Cat Cafe Fundraising Night at The Kitty Beautiful

Last week was a movie night — or mewvie night — fundraiser for The Kitty Beautiful, a cat cafe planned for downtown Orlando.

It’s kind of a quirky name, but there’s a reason for it: Orlando is nicknamed “The City Beautiful,” so the new cat cafe’s name is going to be a cute play on words that will only make sense to locals.

When I was nearly to the fundraiser at the future cafe site, I ran into one of the fosters from Candy’s Cats who was juggling her kids and three foster cats. I offered to babysit this little guy for her long enough for her to park her car.

The unfinished window was still papered over when I got there, with a small paper sign letting me know I had found the right place.

But the paper covering came down from the windows and everyone was welcomed in for the fundraiser. The wall along one side of the room was painted with chalkboard paint, and this message was on the wall:

The opposite wall had kitty art by local artists that you could purchase. This piece is titled Mew, and it is from Purrito Press. How’s that for a mathematically geeky cat joke?

The place got crowded in a hurry. Crazy crowded! This photo was taken around the time they stopped allowing people in due to capacity.

You can see in the photo above that the space itself is rather narrow and deep. They had renderings to help you visualize what was going to happen after the cafe was built out. The red wall in the photo above would be removed, replaced by glass doors leading into the enclosed cat area.

Candy’s Cats, a local rescue, will be providing adoptable cats for the cat cafe once it opens. For the fundraising night, they brought both kittens and juvenile cats to visit with the cat cafe supporters. Like this adorable kitten:

The kittens were in great demand, and big props to the foster families who had prepared these kittens for meeting new people in unusual situations. The kittens did really well, even when they were in the hands of complete strangers.

Some of the juvenile cats were in a mesh tent, like this one. I later heard from Candy Sullivan, founder of Candy’s Cats, that this kitty had originally been found in a ditch with a broken leg, and she had a pin in her leg.

I think this may have been the handsome gentleman kitty I met in the carrier outside the cafe. He was pretty relaxed, but he wasn’t offering himself to be grabbed and passed around the way the kittens were.

This kitty was a little larger than the others, but was very friendly with everyone!

After spending a while visiting with new friends in the crowded cafe, I left to allow in some of the people who were waiting patiently on the sidewalk for their chance to go inside. Having such a strong interest in a fundraiser for the yet-to-be-completed cat cafe seemed like a very good sign that it will have a lot of support when it is completed and starts having things like yoga nights.

I’m looking forward to The Kitty Beautiful’s planned opening sometime this summer and will pay them a visit again to check in!

A Very Pierre Update

Several of you responded to last Wednesday’s post about Pierre’s vet appointment with surprise that he had been diagnosed with chronic kidney disease, so I wanted to bring you up to date on what was going on.

The Stuff We Didn’t Tell You Back Then

You probably read the story about Pierre’s trip to the vet in mid-March that resulted in en enema, but I didn’t write about his second trip in late March. He stopped eating, so I bundled him back into the carrier and off to the vet we went. This time, the vet ran bloodwork to see what could be the problem. Fluids, appetite stimulants, and anti-nausea medicine got him started eating, though he was still very picky. More picky than his usual eating, which is really picky to begin with.

Pierre’s bloodwork came back from the lab the next week with a creatinine reading of 2.8 mg/dl. Creatinine is a waste product of muscle metabolism which is normally filtered out out the blood by a cat’s kidneys. When the kidneys aren’t working well, they don’t filter out as much creatinine, and the amount of it in the bloodstream rises. That’s why creatinine is an indicator of kidney problems in cats.

The International Renal Interest Society, which establishes guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in small animals, has a staging system to help identify the severity and appropriate treatments for cats and dogs with kidney disease. They have identified any creatinine reading over 1.6 as an indicator of stage 2 chronic renal disease, so I didn’t take a reading of 2.8 lightly.

I asked the vet what kind of proactive things we could to to help Pierre, and her treatment plan was to put him on low-protein prescription food and recheck his bloodwork in a few months.

That’s Not Going to Fly

Pierre was barely eating the nonprescription food I was trying to get him to eat. Even if he was willing to eat a lower-protein food, I couldn’t imagine giving it to him when I know that senior cats need more protein, not less.

There had to be something else we could to to help. I brought the lecture notes from last winter’s NAVC course where I heard a veterinarian with an all-feline practice in San Antonio talk about the things he did for his feline CKD patients. I even offered a consultation fee to discuss those options so that we could work out a treatment plan of some kind to help Pierre, but my vet told me no, put him on the renal prescription diet and come back in three months.

Second Opinion

After several more weeks of Pierre picking at his food as I worried about his health, I decided he needed a second opinion. That led to his visit to the all-cat vet. I liked that the new veterinarian listened to my concerns and didn’t brush off my questions about my research.

She wanted to know whether our regular vet had run any urine tests. He hadn’t, so those were included with a new batch of labwork.

When Pierre’s lab results came in from the lab, the new vet called with the results. I sat at my desk at work with a tissue in one hand and a pen in the other, afraid of the news I was going to get. “These lab results look good,” she told me.

“Wait, what do you mean?” I asked, caught off guard by her unexpected words.

“His urine specific gravity is fine, and his creatinine is 1.6.” She said he was was still pre-renal.

What happened to his high 2.8 creatinine reading? Creatinine readings in labwork are impacted by dehydration, and since the previous blood sample was taken while he wasn’t eating his canned food — the source of most of his moisture — it’s not surprising his creatinine reading was off.

I guess that’s why my old vet hadn’t wanted to do anything but change foods and wait. Knowing he was probably dehydrated made those numbers not look so bad. Why couldn’t someone have explained this to me instead of my spending six weeks worrying every day about Pierre’s advancing kidney disease?

So That’s Good News, Right?

It’s great news! Pierre will continue to live the life of a normal cat without kidney issues for who knows how much longer. Chronic kidney disease is exhausting for cats and their humans both, and it’s such a relief to know we aren’t dealing with that yet for our ornery guy.

We still don’t know why Pierre is so unenthused by his meals right now. There doesn’t seem to be a medical reason for it, so we will just keep feeding him what we can, when we can. He’s like the rock stars who demand only green M&Ms in their dressing rooms. He can ask for a food and he knows he will get it because we humans know he’ll eat it. For now, if his only problem is a green M&M-worthy diet, we’re grateful that’s the biggest problem we have to tackle.

(Don’t worry, Pierre isn’t not eating actual M&Ms!)

First Visit to the All-Cat Veterinarian

I wasn’t comfortable with the treatment plan that our regular veterinarian came up with for Pierre, and that meant he had to go out for yet another exam, this time at the all-feline veterinarian.

Pierre: I wasn’t supposed to have to go back for months. What’s going on? Not funny! Can we go home now?

Never having been to an all-cat vet clinic before I wasn’t sure what to expect. The first thing we saw was a welcome sign for Pierre and the other cats who had appointments that day.

We were greeted by the clinic cat, Josie. Isn’t he beautiful?

She was very friendly, but what she really wanted was to get up in the window so she could watch the people and scenery outside. She has her own cat-sized sofa (behind her in the photo) to make sightseeing comfortable.

There were also a pair of cats for adoption in the lobby. Donut here has just as good a view as Josie from her window. I hear they sometimes get squirrel visitors on their cat TV, too.

I was surprised at how tiny the exam room was. I took this photo by backing up into the corner until my back was pressed against the walls.

I thought about it and realized that I was used to vet clinics that were laid out just like the one I had grown up visiting with my pets as a child, all sized to accommodate big dogs. That’s not a consideration in the all-cat vet.

Instead of being sized for big dogs, the cozy exam room was a calming place for cats. There was tranquil music playing that reminded me a little of what you hear during a massage session. There was something else to help cats relax, too. Do you recognize it?

It’s a Feliway diffuser, to help cats feel calmer and more comfortable in the exam room.

And for the humans, the decor in the exam room itself was pretty whimsical.

Pierre: I am so unimpressed by the fake birds on the wall. Can we go home now?

Everyone coming and going from the room opened the door gently and spoke in soft voices, from the techs to the veterinarian. That’s something that certainly didn’t happen at our regular veterinarian!

Dr. Avok gave Pierre an exam while he was on the scale since he seemed to want to stay there after his weigh-in.

While Dr. Avok and I had a talk, Pierre was free to find the most comfortable spot in the room.

The most comfortable spot in the room was apparently behind a little water conditioner unit. I asked if I should get him out from behind there, since I knew my usual vet would have wanted him moved, and Dr. Avok said, “If he’s comfortable back there, you can leave him. He’ll probably come out when we leave the room.” Wow, a vet who thinks like a cat! I wasn’t used to that.

Pierre: No looking! When my head is hidden, you aren’t supposed to be able to find me. Can we go home now?

Pierre needed blood and urine drawn for some additional lab tests. When Darby, the vet tech, said they were going to take Pierre in back, I asked if they would do the draws in the exam room. She didn’t bat an eye. “Of course.” That never would have happened at my regular vet, either.

Darby and Michele drew Pierre’s blood and performed a cystocentesis to get urine right there while using surprisingly little restraint. They even offered to clip his nails while they were at it!

Pierre: I’ve had enough poking and prodding. Can we go home now?

Apparently, they normally do checkout on a laptop in the exam room so that cats don’t have to go back out into the lobby and wait. What a great way to cut down on stress to cats who have already been through an exam. Unfortunately, we couldn’t do that for Pierre’s visit due to network issues. So we went back out into the lobby.

Pierre waited on one of the very posh chairs in the waiting room while I took care of the bill.

Pierre: Can we go home now?

Yes, Pierre, we can go home now.

We are waiting for additional lab work to come back so that we can get a treatment plan, but I feel better having talked to a cat-oriented vet who was willing to hear the research I brought her and discuss how it fits into a long-term treatment for chronic kidney disease.

Pierre may have acted unimpressed by going to an all-cat vet where there were so many details intended to make him comfortable, but he was back to his normal self almost immediately when we got home instead of going into the closet to hide for a few hours the way he normally would after a vet visit. So it seems that the experience was better for him, too. I finally understand why people who go to all-cat practices say there’s such a difference. All the details really do add up to better vet trip for everyone.

Cautionary Tale

When you live in Florida this is the time of year that the days that you can leave the door open for the cats to go out onto the porch are coming to an end. It’s getting too warm and humid for that. So last weekend may have been the last chance for the cats to enjoy the porch for a while.

Ashton decided to make the most of it and caught a lizard.

Being a blogger, the first thing I thought to do was document the incident, so I grabbed my camera, turned on the flash since she was backlit by the outdoors, and started snapping photos.

I expected her to let the lizard go and then catch it again. That would have given me plenty of time to come to the lizard’s rescue.

Ashton had other ideas. She skipped directly to second breakfast.

Ashton: Did I miss any?

The moral of this little story is that when your cat catches something in the house, if you don’t want your cat to eat it, don’t grab a camera. Grab the cat and get the prey away immediately.

Ashton is none the worse for her little snack, and she has been hanging around the front door a little more ever since, just in case another lizard happens to run in. She’ll be right on it.