Ivy’s Vine

Cats and Dogs

September 22nd, 2009

We went to the vet with Dokuritsu yesterday.  There was some blood in the urine, but after an examination, a blood test, and an X-ray, it turns out she has a minor infection.  This means I have the joy of shoving a pill into a cat every night for ten days. For the record, they don’t manufacture straight jackets for cats–I asked.

She’s too smart for the pill pouch trick.  Most cats are.  The idea behind this product is you put a pill into this little pouch shaped cat treat, then close the pouch around it and feed the treat, pill and all, to the cat.  This works with dogs.  Dogs are stupid.  My boyfriend would give his dog a ball of cheese, then another ball of cheese, then a ball of cheese with a pill inside, then a final ball of cheese.  If one happened to be extra crunchy, the dog never seemed to notice.  Cats don’t fall for that.  Cats eat the treat and leave the pill behind.

She’s tricky.  I’ll start to get the pill into her mouth and suddenly she’ll snap at me.  After about a half an hour of this game last night I straddled the cat and all but sat on her just to keep her still.  We played poke and dodge for a bit and finally, as she went for my finger will all she had, I lobbed the pill right down her throat and she swallowed.  As I am blogging, she is plotting how to avoid this tonight.  As I said, cat’s are smart.  If you give a dog a pill on Monday, he’s forgotten it by Tuesday (thus why the same tricks work over and over again).  Let’s by honest, if you give a dog a pill at 8:00, he’s forgotten it by 8:01.  John’s dog probably forgot the crunchy cheese by the time John rolled up the forth ball.  If you give a cat a pill on Monday, she’s spent the entire next day working out her anti-pill strategy.

Basically, I need the pills shaped and flavored like human fingers.  I might have some luck with that.

I will say one thing about dogs though, they try to learn from their humans.  Thus, one dog’s understanding of the command, “Sit.”

Entry Filed under: Cats