That wasn’t the answer I was hoping for, but of course that’s why Animal Communication is so important. It definitely helps us understand the animal’s perspective.
Melissa is now almost 4 1/2 years old and quite a fierce hunter. She has caught and occasionally killed mice, chipmunks, snakes, dragonflies, moles, various other insects, and once a red squirrel.
Inside the house, she controls the mouse population. There are nights when she doesn’t go to bed until 3 am or later. She has been “on patrol”.
During the day, he goes outside for a while. This is to save me from having to replace screens regularly, and also because she feels miserable and frantic when confined indoors.
When she was younger, Melissa would bring her prey alive. This was to show them to me and play with them. When they let go… the game was on.
She was trying to stop him from bringing his catch, so Melissa became Demosthenes, the Greek who had trouble speaking clearly and used pebbles in his mouth to improve his speech.
At first, when he reached the door with a latch, I could tell by the sounds he made that his mouth was full of something. This was true the first 2 times.
For the third time, I could no longer discern that Melissa had anything in her mouth.
Eventually, Melissa would bring home prey that was already dead, and after playing with her a bit while I praised her hunting skills, she’d let me take it and set it outside. Once she did that, she would ignore him. She would then take the body and place it where some other animal could benefit from her death.
But eventually, Melissa just couldn’t resist eating her catch, despite my efforts to make sure she came out with a full or nearly full stomach.
And the consequence of that is… PARASITES.
All wild animals (birds and mammals) that a cat will eat have parasites. And by eating the animal, the cat becomes infected.
It became clear to me in the last 2 weeks that Melissa has worms and needs to be dewormed.
There were 3 main symptoms:
-
- more hungry than normal;
- constipation; Y
- a cough that occurs when the larvae, which have been maturing in the lungs, are ready to return to the digestive system.
So today I bought Melissa some dewormer from my vet, and some syringes that I can use to give her the meds in paste form if I can’t get her to eat them in her food.
The thing is, Melissa has a very sensitive nose. And this dewormer is supposed to go in the cat’s food. Would I get away with this approach?
Melissa’s sense of smell is very powerful. She will not eat food that is slightly older in one bowl than the other bowl.
I’ll serve the food that’s left over from the day before, but it’s still good to eat, according to my nose and Starlight’s nose, but Melissa doesn’t touch it and always chooses the newest food in the other bowl.
Remember, my cats are on a raw food diet. Food is not left out for hours on end. They get it at mealtime and within 2 hours, they have eaten. I save any leftovers. It’s still perfectly fine to eat, unless you have Melissa’s nose telling you otherwise.
So could you give him a dewormer in his food? Could I really get away with it?
Therefore, our conversation:
Nedda: “Melissa, what is your favorite food?”
Melissa: “Mouse.” [This is said without hesitation or consideration, and very matter-of-factly.]
Nedda: [Laughing very hard at herself for not asking the question correctly.]
Nedda: “Melissa, of the foods I give you, do you have a favorite?”
Melissa: “Not really.”
Nedda: “What do you think of fish? Like salmon? Or sardines.”
Melissa: “They’re fine.”
Well, I’m not serving Melissa a mouse.
Melissa needs 3 doses of medicine for 3 days. Today, Day 1, she ate it in some of the raw chicken mixture topped with a small amount of sardines.
I tried to serve it without the sardines, but after tasting it, Melissa walked away. And she had been begging for food, so she was hungry.
So far so good.
Will I get away with it tomorrow and the day after?
Stay tuned for the update.
Some more things I have to keep in mind.
- Melissa will not stop hunting, so she will need to follow a regular deworming schedule.
- Starlight may or may not catch Melissa’s worms.
Oh darling. I’ll have to stop feeding the birds this winter to prevent Melissa from attacking them. She can easily jump up about 4 and a half feet and knock a bird out of the air. I’ve seen her do it!
I will miss the birds… and they will miss this feeding station.
Sigh!
Such is life with a Jungle Kitty!
