About My Ocean the Wiggle Cat

I had last posted how my wiggle kitteh was getting thinner and not as active, that Ocean was having trouble jumping onto the furniture like usual. So I took her in to the vet.

...They found a mass near her stomach. They took more ultrasounds and found two lumps, one on her large intestine and on her liver. They also spotted enlarged lymph nodes, which told them she had lymphoma and the aggressive untreatable kind.

(small "no").

She wasn't in any outward pain, but she was clearly uncomfortable, and I didn't want Ocean to struggle for another month or so before the pain got too much. It's hard, really hard for a person to take a pet companion - a fur baby - to the vet one last time.

It wasn't easy back in 2013 when I had to let Tehya the Pretty Kitty go to rest, and it wasn't easy today for Ocean.

Ocean was the kitten who came to me a week after Tehya died, on Halloween night meowing for trick or treat at the apartment stairwell. She was so fearless, happy to run up the stairs to my doorway to greet me going out and okay with coming inside my apartment to check it out. I called her Wiggles for how she'd roll around on her back when I got close. When I took her in for good a few weeks after Halloween and took her to the vet, the nurses there said "Wiggles" wasn't a proper name so I named her Ocean (for a then-recent Gaiman novel). But she was always Wiggles to me.

And then she had her babies on Super Bowl eve as the Broncos got blown out by the Seahawks. I hope the five kittehs I gave up for adoption - River, Simon, Inara, Zoey, Jayne - went to good homes and hopefully staying healthy. I kept Mal, and you all know how much of a handful he's been.

I wonder how confused Mal is going to be tonight, the first night without mama cat. :(

These are among the last photos I've taken of Ocean. I may upload a video or two of her purring later. I never videorecorded Tehya or Page when I should have, because today I can barely remember how they purred or meowed at me. :( 

This is Ocean just before the vet
came in. They let me hold her
to my side as they performed the
injections. It's so heartbreaking
how she stopped moving.

I am so sorry I wasn't able to take better care of you, my kittehs. /cries

A Note About Ocean the Wiggle Cat

Well, Ocean hasn't been doing so well the past couple weeks.

She's been getting thinner, and she hasn't been able to jump onto the sofa where she likes to rest half the time. I took her to the vet, where they noted she's lost 5 pounds since her last weigh-in this December.

Her bloodwork came back okay, but her urine showed a UTI, so I'm giving her antibiotics for that.

She came to me back on Halloween night 2013 and when I brought her in she was this tiny thing. She got big in a hurry - and then had six kittehs - and she'd been this active wiggly cat ever since.

But that's 12 years ago, and she was at least six months, maybe a year old when she showed at the base of the apartment steps. She's already in the 'senior' category for cats, and I'm worried this is not a good turn for her.

May have to take her in for x-rays to make sure it's not cancer - the thing that took Tehya, poor kitteh - or anything just as serious.

Pray for my mama cat, please.

It's Been 10 Years With a Wiggle Cat

On Halloween Night in 2013, a brave little tuxedo kitten began meowing for food and love and I offered both to her.

This is Wiggle Cat. I named her Ocean because the vet nurses
felt Wiggles was too silly for her.

 

This was in 2021 when I ordered a couple of cat posts during
the pandemic. Ocean prefers napping in this one, but the tall one
at the window is great for morning suntans.

And today October 31 2023 is our tenth anniversary together, you wiggler.

Happy 2019 Mother's Day Ocean the Wiggle Cat

It's 2019 and I don't have any other pictures of Ocean being a Mom cat because Mal just won't stay in the picture with her long enough...

So I'll just show the latest photos of Ocean the Wiggle Cat so you can see she's doing okay.

Five Year Anniversary with the Wiggle Cat

Five years ago tonight, waiting at an apartment in Bartow for trick-or-treaters that never showed, I instead heard the mewling of a hungry little tuxedo kitten.

So I figured what the heck, it's trick-or-treat, so I go get cat food from the store and come back and put it on a paper plate for the little kitteh to eat... whereupon three other cats jump out of the bushes and eat what's on the plate before she could. Still, I made sure to feed HER since she was the one brave enough to ask me.

And brave she was. And friendly. And wiggly. She'd flop down on the concrete and wiggle back and forth waiting for ear rubs.

I had just lost Tehya to cancer a week before Halloween, and here I was with a kitten just knocking on the door to come in. And she did come into the apartment, cautious but unafraid, and after a few visits I let her in and closed the door, and she had no problem with that.

That was how Ocean the Wiggle Cat came into my life. And then later her kittens.

BUT THAT IS ANOTHER ADVENTURE...

Happy Mother's Day to Ocean the Wiggle Cat

Mal's too busy hiding under the bed to do it, so here's me honoring Ocean for her matriarchal instincts.

To the hoomans who adopted Zoe, Jayne, Inara, River and Simon, I hope they are well and let them know that their mommy is contently stalking the lizards at our windows...

NaNoWriMo Prep: KITTEH PICTURES

Just a reminder that one year tonight I meet this mewling little hungry kitteh on the steps of my apartment as I sat Halloween night working on my NaNoWriMo preparations, and who moved in with me a month later and gave birth to a litter:

Happy anniversary, Ocean the Wiggle Cat.

Kitteh Update 02/05/14: Feeding Time!

The six kittehs seem to be doing alright, all of them still lining up to get at the mama for milking.

I am starting to worry if the kittehs are pooping/urinating.  If so, gotta figure out how to clear them out to clean up.

I Don't Know Nothing About Birthing Kitties (UPDATE)

Turns out Ocean really was pregnant.

Last night Feb. 2nd she gave birth to three kittens (that I could see and hear).  You can see the tail of one of them next to her head in that photo.

I've been told cats are pregnant over nine weeks.  So... counting back... she got knocked up mid-November, just before I got around to adopting her.  Now it's a question of hunting that SOB tomcat down that did this to her and... SNIP SNIP...

I got a box laid out with a towel nearby, so she can transfer over her kittens to a cleaner place.  Left food and water nearby.  I have no idea what else I need to do.

Update: (2/3/14 6:10 pm EST) AAAAAAA I was off on the kitteh count.  Ocean gave birth to SIX KITTEHS.  SIX!  AHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhh...

On the other hand I could name them all after the crew of the Serenity... Mal, Zoe, Wash, Kaylee, Jayne, Inara...

Update Update: Here's a second picture of the kittehs.

There's one, two, a third behind the second, the grey kitteh is fourth, then a fifth kitteh and then a sixth with his/her tail end up.  Two of the cats look like solid black cats, one grey, two with white facial markings like their mother.  The sixth is dark but I can't tell yet if he/she has white mixed in...

Caturday: It's Late But Here's Pics

I told you earlier about Ocean the Wiggle Cat.

Got more pics.

She's still very wiggly and very claw-y at the moment.  She might also be pregnant: she was outdoors for a long enough time, and the vet was worried about her quick weight gain when I took her in for a second round of shots two weeks ago.  I can't feel anything yet other than a big belly, but we'll see...