Big boy!

It's sad to think Milo used to fit all curled up on top of this - boy, has he grown!

Upside Down

Milo has been in a very playful mood these last few days - he's been pouncing at every little thing and chasing after spiders, flies and dust!

He spent a good 2 hours this morning upside down, just like this.  I was dozing in and out of sleep, and he was purring away to himself upside down.

Silly boy!

Furminator

I tried the Furminator out on Milo this morning.  My brother left it at my parents house accidentally when he came to visit the other day, so I nabbed it for a while!  I honestly didn't think it would do anything much for Milo... he's not exactly got lots of fur.  He actually has quite fine fur, but it was moulting eeeeeverywhere.  So I had a go with the Furminator, and it was amazing.  Milo, surprisingly, didn't seem to mind it.  He has quite an aversion to brushing (I think because his fur is so fine, his skin gets stimulated so much by brushing) but he sat semi-still and let me get on with it.

The amount of fur I got out was incredible.  He was left feeling all silky and shiny.

Would I purchase it myself?  Probably not.  It's rather expensive for a cat like Milo who doesn't have that much fur to get rid of.  I imagine i'll just borrow my brother's now and again!

Cat Manual?

One of the things I’m finding hardest about having Milo, is that I don’t always know what I’m doing.  Living alone, and having never had cats as pets before, I’m pretty much doing it blind.  I find myself worrying about him unnecessarily.  For example, yesterday I was speaking to my sister in law, and telling her how Milo will often get distracted from playing with his favourite toy, to gnaw at his leg, or scratch his ear.  I was concerned he must be feeling itchy if it was stopping him mid-pounce!  She said it’s perfectly normal.

He also wolfs down his food the moment its laid down which, from stereotypical cat generalisations, I believed cats didn’t do.  I thought they grazed at their food throughout the day.  So Milo wolfing his food straight away was a bit alarming, and I thought I was underfeeding him.  A few days of thoroughly weighing out his food and a quick re-read of the back of his food packet reassured me I was/am feeding him the correct amount for his weight.  He is obviously just a food-focused cat!

One of the other main things that had me worried, was when he goes on his ‘mad 5’ around the house.  He will bomb it around the place, ears back, eyes wide.  I thought he’d terrified himself the first time he did it.  It wasn’t until he did it when my parents were visiting that I understood it was just a way of burning off energy.  I thought he was running away from something.  Apparently this is a normal thing as well.

Wouldn’t it be so much easier if cats came with a manual!?

Travelling Cat

I'm so happy Milo travels well and is a friendly cat.  Whenever I am away at my parents for the day, Milo comes with.  He happily climbs into his carrier and does alright in the car.  I do have to make sure he hasn't eaten beforehand, otherwise I tend to arrive at my parents with a neat pile of sick just inside the carrier door!  But otherwise he's brilliant.  He's not at all nervous when he's there, he's straight out of his carrier and over to the nearest person for some attention.  He'll quite happily explore the house, then snuggle down on a chair next to a radiator (I don't have radiators at home, so it's a novelty for him!).

I'm so happy he is so laid back about it all...certainly makes my life a bit easier.

Catnip?

Hmm... someone found the catnip tub and helped themselves!

Vets Update

We went back to the vets today for a check up - he has a clean bill of health.  His ears are much better and I can stop with the medicines.  Phew!  He got his up to date booster jab, too, so that's him done, hopefully, vets wise for the next while.  Fingers crossed!

He's actually been really affectionate this evening after the vets which is nice, shows there's hope he'll go back to his old ways again!

Happy Easter

Milo absolutely adored his special Easter egg for cats.  Yoghurt and catnip...yums.  He'd rather bat it around the floor than eat it, though!

Drops

So surprise, surprise... Milo is not a fan of ear/eye drops!  If I have any skin left on my legs and arms by the end of the week, it'll be a miracle.

It's a shame all this has happened in the first month of me getting him.  He was such an affectionate and loving cat when I got him, happy to lie on the sofa for cuddles, and would let me brush him, cut his claws and check his teeth without any problems.  Now, though, it's a different story!  As soon as I stroke him he flinches in case i'm going to administer some more drops, and if I even go near his brush, he's legged it.

Hopefully he'll go back to his old self once he's feeling better.

Vets

Woke up this morning to a screaming mog.  He was scratching his ear so violently that clumps of fur were flying about the place.  He was miaowing and whimpering and just generally not a happy chappy.  By the time I had to leave for work, his ear was plastered back against his head and his eye shut.  I felt so bad leaving him when he was so obviously uncomfortable, but I had to go to work.  Called the vet as soon as they opened and got him booked in for an appointment after work.

I left work early to get him to the vets and by the time I got home he seemed a lot calmer and in less distress.   The vet said he looks as though he has an ear infection, but couldn't tell for certain as he couldn't stop scratching his ear as she was trying to look in it.  She put some neon green goo on his eyes, too, to check and see if he'd scratched them as they were watery, and gave him an injection to stop the itching from being too bad.

I left the vets with a prescription of Canaural ear drops, Fucithalmic eye drops, and an appointment to see the vet again the same time next week.

I can sense this is going to be a fun filled week!

Fleas Update

So it would seem the Bob Martin products I treated Milo with when I got him are, to put it lightly, rubbish.  When I told people what i'd used initially to flea/worm him, they all shook their heads and said Bob Martin products are rubbish and don't work.

News to me!  I figured if it was for sale in a shop, it was fit for purpose.  But i'm obviously wrong.

I put an order in on petdrugsonline.co.uk for some Advantage flea spot-on treatment, and Panacur worming granules, and an order on Amazon.co.uk for some Indorex house spray for fleas.

They arrived on Friday, so yesterday morning was spent blitzing the house.  Everything was moved, hoovered and sprayed with Indorex, my bedding and towels all went on a hot wash, as did Milo's towels and bed.  He got treated with the Advantage spot on and had his Panacur mixed in with his breakfast feed.

Phew.  Hopefully that's got rid of the little buggers....

Fleas

Uh oh... this morning, I found a flea.  Was chilling with Milo and giving him a brush when I spotted a weird looking creature on the bristles.  Eek.  I de-flead and de-wormed him when I first got him, but it was obviously ineffective.


I've just blitzed the house with some Bob Martin Flea Kill powder so we'll see what happens.  Got him a flea collar too.

Meet Milo

This is Milo.  He is almost 2 years old (born on the 3rd June 2011) and is such a cutie-pie.

I got him on the 2nd of March from a private advert on Pets4Homes.  He is my first ever cat.  He's so playful and loves nothing more than a pouncing session with his feather on a string, or chasing his SlimCat food ball around the room.  He's a very easy-going cat!

This blog will be a space for me to share my thoughts on all the bits and bobs I buy for Milo, as well as a place to share some bits about him and his life.

Welcome!