Flower Friday

Well, it has not been a good week for da humans around here.

Dis week, we found out that my momma's grandparents (Bowie's momma's parents) have both tested positive for da COVID.

\

As of yesterday, they're both asymptomatic. They're 92 and 90 and live in a senior living facility. OUR humans haven't seen them in months becuz of COVID and the rules of the place they live - only staff and medical personnel are sposed to go in.  

But there's some other family members in this town, who apparently felt like they didn't hafta follow the rules and have been visiting and bringing them things. Including COVID. Hisses!!!

Da mommas have a lot of problems wif dis branch of da family already. Let's just say their selfishness and stupidity is no surprise.

And that's not even the only stressful thing going on. Let's just say da mommas are lucky to have kitties. Here's some flowers too - those are always cheerful.  

Stay healthy pals.

Travis' Totally Boring Adventure

Today I went on an adventure. Ok, it wuz just a trip to da vet for my rabies vaccine. So not much of an adventure, but I guess it counts for one now. 

I wuz due for my rabies shot, but things got a lil complicated since we were switching vets and then da corona exploded and all da vets were doing curbside pickup. What da meow? But I wuz a tuff mancat and able to go into da vet while my momma waited in da car. It's kinda funny - usually every summer, they warn people not to leave their dogs in the car while they run into a store, even if it's just for a few minutes cuz otherwise Fido could wind up a crispy critter. But now we're leaving our humans out in da hot car.    

I told Bowie and Angelique da it wuzn't dat bad - I went in, go weighed, checked out, and got my shot. Oh, and da vet called momma to talk - she said I wuz a "very chill" cat and I checked out healthy! So, that's always good news.  

We're hoping the vets will be OPEN before Angelique has to go since she gets stress seizures about going and does much better when her momma is wif her. Luckily, she shouldn't need to go for a while. 

Not A Whole Lot Going On

Hey pals.

Well, it's been a quiet-ish couple days around here.

We missed out on celebrating National Fried Chikken Day yesterday (but da mommas didn't - dey had spicy mango habanero chikken wings which they didn't share wif us!) We did manage to beg some chikken tonite before dey went and put spicy peanut sauce stuff all over it.

As ya probably have heard, da Rona cases here are going through da roof. Da mommas think it mighta already gone through our family, as some people had symptoms, but we don't has a clue. And since most da stuff my momma would want to do (concerts, movies, etc) aren't happening anyways. Which means more time wif da cats, which has got to be a good thing, right??

But seriously y'all, whether ya lives in a hot spot or not, keep safe - we want all our pals and their typists to be healthy!

Da mommas are planning on starting to sell masks - we'll let ya know when they do in case you're interested. At least we don't gotta wear em - after all, they'd interfere wif eating dat chikken (sorry Tabbies, MOL).

Mewsic Monday

Hey pals. Well, we are still in semi-quarantine lockdown.

It are drivin my momma nuts. She misses going out and doin fun things. Whatefur, she has US, so she should be happy.

Anyways, since COVID are all anyone can talk about, we're doing a coronavirus-inspired playlist today.

Hope ya liked the quarantunes!

Good(ish) Friday

Furst up, we wanna wish all our pals who celebrate a happy Good Friday and a happy Passover. We know it's tough to celebrate anything right now, but we hope you have a good holiday anyways. Hopefully wif somefin tasty to eat!  

But we also ha some GOOD news of our own.

Da three of us seem to be on the road to recovery. Angelique is only occasionally sneezing now. Bowie and I are both voluntarily eating (Bowie refused to eat for a few days and had to be spoon-fed). I think he's a lil scared of my momma or somefin - he'll eat when she watches him. Maybe he's seen her cram pills down the old dog's throat, MOL. 

But we're both still sneezing and our breathing is rattley.  

Some of pals have wondered if maybe we have da COVID-19. And we get why, it's nonstop on TV and da top of da people's minds. Da truth are - we don't know and we probably never will. As far as we know, none of our humans has had COVID. And it duzn't seem like very many cats get it (yeah, we've seen the news about the Belgian cat, the tigers, and the Chinese study). What we can't find is real information on what COVID symptoms would be in a cat - we don't have a dry cough like da humans are supposed to get (and the tigers apparently had). We are sneezy and obviously congested. Bowie and I both had a fever at one point, but after getting started on antibiotics, we haven't had that. And we haven't had any digestive issues (which apparently the Belgian cat did). We're all inside-only, so we don't know HOW we got sick unless it wuz something the humans or the dogs (none of who are sick) carried in. And since so many humans can't get coronavirus tests, we know we won't.   

So that's just speculation. The mommas (and Bowie's daddy) aren't treating us like we're contagious. We're all eating now and Bowie and I has been getting sauna treatments (sitting in a steamy bathroom) to help wif da congestion. And we're all getting our antibiotics and being watched nonstop. At least the mommas don't have other plans, MOL.

Quarantine Cats

So uhh, I'm still dealing wif da momma's quarantine crazies. At least dey made BBQ tonite, so I got some of that. A hard-working kitty like me deserves brisket. After all, I was giving her headbonks at 5 in da morning.

Bowie wuz showing da mommas dat dey should just relax and have fun.  

Preferably wif a fluffy feather toy!

Apparently the neighbors are all acting like cats now and staring out the windows. But at least cats don't send messages to their neighbors on NextDoor wif pictures of the pool repair guy. Yikes, and I thought my momma wuz stir crazy!

Human Crazies

Well, March keeps being crazy.

Da humans now have a semi-lockdown in our county. It's kinda confusing, but it duz mean my momma is gonna have dark roots for a while since her hair stylist has been locked out of her salon.  

Le sigh.

My momma ackshually seemed mostly sane today becuz she got to go out in the sun, but now it is back to crazy. And yeah, she knows dark roots are not the end of the world. And she duz have bleach at home if this thing lasts too long. She wuz just looking forward to getting it done. And she knows better than to even complain, becuz so many people are so quick to attack everyone her age for being "selfish." This quarantine junk are HARD for her though.

More importantly, everyone here is healthy, if not exactly happy.

If only they could be more like cats and relax!

Happy Purrsday

Well pals, we hope you and your humans are all healthy. We are and so are da humans.

Just sick of not being able to go and do. As long as they keep us in cat treats . . . 

If your humans are worried about YOU and da coronavirus, here are some good news from our vet:

Coronavirus and Your Pet

There’s been a lot of information in the recent media about the latest strain of human coronavirus, but nothing about pets and how they fit into this picture. In this short article I wanted to briefly discuss coronavirus and pets.

Dogs can become infected with a canine coronavirus. It is fairly species-specific and will not infect people but can infect cats (without causing clinical disease in naturally infected cats.) Most infected dogs do not show symptoms and recover without showing signs of infections; young puppies may exhibit mild diarrhea.

Cats have their own coronavirus that like dogs usually causes an asymptomatic infection or mild diarrhea or respiratory infection (especially in kittens.) However, this coronavirus, for unknown reasons, can mutate in the GI tract and transform into the (usually) lethal feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) virus (this occurs in about 10% of infected cats.) Again this feline cornonavirus will not infect dogs or people and only infects felids. (A curious note is that cats can become infected with the human SARS coronavirus experimentally and naturally but do not become ill, and the original SARS virus was suspected to have originated from a mongoose.) As with the human coronavirus, canine and feline coronaviruses can survive outside of the pet’s body for a period of time (especially in a colder environment) but are easily killed with most detergents or disinfectants.

So how do dogs and cats fit into the current picture of the human coronavirus?

First, it’s unlikely the pet will become infected and serve as a source of infection for people. 

Second, dogs and cats that develop their own coronaviral diseases will not infect people and contribute to the current spread of the human disease.

Third, by serving as fomites (objects that can carry an infectious organism,) dogs and cats MAY infect other family members IF the currently infected family member gets infected material (saliva, respiratory droplets, etc.) onto the skin or hair of the pet and another uninfected family member contacts the infected material on the pet. To be safe, it may be wise to keep the family pet away from the infected family member of at least have the infected family member bathe and/or wipe the pet’s coat with a wet washcloth before the pet is exposed to uninfected family members.

Finally, keep in mind that maintaining proper blood levels of vitamin D in people and in pets is important in minimizing infectious diseases. If you or your pet have not had recent vitamin D testing and started appropriate supplementation, this is a good wake-up call to do just this.

Shawn Messonnier DVM

Sunday Selfies

Well, today wuz good cuz I got CHIKKEN LIVERS!

Da momma are lookin even more wild-eyed than Bowie. Social distancing are not for her.

She needs to learn how to relax like us. I don't think it's gonna happen though.

Caturday Art

So, are anyone else's human going nutso wif dis whole "social-distancing" thing. My momma are. She HATES feeling trapped and since we have storms forecast for the next week, she feels like she's stuck in the house and is going crazy. A lot of the stuff she'd planned on has been cancelled, she's hoping a concert she's been looking forward to for months won't be, but she duzn't know (it's in July).

She has US to keep her company, so I don't know what the problem is. There wuz even bacon today! She should take a lesson from us and just relax.  

She did work on her latest painting a LOT today. But it's still not done, so here's a kitty drawing instead.

Hope your humans are less crazy than mine!