Not Much Change

This is the PTU that Mom bought me at first. It's too small for me, as you can see. Well, you can't really see it too well, but I have my head at the back of the PTU eating my treats and both back legs outside the PTU. When I don't eat my Temptations right away, Mom puts them in here for me to enjoy later. She also puts some Party Mix in here for me every day. I eventually eat all of it. Mom wants to take over the blog now.

Karen Jo: Thank you, Herman. Herman is putting me through a real emotional roller coaster ride and it is leaving me drained and tired. That's why we haven't been blogging or visiting. I have become good friends with Herman's foster Mom and she tells me not to ride the roller coaster with him, but I can't seem to help it. I love him so much and he seems like he is miserable at times and I am sure that he is. Sometimes he eats quite a bit and at others he hardly eats at all. He didn't eat more than half of his Benefiber two days in a row and his poop got really watery again, so today I bit the bullet and mixed up a dose of Benefiber in water and syringed it into his mouth. He didn't enjoy it, but he didn't fight it, either, other than dribbling some of it out of the corner of his mouth. I think I got at least half of it down him, which would make up for the half he didn't eat last night. This afternoon, he was back to making pudding poop. He did eat all of his pro-biotic food.

Another thing that has been making me worried and tired is my Mother's income tax. The IRS wants a form with really confusing directions. I think I finally figured out what they want and filled everything out and mailed it in today. I feel relieved and less stressed already. Herman has been sleeping a lot, but he is not what I would call lethargic. I had the living room window open this afternoon, as it was windy, but warm. Early this evening, Herman suddenly ran across the living room and started looking up out the window by his platform. After a short while, he leaped straight up on his platform, which is 33 inches off the floor. He usually hops up on the armchair, then onto the platform. He ignores the ramps up altogether. He sat on the platform looking intently out the window and meowing a bit for quite a while. He even jumped down on the narrow windowsill next to the open window for a while. I didn't get up to see what had caught his interest so, because I didn't want to scare it off. I could hear and see the usual birds at the feeder, but nothing unusual. I was so happy to see him display such interest in something. I hadn't seen him run in weeks. He doesn't watch TV with me any more.

I was just in the kitchen and Herman has eaten almost all of his Benefiber food. Maybe he has decided that he would rather eat it than get it syringed in. This is great because he hasn't eaten much since midday. I will not be feeding him the pouch food with the gravy any more because I had run out of it today and I just gave him his medicine food and his usual Stinky Goodness. He ate much more of his nutritious food without the gravy to distract him. I have another problem. The pudding poop is an improvement over the watery kind, but it is stickier. Herman has dirty back feet and sometimes bottom most of the time. He doesn't step in it, but it dribbles on him. I think he would feel much better if I sponged it off him, but he hates for me to wash him. I am weighing up the pros of having him cleaner and feeling better against the stress he feels when I wash him. I gave him a quick wipe with a warm wash cloth today and he let me know how much he hated it with a loud warning meow. I think I'll give him a quick swipe with a really wet warm wash cloth once or twice a day and see how it goes. If I stress him too much, he'll just get sicker. I'm going to bed now. I am too exhausted to visit. Maybe tomorrow.