Ashton’s Exercise Routine

Ashton: Did you hear that I’m on a weight loss plan? The vet said I need to exercise. Can you believe it? So I wanted to share my exercise routine with you.

Here comes my exercise equipment now. You have to act fast when it shows up. Make sure you schrunch your nose up when you go for it to burn extra calories.

Streeeeetch… and got it!

HEY! What the ceiling cat are you doing with my exercise equipment, Newton?

Where are you taking it? Newton? NEWTON!

Well, that’s the end of my demonstration, since my exercise equipment has been stolen.

Positive Reinforcement

We all get positive reinforcement different ways. For Newton, positive reinforcement is time with the wand toy.

For Pierre, positive reinforcement is being allowed to help make the bed.

And for Ashton, positive reinforcement is definitely chicken.

Not THAT kind of chicken!

Giving Positive Reinforcement to Your Favorite Pet Bloggers

Wouldn’t it be awesome to be able to do something a little extra for the pet bloggers you enjoy reading every day? You may not be able to give Ashton a treat, but you can do something for your favorite bloggers by nominating them for the Nose-to-Nose Awards.

The Nose-to-Nose awards are really treasured in pet social media because they are awarded by a panel of judges who look at the quality of the content nominated. No one is going to ask you to stuff the ballot box for them for these awards, because they aren’t a popularity contest. They reward quality.

Can you think of a blogger who made you laugh, made you cry, or made you think? Maybe you want to nominate them for an award.

We have already started to nominate some of the bloggers whose worked moved us this past year, and there’s still time to nominate others before nominations close April 11.

What to Do

When you think of a blogger you want to nominate, go to the BlogPaws Nose-to-Nose Award Nomination form and tell them about it!

On the form, you’ll choose what category to nominate the blog for. It might be a broad category like best cat blog or best dog blog, or it may be one of the more specific categories where they ask for the web address of the blog post of photo that you are nominating. There’s a BlogPaws blog post explaining the different categories in case the categories like Best Written Pet Blog Post and Best Pet Photo on a Blog need a little more clarification.

Here’s the other thing to know: It’s just like a secret ballot. No one will ever know you nominated them unless you tell them. So if you never told your favorite blogger how much you love their work, they still won’t know. So make sure you give them a high five sometime, even if you don’t tell them that you nominated them. Positive reinforcement doesn’t have to happen just through award nomination. A grateful comment, a retweet, a share, or even a thank you could brighten someone’s day any time, all year round.

A Few More Thoughts

Over the next week or so, a lot of bloggers are going to publish posts asking for nominations with links to suggested to nominate. I have already been asked when I will publish one. The answer is that this is the closest I will get.

I would be honored and touched if you nominated this blog for a Nose to Nose award. I know it takes time out of your busy day, and I appreciate your considering it. But before you do, please nominate another deserving blog first. I want to be sure that the positive reinforcement goes as far as possible.

Yes, Ashton, that includes getting some real chicken. It’s positive reinforcement from your friends!

Pierre’s Very Bad Day

Those of you who follow us on social media probably heard last week that Pierre got to visit the vet last week. He wasn’t really thrilled about the whole thing.

Pierre: I’m being CATNAPPED!

This was an urgent visit despite Pierre’s protests. His constipation, usually controlled with the addition of some pumpkin to his diet, had gotten worse and was causing vomiting outside the litterbox when he tried to go.

Ashton was due for her wellness visit, so she accompanied him for the trip to the vet.

Ashton: This is NOT funny. You’re in so much trouble for making me do this, Pierre.

Pierre and Ashton sang the song of their people all the way to the vet. We’re fairly sure that even with the car windows rolled up, drivers in the surrounding cars heard them at every stoplight. (If the video doesn’t display below for you, you can visit it directly to hear their song.)

At the vet, Pierre really wasn’t interested in coming out of his carrier to be examined.

Pierre: I’m fine right here, thanks. Just punch my round-trip ticket and let me go home.

He was diagnosed with constipation and scheduled for an enema. The vet suggested that he stay with them for a few hours since the results were usually pretty messy, and that he would be able to go home later in the day.

Ashton: Can’t you keep examining Pierre so that I don’t have to come out there?

Ashton had her annual exam, which was uneventful except for the vet warning that her bladder was kind of full. Worried about Pierre, we didn’t pay too much attention to that comment. As we carried her carrier back in the door, Ashton’s bladder couldn’t wait any longer. The dense humans, without a cat’s keen sense of smell, didn’t realize this until we opened the carrier and out sprang Ashton, the fur of her whole back end wet.

There are no photos of the chase over all of the furniture in the house that ensued, so you’ll have to use your imagination. It was, however, epic.

One of the awesome things we love about the Sleepypod carrier is that it’s not just super-plush for the cats, it’s also easy to clean. The innards of the carrier went right into the washer with the bed comforter and other things that suddenly needed to be washed, and they came out April fresh.

By the time cleanup was mostly done but Ashton was still hiding under the bed, the vet called to say that Pierre had gotten his enema, but he was refusing to use the litterbox at the vet. The vet suggested he would be more relaxed at home and would use his own litter box.

Pierre looked very glad to see a familiar face at the vet and went right into his carrier. We set out for home and were nearly there, only a few blocks away, when Pierre couldn’t wait for the litter box any longer. Unlike when Ashton went in the carrier, there was no mistaking what had just happened. Pierre, ever the tidy cat, tried to rearrange the incontinence pad we had added to the bottom of the carrier for just this situation, trying hard to bury the evidence. So when we got him the last few blocks home and into the house, he went into the bathroom carrier and all to assess how much mess there was.

There are no photos of this part of the story, either. In his effort to be clean, he had managed to get it all over his feet. So in addition to all of the other indignities he had suffered, Pierre had to have his paws washed before he could be allowed back into the house.

Pierre: You’re not going to publish a picture of my wet paws for people to see, are you? So humiliating!

Afterward, he had a little bit to eat and then went to hide in his kitty kozy.

Pierre: I never want to go through any of that again.

Neither do we, Pierre.

The good news is that Pierre feels much better now, and we have a plan to help him keep feeling that way.

Lessons Learned

This whole experience taught us that it’s important to always know how often your cat is using the litterbox. When you have three cats, it’s sometimes difficult to know who leaves what, so you have to keep an eye on them. In our house, Pierre is the only cat not eating raw, so we can usually tell which ones are his at scooping time. When we stopped being able to tell them apart, we suspected there was trouble.

PetMD lists these as additional symptoms of constipation:

Straining to defecate with small or no fecal volume
Hard, dry bowel movement
Infrequent or complete lack of defecation
Small amount of liquid stool with mucus in it – sometimes with blood present, produced after prolonged straining to defecate (known as tenesmus)
Occasional vomiting
Lack of appetite
Depression
Large intestine (colon) filled with hard, compacted fecal material
Swelling around the anus

If you think your cat is constipated, see your vet both so that your kitty can feel better and so that your vet can try to identify the cause of the constipation, since it could signal another underlying condition.