[Magdalen] chomp

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

Davey, our late treasured marmalade cat, was toothless for several years.
He didn't seem to mind.

We were at the animal shelter to get cats, and we saw in one cage two of
the most beautiful marmalade kittens.  One was gregarious in the front of
the cage, the other was frightened, and hugged up against his brother. A
little boy came by and chose the one kitten. "You don't want that other
one. He's too shy," said the staff person.
The one kitten went off to his new home and the one left tried to squeeze
himself into the back corner of the cage, obviously terribly frightened.
We took him home with three others, and put each in a separate room in our
house so they could get used to the place. We let each out for a while to
get a feel for the place but without having to worry about each other. We
named the frightened little guy "David," in hopes that it would inspire his
courage.
He hid behind the toilet. Christine would sit on the floor in there,
talking quietly to him.  Eventually he came out, and in time became a
pretty regular member of the family, although he always was shy.  He loved
to be in Christine's lap, and since she loves to read more than anything,
the lap is often available. I think he lived a pretty long and happy life.

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 10:56 PM, Molly Wolf <lupa at kos.net> wrote:

> My little black cat Josie has an autoimmune disorder that's wrecking her
> gums.  She too has horrible breath and has lost teeth.  A proper dental
> go-over requires general anaethesia, which is $500 right there, so we keep
> feeding her dental treats instead.  She's otherwise happy and healthy and
> has the habit of neatly flicking dry cat kibble out of the bowl and eating
> it off the floor.  We plan to rename her Toothless, after the dragon.
>
> She and Oliver are Not Happy about the advent of winter.
>
> Molly
>
> The man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no
> other way. -- Mark Twain
>
> > On Nov 22, 2014, at 10:46 PM, James Oppenheimer-Crawford <
> oppenheimerjw at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > 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
> >>
>