[Magdalen] chomp

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

We recently had a few more teeth taken out. Cats tend to get a rotting
which destroys the teeth from below. All looks fine til the tooth
practically falls out. The vet thinks his teeth are fine now, but he gets a
good looking over when he comes in now.

I have had the suspicion that he may have some dementia.  He now sleeps a
lot and actually misses meal times.  I have a practice of not rousing him
if he is asleep and feeding him on demand. He lets us know when it's time
for a supplemental.  He and the kitten, Nancy, get supplementals pretty
much when they wish. The two big (and I do mean big) cats are on a strict
diet, as they are overweight, so these supplementals happen in other parts
of the house.

I have wondered about hearing, but not vision. Max seems to be able to see
very well when I make a subtle move to get up and go give him his
supplemental.  He'll be sitting in Christine's lap and will be mewing at
her, pushing at her reading material etc., and as soon as I even put my
reading aside, he jumps down to accompany me to the other side of the house
for his treats.

It would not be surprising if he lost some hearing, since this is not
uncommon with older cats.  We had a lady who lost all of her hearing, but
lived to 21. She was continuing to enjoy life, so we kept going.

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better
for people coming behind you, and you don’t do it, you're wasting your time
on this Earth.”  -- *Roberto Clemente

On Sat, Nov 22, 2014 at 2:57 PM, Marion Thompson <marionwhitevale at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I wonder how his teeth are now.
>
> Marion, a pilgrim
>
> On 11/22/2014 1:40 PM, James Oppenheimer-Crawford wrote:
>
>> Max, our oldest cat, is also quite remarkable.  He came to us with such
>> terrible teeth that we had to have several of his teeth removed.  There
>> was
>> a very strong odor, probably from necrosis, when he got in our lap.  He
>> also would give us kisses, and then seemed to get carried away and would
>> give us bites.  His fangs were intact, and he sometimes drew blood.  We
>> both knew that he didn't mean any harm. For one thing, if he actually
>> wanted to, he could easily rip a chunk of flesh out, and his bites were
>> generally "pulled punches".  He would go after my beard and would give it
>> a
>> good munching and sometimes would pull some hair out. I would let him know
>> if he was hurting me, and he was sensitive enough to stop, but it seems so
>> instinctive that he cannot unlearn this behavior.  We do not want to swat
>> him, and the feeling is it would just upset him and he still would not
>> stop, so we just try to fuss over him whenever he's doing appropriate
>> stuff.
>> Then he lost some of his fangs, and his bite seems a lot less severe, and
>> he seems to do it a lot less.
>>
>> Still, I wonder if I could do something to improve his quality of life in
>> some way.  He often seems to cry as if he were hungry, but his food and
>> water are intact, and he isn't interested in playing.
>>
>> How these little fellows work their ways into our hearts.
>>
>> Today I put food out for him (regular feeding time) and he looked at it,
>> but in a few moments he was in my lap, butting my head with his, touching
>> his paw to my face. Then, chomp. Then he seemed to pull back, a la "oops,
>> not supposed to do that, eh, Dad?"  I took down the pull toy, which
>> sometimes interests him, but he paid no attention.
>>
>> He seemed to want something, but I don't know what it might be. That I
>> can't understand what he needs upsets me greatly.
>>
>> James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
>> *“If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things
>> better
>> for people coming behind you, and you don’t do it, you're wasting your
>> time
>> on this Earth.”  -- *Roberto Clemente
>>
>>
>