Frank caught a rat

Frank left the present on the kitchen floor for me to find yesterday evening when I got home from work. He had biten its head off and left it next to the body for me. We are so proud of him.

Frank - discovering my garden and the whole street

Frank tends to venture a bit further than Amy putting his head down, running and get very excited. Last Sunday we thought Frank had gone forever and were about the launch a search party. He appeared over someone's fence. So that was enough stress for one day, so we dragged him back inside. Short visits for now.

Food for cats

My new pussy cat, Franc arrived on 5 December. Unfortunately, Amy is no longer with us, after 13 year she passed away on 23 November. My very loved little girl.

I want Franc to be fit and healthy, I suspect diet was behind Amy's liver problems. Cats are particularly vulnerable if not fed a good diet, not too much fat and carbs, good quality protein and the correct calories every day.

Whiskers is the main canned cat food in Australia, 80% of cats get fed this brand. It contains artificial colours and flavours and wonder if there is something better.

I found that the premium supermarket brands are worse, containing ingredients cats simply don’t need. Cats are meat eaters, their bodies are not designed to eat grains or vegetables. The veges are there to make me feel that I'm giving him/her a healthy dinner.

Franc is a big boy, just over 6kg of confirmed muscle. His body feels firm, I can feel his ribs slightly and has strong back legs.

He’s currently eating Science Diet kibble, Whiskers chicken gravy and my home steamed chicken. He’s a bit lazy and doesn’t like chewing, he's probably swallowing it whole. I will conquer his kibble addiction, he will eat more cooked chicken and a good canned food. I don't feel bad about canned Whiskers, its a matter of reading labels.

Also kibble/dried cat foods can contain lots of carbs and fat as well as fillers, corn derivatives and not enough good quality meat based protein.

I want to keep him fit and healthy as possible and also like doing things for him.

Welcome Frank

His full name is Francois and he is a completely beautiful cuddly boy. He's my new garden companion. I miss Amy desperately, I love her so much and think of her everyday. I feel that I now have three cats, Holly, Amy and Frank. But every garden must have a cat and we now have Franc. He's got a bit of a fetish for paper.


There will be lots of photos here soon as Frank discovers his new home and garden.

Amy

Amy stopped eating last Tuesday. She had done this a few times before but this time she was very depressed Thursday morning. I had a very uneasy feeling going to work that day, I know now that I made a terrible mistake. I rushed her to the vet first thing Friday morning for tests. She had lost weight and was seriously dehydrated.

I was allowed to take her home for the rest of the day, just until her results became available. I stayed with her. My poor puppy was so sick and wouldn't eat or drink anything. The vet gave her a subcutaneous injection of saline solution to help with the dehydration which made her a bit more lively. However it didn't last long.

The results of the testing were difficult to interpret, as there were some many figures and enzymes so out of the norm. Hyperthyroidism seemed to be present but it didn't come close to explaining some of the other test results. I rushed poor puss back to hospital where she was placed on a drip with the hope that this would flush some of the toxins out of her system and give her little liver a chance to recover. The first blood test looked promising and she picked up and then spiralled back down. A final blood test Monday afternoon revealed some very sad news. It was highly likely that a tumor on her liver was blocking her bile duct. There was now no hope and in her terribly weakened state all we could do now was to stop.

On 23 November at approximately 7 PM I held my little puppy as she was sent to sleep. She was loved and adored every single day that she was part of my life (12 years) and I will never forget my happy little pussy cat. She now rests in my Mum's garden and has chickens to play with everyday.