George

It looks like I may need to take George to a vet. (George and Gracie are my cats.) George has a history of vomiting, but lately it’s become chronic. He’s bringing things up on a daily basis. Sometimes there seems to be a hairball in it, but more often it’s just food or bile.

To combat this I’ve taken away the automatic feeder. The cats learned how to game the system by putting their paws up the dispensing tube and scooping out more pellets. That’s gone now and I’ve been feeding them a restricted amount twice a day and separating them so one doesn’t eat the other’s food when they’re done.

I’ve had a hard time determining what a normal amount of food is for grown cats (they’re about 12-1/2 years old). Over the course of a week or so I found they seem to eat a little less than a half ounce twice a day. Gracie has been eating all of hers but George, oddly enough, normally the pig of the two, has been leaving a bit in the bowl.

I’ve also been grooming them on a daily bases. George is a long-haired cat and you’d think he’d have the most hair being brushed out, but Gracie seems to have a much denser coat. I normally get about five times the hair from Gracie that I do from George, and she’s short-haired. Despite this, I can still often see hair balls in what George brings up.

I suspect George would over-eat when I had the automatic feeder out, but even then he’d only vomit maybe once or twice a week. Still a lot, I know, but that’s been his frequency for about as long as I’ve had him. I can’t understand what would cause this now daily problem.

They were tested years ago for feline leukemia and I was told they’re both healthy in that regard. My plan is to monitor George closely this week and if nothing changes, bring him to the vet on Saturday. I need to do a thorough vacuuming tonight in case he’s been ingesting cat hair from the floor, but apart from that I can’t think of anything else to try.

I’m not looking forward to taking him to the vet. When I moved form Manhattan to Queens I put him in a carrier and he went batshit, howling and crying and making the most unearthly sounds I’ve ever heard an animal make, it was loud and frightening. A woman stopped me on a crowded Manhattan sidewalk because she thought I had a baby in there. I’m not looking forward to a repeat if he needs to go to the vet. (My fiancée made me promise to wait until she’s at my apartment before putting him in the carrier so she can see it for herself.)

All this trouble over a cat I’m not sure I even like that much. I originally was going to buy just Gracie, but she was curled up with George in a pen at the ASPCA and I thought it might be nice to give her a companion. (I’m not around much during the day and evenings.) I should have stuck to my original instincts and just gotten her.

These days when I come home I don’t think “I wonder if George vomited,” but “where did George vomit today.” One thing’s for sure, he never vomits in the litter box, no, that would deny me the pleasure of cleaning it up.

New Secret Theatre In Transition

Sunday Pics

Click each photo to enlarge it

In Brooklyn visiting Gloria's father

This was on a doorstep on the way

We cut to: Long Island City, the neighborhood of The Secret Theatre, home of the Queens Players. I stopped by to take more pictures of the new theatre build and thought I'd snap a few of the neighborhood on my way out.