Saturday - another trip to the Vets...

We had to be up to take Chivers back to the vets for another check up this morning.  He seemed to be brighter when we picked him up yesterday but again he had not eaten nor drunk anything and all attempts at feeding him with the syringe had been a nightmare.  We were not going to make the same mistake last night as the other night and made sure that he was kept in overnight ready to go into the cat box this morning - this meant that we had to keep one ear open for any sign that he needed to go to the loo and when he did we must have missed it and he dug up one of my plant pots, missed the soil and made a mess on the floor.  The only plus to this was that we were able to see the consistency - no longer black but more green and slightly more solid - this had to be a good sign surely - having said that we are clutching at straws for any sign of improvement.  

Things are not helped by the fact the Fluffer is getting braver and desperately wants to come indoors, Chivers is unimpressed but too weak to do much other than stare her out with the safety of the back door between them.  Poor Fluffer she has no idea and just wants to be friendly.

As John got Chivers ready to take to the vets I popped into our neighbours Angela and Phil to say goodbye before they move on to stay at their daughter's house in Limassol before returning to London.  Angela kindly gave me the contents of her fridge although she seemed very embarrassed to offer it - I was not at all embarrassed to accept and pulled her leg asking if it was my Poor Persons Parcel!!!  She had already given me a Duck and her fridge contained several packets of parma ham, some lovely brie, fruit and vegetables and salad stuff - all of which is more than welcome and I will use.  Well it is better than it being thrown away!

I couldn't stay and chat with them for long as we had to be on our way down to the vets.  Fortunately the indefinite fuel strike is over and so we didn't have to worry about the petrol situation.  Chivers seemed rather more vocal in the car than on previous visits and we hoped that this too was a positive sign.  At the vets Dr Inna took his temperature which was normal again, she said that he was not particularly dehydrated so did not feel he needed to go back onto a drip.  She said his general health was reasonable and that it was going to be a matter of time for him to recover but she was sure he would recover.  She showed us how to syringe the food in successfully - with no problem at all and then shoved two of his favourite treats down for good measure.  Poor Chivs looked rather surprised but what she wanted to demonstrate was that he no longer had a problem with his throat and that he would given time start to eat but obviously if he did not within a day or so we needed to bring him back and if we were worried could call her at any time. We packed him up and drove him back home, put his collar back on and allowed him back outside as John was convinced that getting him back to a normal routine would be better for him.  Tiime would tell.

We had a glut of bananas over Christmas and the majority were now festering in the fruit bowl so John was keen to make some banana muffins and we managed to find a fairly simple recipe on the tintyweb for which we had all the ingredients.

I blame all the baking programmes on the TV personally but in a certain light maybe there is a touch of Paul Hollywood about him!!!

Anyway here he is concentrating on getting his mix into his muffin tins and that isn't a euphemism for something else!!

Whilst the muffins were baking we decided that we needed to get the guff into Minnie's ears to counteract her mite infestation.  Dr Inna makes it look a piece of cake but Minnie is like a greasy little piglet and has no scruff so getting hold of her and getting the nozzle positioned correctly in her ear is an art form in itself and god knows where the first squirt went but it wasn't into her ear canal.  We then decided to tackle the syringe and feeding Chivers.  He doesn't wriggle but he clamps his teeth very firmly shut and we end up with this sick like mush cat food all round his mouth and chin and work surface, even worse this time there was a bit of an air pocket in the syringe so John had to push extra hard and then it exploded out of the end and ended up all over my face and glasses and now I can see why Chivers is so loathe to eat it - it is foul.

The muffins turned out really quite nicely and John earmarked a couple to give to Wheelie and Crafty later this evening as we were all going to Fitos for a cheap and cheerful meal out.  As the Smeatons had kindly offered to drive John and I had planned to share a bottle of wine as it had been a traumatic week and we were desperate for a decent night's sleep.

We were uncertain as to how cold it was going to be at Fitos's - we weren't hopeful so were dressed like Michelin people in layer upon layer but we shouldn't have worried because our table was directly under a patio heater and it was lovely and warm.  We had a lovely evening - good honest food at a reasonable price and I took the opportunity to arrange with Johanna to hold the next Ladies Lunch there in a couple of weeks time.

We are not sure but we thought we could see some signs of improvement in Chivers when we returned home as he appeared a little brighter than of late - let's hope so.