Milo presents

This Christmas Milo did very well with presents. He got a new nice laser pointer because we always seem to break the cheapo ones and a cat tunnel that has wire in the front to hold the front open and velcro in the back so you can keep it open or closed. He also got a toy called "Da Bird" from CyberCats. We haven't tried the new laser pointer out because he seems to be a bit lasered out. He has played with the tunnel a bit. He loves the crinkle noise and likes to hide in it. The best toy of all is "da bird". There are two poles that you attach together. On the end there is string and then a lure like thing is attached to the bottom like a fishing pole. In the lure there are feathers that supposedly mimic the movement a bird would make. We have to take it apart and put it in the tube it came in when we are done playing or he will love it to death. He will play and play with it until your arm gets tired. I give da bird an A+.

Here is a video of Milo chasing "da bird" around our living room.

Results

Well that was quick. Our vet left a message on our answering machine at 10am this morning. He said that Milo's results looked much better, yea! He didn't go into much detail about how much better, but he said we should switch his food to Waltham S/O. I haven't heard of that food before, but from what I have read on the Internet cats seem to like it and it's gotten good recommendations. I wish we didn't have to buy his food from the vet, but I guess its a small price to pay. We could pay so much more if we didn't buy him his special food and he got sick. We probably won't switch Milo to his new food right away. I just bought him a new bag of his old food a few days ago. We are supposed to do another test in 6-8 weeks to see how he is doing. Hopefully by then we will be able to put him on some sort of food that we can buy in a normal store. Though in the vets message he mentioned that he might be on Waltham long term. But anyways, yea for the good test result :)

Plastic litter

This is the week we have been waiting for for a while. While my parents were visiting in the beginning of November we brought Milo to the vet and found out he had crystals in his urine. He was put on special food and we bought him a kitty water fountain. Hopefully all of these things have helped. I went to the vet yesterday to pick up more of his food and while I was there they gave me the materials to collect a sample. She gave me a small zip lock baggy of plastic pellets, a urine cup, and a small syringe. The black plastic pellets were to be his litter while we were trying to collect a sample. I guess we couldn't use the normal litter because it might contaminate it or it might sop it all up like our clumpable litter does. When I brought it home Jeff was not having it. He didn't think there was enough pellets there to cover the litter box so he wouldn't go and he thought that Milo would be weirded out by having black plastic pellets instead of litter. I said give him a chance, so we did.

I was afraid he would have an accident and woke up many times during the night wanting to check if he went. He didn't. He finally did though around 10:30am. Yea Milo, I knew you could do it. I got more of a sample than they needed just to make sure they could see what they needed and we wouldn't have to do it again. I unfortunately should have put in a plastic liner before I put his pellets in. That way I could have just lifted the liner out and the litter box would be clean. Instead I had to clean the whole thing. Ew. I missed the odor control scoopable litter. I wish we had a backyard hose, that would have worked wonders. Instead I picked the half of the kitchen sink with a disposal so that it wouldn't stop up the sink. I also febreezed the apartment and will open some windows. Hopefully that will get the smell out. So yea for Milo, we have our sample. I will bring it to the vet before work. It's very handy having the vet so close to work. We should have the results within 24-48 hours. My fingers are crossed.

Holiday travel

We took Milo in the car to see my parents for Hanukkah this past weekend. We have taken him once before so this wasn't a totally new experience for him. The trip down wasn't too bad. We hit some traffic so the trip ended up 30 minutes longer than it should have, which Milo wasn't happy about. That meant a longer time in his crate. Once we got to my parents he shot underneath my bed. Last time we were there we kept him confined to my childhood bedroom for most of the time and he was very comfortable with that. After about 20 minutes he came out from the bed and ate and drank. Early saturday morning I let him walk around the upstairs rooms with me following him so he would get comfortable with the rest of the house. I can only imagine what he thinks of my parents house. It is so much bigger than our small two bedroom apartment. By the end of the trip he was pretty used to the upstairs rooms though he was afraid of the steps and rarely went downstairs. Maybe another trip. The whole time he had no accidents and as my mother said he was "good as gold." Good Milo. He also gained a new toy. My childhood cat Katie, always loved my rabbits foots and stole them. I gave one I found in my desk to Milo and he took to it right away.

The trip home was a lot quicker and we made a good time. We had always wondered how Milo would do outside of his crate. So one time when Milo was meowing to get out or that he didn't like being in the car (I wasn't sure which) we let him out of his crate. At first, he did fine. He sat on my lap and looked out the window. He seemed to like watching everything go by. Then he started getting antsy and wanted to sit on Jeff's lap. I didn't want him too since this was his first time out of his crate and I didn't want him to interrupt Jeff's driving. He eventually got very squirmy and ended up on Jeff's lap anyways. He was ok for a minute or so, but then we both decided to take him off Jeff's lap, which he did not want. I had to pull him off his lap while Jeff was driving, while Milo was digging his claws into Jeff's pants because he didn't want to get off. I finally got him off and held onto him securely for a little bit. That didn't last long and he started meowing again. I hate when he does that. It makes me feel like I'm hurting him or not making him feel right. So we decided to put him back in his crate, which was a feat. We didn't have much room in the front seat. I had Milo in my lap and the crate at my knees (it wouldn't go down on the floor all the way). In the middle of the tunnel in Baltimore I managed to get the cage on my lap with Milo still there, the top open, and Milo inside. Phew. He seemed calmer in his crate after that. I don't think we will be trying that again. We got home after two and a half hours of driving and Milo was very happy to be home. He shot under our bed again and then after we got his fountain hooked up he came out and had a drink.

Overall, I think it was a great trip. I was glad Milo could come and I was happy to see my parents. It was a very quick trip though. Down friday night and back home sunday morning. However, I think that if we go on another trip that is longer than three hours I'm not sure if Milo will come or if we will get something from the vet to calm him down a little.

Holiday season

I think Milo will do very well this holiday season. When Jeff and I made up our holiday lists to tell family members what we wanted we both included cat toys. I love buying fun toys for him, so he already has a lot of toys, but new cat toys are great. However, most cat toys seem to come in the same categories. There are feather wands, little mice or other creatures for a cat to chase or chew on, cat nip toys (which doesn't seem to phase Milo), laser pointers (great toys), and toys that move or can be swatted at. I'm always excited to see new toys that don't fit into the main categories.

I think the next thing we will buy for Milo is a food bowl that has a timer. This may help with him wanting food before it is time to get up in the morning. It also would make me feel better when we go away for the weekend and we have someone taking care of him. LOL, I'm already getting nervy about leaving him with a babysitter. What am I going to do once we have kids? :)

Some other toy ideas that I would like to get Milo in the future are a cat window seat (we may have to wait until we have a town home with space to put this up), or possibly one of those cat tunnels that crinkle. I thought about getting one earlier, but paper bags work just as well.

Laser pointers

Today we bought our third laser pointer for Milo. I'm not sure what it is about laser pointers, but they always seem to die. I don't know if its because the ones we have been buying are made for pets therefore they are made cheaper or if we just use them so much they wear out. Either way this is getting ridiculous. Milo loves them though. They are a great toy to give him some exercise. He will do laps around our living room just to catch that dot. So we will see how long this pointer lasts. Hopefully longer than the last one.

Cuteness

Here are some recent pictures of Milo in all of his cuteness.

Cat Fountains

This past weekend we took Milo to the vet for a Feline Leukemia Vaccine. While we were there I talked to the vet and asked him a couple of questions. One thing I mentioned was that Milo peed on our comforter a few days ago. We thought it might be because we changed his litter box to a covered one with a flapping door. We had never used a covered litter box with him before so I wasn't sure how he would like it. I should have taken the door off to see how he would do first, but I didn't. Anyways, I mentioned it to the vet and he said ordinarily I would think you are right. However he has all the risk factors of a UTI. He is a male orange tabby, an indoors cat, neutered and young, which are all risk factors. Lovely. I had known this though through doing some research on the internet. Jeff thought I was being a hypochondriac. The vet checked his urine and turns out he did have some crystals in his urine. Poor kitty. So now he is on special food for the next 6-8 weeks and then the vet is going to reassess how he is doing. I'm glad we caught this early before he had a lot of accidents and he was in pain. He doesn't seem to be in pain at all. He is very playful. I don't know if he got it after he came to us or if he had it when we adopted him. I'm just glad we are taking care of it and hopefully he won't have to be on special food for life.

To make sure he gets rid of the crystals and doesn't have to be on special food I went out and bought a Petmate Fresh Flow Cat Fountain. They are expensive, but I think they are worth it, drinking a lot of water is supposed to help cats with crystals. Milo is always drinking from toilets and trying to drink the leftover water from the bathtub. He doesn't drink much from his bowl. So today I went out and bought it. After taking a while to put it together he drank from it right away. I have heard that some cats need a while to get used to it, but not Milo. He tried drinking from the left side and the right side and from the top fountain. He drank the most I have ever seen him drink and then went to the bathroom. Good Milo. Hopefully he will keep it up, get rid of all his crystals, and this will be a very good investment.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! I hope you all will bee good ;D

The paper bag

I have always heard that cats love boxes and paper bags. My cat that I had growing up always did. So one day while I was at the groccery store I asked for a paper bag. When I first brought it home to Milo he wasn't sure what to do with it. He sniffed at it and then left it alone. I tried putting his toys in the bag to no avail. I finally decided to cut half of the bottom out of the bag so that it was still partially closed out of one end, but that he could look through it. He loved it. He loves to dive into the bag, hide and get ready to pounce, and then he will run out of the bag pounce on a toy, run around the kitchen table, and then run back in the bag again. He also will chew on the bag. I think he likes the sound it makes. Unfortunately he has had so much fun with his current paper bag that he ripped it in half. He still likes to sit on it and will try to hide in it, but it doesn't work so well anymore. I have to remember to get him another bag the next time I go to the groccery store. There is a more expensive option that you can buy at the store for $15 that is a cat tunnel that does the same thing, but I don't think we are ready to buy that just yet.

The feather wand

The feather wand was one of the first toys we bought Milo. We bought it because the woman who was taking care of him before we adopted him said he loved them. We bought him one that is soft and has feathers velcroed to the bottom. He loves it. This is one of the toys he plays with the most. He loves to chew on the bottom velcro section. If you hold on to the stick and throw the soft wand part at him he will leap for it, sometimes with impressive twists and turns. He once did a somersault just to get it. He will also take it in his mouth and walk off with it to chew on it in peace. Over all a very good buy if you have a cat.

The laundry basket

One feature I want to implement in this blog is to list all of the toys we buy for Milo, the things around the house he makes into toys, and the toys we make. I'm going to make labels according to each category. I want to write about if he plays with them, if they last, and how often he plays with them.

The first toy I'm going to write about is my laundry basket. I didn't expect him to enjoy my old laundry basket. I bought it for very cheap at CVS. When we got married I got a large three sorter laundry basket that replaced it. When we got Milo I didn't want it to fall on him so I moved it into the computer room, which at the time he wasn't going into. I first noticed that he liked the laundry basket when Jeff and I would use the computer. He would want to be in the same room as us so he would come sit on the floor. After a while he discovered the laundry basket and knocked it over while investigating. He soon went inside of it and seemed to enjoy it. After that every time Jeff or I are on the computer one of his favorite spots is the laundry basket. He will claw at it or move and sometimes it will start to colapse or fall over. This is extremly amusing to watch. Overall, Milo likes the laundry basket. I think he likes it because he can go inside of it and still see through it. I have tried throwing toys inside of it while he is inside, but it usually makes it collapse.

Some cute random pictures

Adoption

My husband Jeff and I have wanted to get a pet together for a while now. We decided we were going to wait until after we were married and then waited at least four months after that. We started thinking we should get a dog, but because of where we are in life getting a cat fit our lifestyle better. We live in an apartment with no backyard and we both work. We found Milo through a local Petsmart. He was being shown by a local organization called Forgotten Cats which rescues cats from the streets. I knew Milo was the one when we met him. He immediately rubbed against us and asked for petting. He is a majorly snuggly cat. The woman who took care of him said she could always count on him for a snuggle. A week later he was ours.

He was a little timid at first, spending most of his time in our closet. After a couple of days he ventured out and had the run of the apartment. Now he is everywhere. We took him to the vet the next week and found he had ear mites, fleas, and possibly worms. The vet started treating him on everything and now he is a very happy kitty. I tell him that he is a lucky kitty. He started out on the streets and now he has a family who feeds him, gives him lots of snuggles, and buys him too many toys.

Welcome

Welcome! This is a new blog that will be all about our new cat Milo. My husband and I adopted Milo a little over a month ago. This blog will include Milo's adoption story, some of his daily activities, favorite toys, and things he gets into from day to day. I hope you will stick around for the ride.