Pet and game update
Until last night my cats have all been good. Shylo had come to love the boys and I had to make sure to not leave them alone together because waiting to get them fixed. Today was the day they had to go to the vet (thought to be fixed, but was a miscommunication that today was to be vacinated which they require before they will fix them… so got to wait 4 more weeks to actually get them fixed).
So last night we needed the boys to give poop samples and because we needed to know who’s is who’s poop the boys were each put in a room with a litter box alone. I get one shut in and fed without any issue. Then I put the second in my computer room, alls good. I leave to toss the empty food can away downstairs and head back up. My cat shylo is acting normally and is walking alongside me upstairs. Soon as she reached the top of the landing and saw the closed door it was like a switch flipped and she went psycho tearing at my leg. She scared the shit outta mat who was cowered up in a corner by my computer desk shaking and wouldn’t stop. Eventually I decided to take him in with me for the night instead of leaving him in my computer room and it took hours for him to calm down even there.
Wake in the morning to get around for taking the boys in to the vet and I open my door and my cat Shylo is looking sad and guilty like she knew she did bad. She came up to me and let me pet her and didn’t hiss or anything. I go downstairs with the cats, all is fine. I get a ziplock and start heading back up the stairs and she is walking ahead of me like nothing is wrong. Then, halfway up the stairs she again snaps and this time she was far enough ahead on the steps to where she was able to get my hand instead of my ankle and leg. She got me bad, even getting a bite in.
I am fucking pissed and am about ready to say fuck it and have her put to sleep. I can’t trust her if she will snap without any sort of provocation and have to worry about her attacking my nephews or anyone else that visits. She has both boys scared to death and they have been nothing but angels and its gotten to the point where if it is a question of who goes it will be her. I hope she stops and things can go back to normal but I’ve now been violently attacked 3 times by this cat one of which was bad enough to where I considered going to the emergency room. This time I was at least lucky that the hand she got wasn’t my drawing hand but still I fear the next time might be attacking my face in my sleep. She is like a rabid dog…
In other pet related news I have started to get stuff for my aquarium. I got a Pleco last week who took care of the algae but created a new problem, it shits CONSTANTLY. So while was out at the vets today waiting I went to a pet store and got 4 ghost shrimp, which I hear will eat pleco poop.
My camera on my phone is garbage so couldn’t get a shot that wasn’t blurry, but that is my little bristlenosed pleco. I named him peppy because he is darting around my aquarium (though I just got him some algae wafers and here is there enjoying a snack).
Got 4 ghost shrimp that are currently acclimating to the tank (the water was extra cold compared to the 80degrees I keep my tank at so gunna give it a bit longer to acclimate). Hard to see them but they are transparent ghost shrimp, weird looking buggers 😀
Got a bunch of plants growing in there, some doing better than others. One betta Bulb came in really well, 2 are struggling and about 4 I tossed out because they seemed dead and after weeks nothing was sprouting. I got a Lutea from the pet store that seems to be doing well and planted some seeds in there which I got growing on the rocks. Also when I got the pleco I got a bunch of free floater plants in with the bag of water it came in, so that was nice. Probably will redesign the tank in a month or so once the plants are doing better, and want to get an angel fish to complete the fish part of it in a week or 2 once I know the pleco and shrimp are going to be okay.
In other news, I am working on a video game. Hope to release it both on computers and phones as a free game. Currently working on the art for the first level and hope to have a testable level done in about a week. Probably 2 months till the whole thing is finished.
This is what it looks like currently (though I just did a new compass last night before the cat issues arose) It is a simple grid based RPG game heavily inspired by an old shareware game from the 90s called Pirates Plunder. Our game differs mostly in the fact that it will have an actual story and levels instead of being a procedural map that just moves locations randomly. The area that is blank still will have a battle window where little animations will play when attacking the enemy and a window with available attacks and all.
Edit
As Scooby would say “G-G-G-GHOST!!!”
The 4 shrimp are in the tank and seem to be doing fine. thought one died but I guess the shed like a snake and what was laying on the ground was an empty shell. They are going around cleaning my tank one grain of sand at a time. funny to watch.
Two things:please see a doctor with those wounds. Two years ago I was bitten in my hand by my own cat, and it got inflamed. I was late in visiting my doctor and I still have not regained my full range of motion in my wrist. You cannot have that with your drawing career. Get your shots.
Second: I am not familiar with your total situation but from my experience (owning cats for all my life, am 56 now) some cats just have problems when living with other cats. Please don’t put a healthy animal down because it got aggressive in a specific situation, maybe bring it to a shelter where they may be able to rehome it. (or you can write a letter to Jackson Galaxy and be a member of the my cat from hell family 🙂 )
If I see any signs of infection I will go into ready care but the 110$ is a lot to spend so unless I see a need for antibiotics I will just treat it with neosporin like last time. Luckily it is on my left hand (I draw with the right).
I fear it won’t be able to find a new home, she is extremely unfriendly with anyone but me (hides from everyone else), why I named her Shylo. I got her from a family with a toddler so I think she was hurt a lot by the baby and that makes her untrusting of people (especially children). I kept her close to me for days before I even let her venture out of my bedroom so she has always had an attachement to me. The only thing I can guess is she is taking it personally that they were in an area that in her mind was for HER and ME only and is acting like a jealous spouse catching a husband or wife with another.
I don’t want to put her down, and will do everything I can to get her to calm back down but at the same time violently attacking people can’t be tolerated, just like a violent dog if she can’t be trusted then she is a danger. I’m gunna give her her space for a few days and hope she goes back to normal but if I have to part with her I don’t see any way of it ending any way other than euthanizing her. She is afraid of everyone and everything and I can’t see an unsuspecting family adopting her only for her to freak out and attack their child or other pets.
Again, I hope it doesn’t come to putting her down, but sadly it may if she can’t calm herself down. These aren’t minor cat scratches. I’ve been scratched tons in my life, never like this. These are deep bites and last time I could barely walk for a week because of how deep she got as it felt like walking on a bad cramp 24/7.
Glad overhere (NL) healthcare is taken care of in (imho) better way, didnot have to pay anything. I wish I could help you with your cats, but distance is a thing. I hope everything will work out in the end.
She is much better behaved today (in fact she is currently laying on my drawing tablet right in front of me acting like nothing happened the past 2 days).
These situational snap-outs really should not lead to put her down, even if you’re pissed and untrustful now. The cat needs help, not a fatal syringe.
Reflect if there could be something she might see or hear on the way up (from what you wrote I see a connection in the last two attacks – they both happened on the stairway while you two were going upwards).
It can be a small detail reminding her of a traumatizing event in her past, a picture, a shadow, a climpse of light, a noise (e.g. stairs squeaking), something totally minor which triggers a memory.
Humans, especially soldiers who served in wars, can experience similar remindings. They hear a siren, helicopter or airplane engines and suddenly remember being in a deadly situation of getting bombed or attacked.
That condition is known as “PTSD” and can occur even after years out of military, far away from the country they experienced the deadly situations.
Next time you visit the vet, tell him about the events. He might give you some medic hints.
Maybe (it’s just a hope for you all) the fixings do the trick. After fixings some hormones stop which usually leads to less competition (= less fights) between same-gender animals.
As for the tank … this will be something nice and relaxing 🙂 .
Yes, crab-like species shed. From time to time they outgrow their exoskeleton.
There is one species which is “butt-naked” so it always lives in a shell or something similar. Once the crab outgrows its “house” it has to look for another, bigger one.
Yeah, sadly the shrimp aren’t doing too well. Found one dead this morning adn have seen only 1 of the 4 alive (2 missing currently). Looked online and I guess they are really hard to keep from dying for the first day or 2 in a new tank, guess that is why they are only 59 cents a piece. Gunna have to look into a hardier shrimp.
Still have no idea the why, but she has been acting much better today. I would exhaust every option before resorting to putting her down was really frustrated and hurt when I said that, feeling like I couldn’t trust her. I’m hoping whatever weird snap in her won’t happen again.