Robin is not out of the woods yet.
This morning, I found 2 patches of diarrhoea in the litter box and 2 more random patches (but very tiny) on the floor and the basin.
I fed them breakfast but Robin is naughty, he totally refuses to eat the Hill’s ID now. Instead, Rey LOVES it (oh well, no harm). So I gave Robin canned chicken. I hadn’t prepared steamed chicken because I thought he would be hungry enough to eat the ID. Well, I was wrong. He is either very choosy (and demanding!) or there is some other reason, which I haven’t found out yet.
I haven’t handled them for 1.5 years so it is going to take me some time to get to know the adult in them. I only knew them as kittens, up to the age of 6 months. At that time, they were TOTAL gluttons – they walloped any raw food that I gave them. Sapu habis, every time. And they ate like their stomachs were bottomless pits (well, they were still kittens then). I remember my husband called it the “F1” (Formula One), how I had to confine them at the patio while preparing their food, then the moment I opened the patio door, they would zoom into the kitchen like Formula One racing cars and in the matter of seconds, all the food would be totally eaten up. Those were crazy times!! Lynx was the eating-monster. He snatched everyone’s food.
Now, after 3 days with Rey and Robin, Robin is an eating-monster, actually. He snatches Rey’s food. Imagine that. And yet, at their previous home, Robin was so timid and would shy away the moment another cat so much as approach his bowl.
Different environment, different behaviour – I know this to be true of cats. Long ago, we had Wii and he was so bullied by Cow & Bunny until he had to keep running away from home so I had to rehome him. My dear friend took him, and guess what…Wii became the taikor in HER household (which had more cats than mine). Yes, the leader of the clan there. Bullied till a pulp in my home by Cow & Bunny but a total taikor in a household with so many more cats than mine. Maybe he thought he should start afresh in a new environment – better bully before you are bullied?
So, back to Robin now. In the two morning sessions that I have since spent with them today (from 5am until 6am), I witnessed Robin pooping in the litter box. The stools were liquid each time. Not much, but liquid. So, he is not out of the woods yet. But I suppose there is good progress in that just yesterday, the liquid stools were simply leaking out all over the floor, but today, it’s being passed out while Robin squatted at the litter box. I suppose that’s already an improvement. Since Robin refuses to eat the ID, I will go back to the steamed chicken for the next meal.
Luckily they were only fed two meals per day at their previous home, so I don’t have to give them so many meals per day. Our own cats are totally pampered – they used to get 3 square meals per day and now, with Jayden being here, they get even more meals because I have to quickly feed them whenever Jayden takes a nap. So I could no longer keep to the regular feeding times.
Frankly, for Robin, I have not ruled out the feline corona virus or FIP even though he does not have other FIP symptoms. It could still be the corona virus, which is a mild infection. But the vet found anaerobic bacteria in his stools yesterday, so it could also be a bacterial infection, and not viral. Hopefully, it’s not the corona virus as that’s contagious, though curable. FIP, is a different story altogether. 10% of feline corona virus cases can mutate into FIP.
I made a judgment call yesterday after seeing such good improvement and released Robin from the bathroom so that he could play with Rey. I figured both of them have just had quite an experience, being transported in a long journey from their previous home to mine, so perhaps Robin needs Rey’s company. I weighed the pros and cons and decided to let him be able to play with Rey. I know it’s a risk putting them together, that is why it’s a judgment call on my part. But I shall see today if Robin should be confined again.
Here are some photos from this morning. It’s really hard to take their photos because they are SO incredibly active and almost never sit still!
Hooked-tail Robin!
I’ve figured out a way to leave one window pane open (but covered by the mosquito netting). Minnie and her boys are ALL incredibly smart and they are all climbers with pliable bodies. I thought our smartest escape-artists were Indy and Pole before we met Daffodil. Then we thought Daffodil was the all-time smartest…until we met Minnie.
Minnie is the undefeated champion in escaping and she has an unbelievably brilliant mind. Imagine this, she had NEVER ever been to Bunny’s Place before, she was only living in the house. But she knew she could get to Bunny’s Place through our kitchen bathroom window, and the moment she got there, she went straight up the water pipe, scaled it effortlessly and got to the roof with her pliable body. HOW??? HOW did Minnie know all this without having even been to Bunny’s Place??? You tell me. And we thought Bunny’s Place has been made escape-proof because we fortified it several rounds after Indy and Pole managed to escape, we thought it was THE fool-proof cat place. Well, Minnie proved us so wrong in a wink of an eye.
And make no mistake, Rey is also an escape artist as brilliant as his mum. I didn’t write about this as I was too sick at that time, but Rey did escape from the patio as a kitten. He scaled Stargate2 all they way up, how he got out is anybody’s guess as he was merely a kitten then. He landed up in the next-door neighbour’s garden and I heard mewing. All his brothers were on the alert and followed the sound. Luckily we managed to get him back by luring him with food from our side of the wall, luckily he was so greedy at that time (that food worked) and luckily the neighbour’s house was higher than ours. My husband climbed up our garbage compartment platform and grabbed him when he went for the food. That was one crazy rescue – the neighbour had gone overseas and we would never have been able to get into his compound to get Rey back if we hadn’t manage to lure him with food along the wall.
It’s past 7am now. I got to go.
More later!!