Flower has not been cleaning herself, and I had to wipe her butt once before, but today I noticed that she was getting really dirty. In fact I think I could smell it on her. At first I started to clean her up with a wash-clothe, but I quickly realized that I was going to need to give her a bath in order to get her clean. I ran some water in the bathtub, and when I took her in and began to lower her into the tub, the claws came out. I decided to try this in the kitchen sink instead, which was only slightly less painful. I was encouraged, however, by Flower's new found zeal and strength to avoid that water. Eventually I managed to keep her in the sink long enough to get her wet. It was pretty difficult to get her washed up, and I'll probably have to repeat the process in a couple of days since I didn't have any soap that I felt was appropriate. I'll have to get some help with this next time.
The other issue today was that Flower has avoided using her litter box on several occasions now. This started when she either couldn't get out of my room at night or couldn't get in to the bathroom. The last couple of times, however, I have found stool on the floor of the bathroom next to the litter box and I have found pee in my closet (on my dirty laundry). Most of the afternoon I spent doing laundry and cleaning carpet. I now have a litter box in my room in addition to the one that's in the bathroom. My closet (which does not have a door) is also blocked by a large piece of cardboard. The laundry is still getting done; there's at least one more load to do. I even washed her new kitty bed, which had poop on it. Flower is now OFF of the clindamycin, which should help to avoid the loose stools which had become ever-present. Hopefully with her food staying in her system longer, she will begin to see improvement as she is able to extract more nutrients from it over the longer time. Until Monday, at least, we are waiting and hoping for some signs of progress from her.
I realized this evening that I have already begun to shift my thinking to a new "normal" for Flower. I used to come home expecting her to be at the door, waiting for me, feeling better and like herself again. Now I come home and know that I need to check for stool and pee around the house. I don't want to think of Flower in these terms; I miss her following me into the kitchen, begging for food, and I miss her coming to get petted while I'm at my desk doing homework and coming to get me when it's time for bed. And I miss that she doesn't wake my up in the morning or at night when she needs to get out of my room to use the litter box. I know that Flower is a good cat and likes to follow the rules; she'll make sure that I let her. I'm tired of seeing her suffering, sleeping all day, not able to clean herself.
