boarded Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas. We had an accessible room with a veranda and it was very nice. Our ports were Messina Sicily, Athens Greece, Ephesus Turkey, Rhodes Island Greece, Crete Greece, Naples Italy and back to Civitavecchia which is Rome's port. We had two days at sea, too. From there we had a driver take us to Florence (stopping at Sienna and at a vineyard for wine tasting) where we spent four nights. Florence is fabulous! Next we were driven back to Rome via Assisi (which was super cool) where we had another three nights. We did tour the Vatican and saw many other museums, ruins, had wonderful food, met many kind people and weather that was warm and clear (actually, they were having a 'heat wave' into the 80s which just encouraged us to eat more gelato and wishing it was in the mide 60s were it was supposed to be.) The trip went very well except from Mom catching kennel cough on the ship. She was worryingly ill by our first night in Florence and the hotel arranged for an English speaking doctor to come visit her. Antibiotics, steroids and an inhaler had her back on her feet by two days. I caught the cough a few days before we left and took a few weeks to totally recover from. So, all in all, a wonderful trip with a lot of great memories...and photos. I'm still working through the photos as will post again when I have them up on photobucket.

Since Abby was still harassing Coco before we left, a good friend, sheepsclothing graciously took Coco in for the duration of the trip. Mom and I discussed the likely hood that perhaps sheepsclothing might want to keep her and how that would probably be better for Coco if that were to happen. I still felt that eventually the girls would become good buddies but knew it would take months if not years and would be stressful on Coco. Since I was sick when I got back and our three cats were incredibly needy for a few weeks, sheepsclothing was fine with keeping Coco for a bit longer. By the time I visited last week, Coco and sheepsclothing had fallen for each other. Coco was running around, had access to a small patio, had a big collection of toys to play with, was obviously very happy and affectionate to her new mom. Coco will get a new name which is fine because its not like she pays any attention to Coco! She's also going to get a new cat to live with, a 5 year old male named Mr. Tibbs. He's a beautiful Russian Blue, mellow, fine with other cats and very overweight. He's a rescue from a wealthy family who seems to have tired of him and was going to put him down. I think Coco will hide under the bed for a few days but as he proves he isn't going to be mean to her, she should come out eventually. Hopefully he will be the calming influence that Buddy is to Abby.

And that's all the news. :)

I finally got around to taking some photos of the growinglikeaweed butterball that is Coco. We persist with the leaving the bedroom door open so the girls can figure out a relationship for themselves (with Coco under the bed, of course.) Tonight we brought her out into the living room to spend the evening with us and the cat tribe. She decided that nothing could get her if she stayed in either my arms or cuddled against Mom. She purred and stretched and kept an eye on the lazy, indifferent interactions of the other cats. Of course, Abby watched her like a hawk and once even crept up to peek at her. Coco stayed put. Yay! Now for the pics:

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I *think* the Feliway is helping as the cats have gotten more affectionate but it hasn't helped our problem yet.
We've been leaving the door open but Coco just hides under the bed and Abby lurks about for hours until I shoo her out so Coco can have a bathroom break.

Last night the door was open but I was in the living room, fairly exhausted from 4 days of very little sleep and driving to Lompoc and back. I was drifting off when suddenly Buddy leaped off the cat tree. I put the mute on the tv and could hear yowling in the bedroom. By the time I got there, Buddy had his head and shoulders under the bed and was monitoring the situation. I got a broom and a flashlight and had a look. Abby was under the head of the bed and Coco was at the foot of the bed. I shooed Abby out of the room completely with the broom. She bounced out of their like a superball. Buddy looked upset. All Buddy wants is for everyone to get along. We shut Coco up so she could calm down and back we went into the living room. I really thought Abby would fear me after that, but within ten minutes she walked up to me and leaned on my leg. "We're good, aren't we?" Sure! Buddy felt better after that.

I *think* Abby might have just wanted to be with Coco and since she won't come out from under the bed, she went under it. Coco saw it as aggression. This is just gonna take a while. :(

I have mentioned lately how sweet and loving and playful Coco is? She is a darling cat. They are all wonderful cats but cats and their politics!

Took Coco to the vet for her booster shots. I asked if what I could do to make assimilation easier and she suggested Feliway from Amazon. Apparently it's a plug in that diffuses pheromone oil and is to cats what chocolate is to women. I've got some on order so I'll let you know if it works.

Coco is now up to 7 pounds 11 oz. She was 5 12 at the beginning of December. I gan see her little breasts between her back legs and I asked the vet about them (since I'm not familiar if they could be a problem) and she turned Coco upside down and grabbed her round little belly and declare it fat. Then she burrowed her face in the tummy and gave her a kiss. She told me to finish out the kitten food and that she was close enough to a year old to switch to adult food.

Once home, since Buddy and Abby had reclaimed Mom's bedroom, I left her in the cage and place it on the bed so everyone to could see eye to eye in safety. Trouble was that Abby wasn't about to leave so after a few hours, I shut Abby in and brought Coco out with us. She curled against Mom for hours and was quite content to be out with us. I'd check on Abby occasionally and she would be lurking behind something, ready to pounce on Coco. Eventually she did leave and everyone could go to bed. I hope Feliway is the Chill Pill that Abby needs.

It will do Brindle good too, I hope. He bit me tonight and he hasn't done that in a long while. He was hovering at the door trying to keep Buddy outside. I pick him up to give him lovin', but saw he was irritable so I put him down. He whirled around and sank his teeth into my arm. Only one went in and another left a skid mark but he needs a Chill Pill, too.

We're back from the vets. We left Coco there to be spayed in the morning and we'll pick her up on Monday. Apparently she DOES have adult teeth and the vet thinks she's 7-8 months old. Her tummy is getting bigger and her appetite and thirst is impressive...and that made the vet suspicious of her being preggers. She did an ultrasound and if Coco is w/kittens, she is under 25 days gestation and the kitten's heartbeats aren't visible yet--thus the 'no time like the present!' mind frame to get her spayed. AND, she is FIV negative! Big YAY!! When we were exploring our options with the vet, she said that "and if she is FIV positive we recommend euthanasia." That was a nasty shock. I just can't get used to the idea of putting down a seemingly healthy creature. And Reg was FIV. Anyway, not a problem since she is negative.

Everyone that looked at her exclaimed at how cute she is. The vet said we'd gotten lucky with this one, that she's a Tortie point Siamese. I didn't even know they came as Tortoise points. She said that both Siamese and Torties are very...well, you know how Redheads are thought to be...Coco would be like a Redhead but double.

I'm sure she'll be fine, but I feel guilty about coaxing her over, grabbing her and putting her in the cage. I betrayed her. I'm sure I'm suffering about it more than her.

She weighed 5 pounds and 15 oz. When Abby went in for her first visit, she was 8 months and 6 pounds and 3 oz. And when I had her in the cage on the porch before I placed her in the car, both Buddy and Abby came by and peered in at her. No hisses. Buddy looked worried, "you should get out of there!" Abby was more like, "Bummer. See ya."