operation harley - week one

its been a month since i've posted but it seems like longer. especially the last few weeks.

operation harley is my concentrated effort to break harley of his biting habit. for clarification, i don't mind a friendly or warning nip that is brief and barely makes more than a general impression on me. what we're working on is harley's drawing blood.

first and foremost it must be said that harley is a great cat. he has a sweet and comical side, and he always greets my guests at the door, rubbing against them and smelling them part of his training now involves guests greeting him with a treat. my thought is he'll immediately associate visitors as friends and if they pet him, he is gentle and gets a treat, it's not just me rewarding him for good behavior. but this is a small part of the whole training program.

thanks to deb at Catales, harley's shelter mom, and donna, our cat sitter from Furnanny 911, and my own years of having cats for pets, i've come up with a multi pronged approach:

* time out: harley now has a time out crate whichis used only for time out. he gets no more than 30 minutes for his offenses and it'll only be shortened when improvement is seen and the biting is rarer than it is now. the clock timer is his buzzer and i don't use it for anything else. this way he knows the buzzer is for his timeout and he won't be confused by hearing it another time. when he goes in i tell him why, i ignore him when he's in there, and when its time up he is let out.

* reqarding good non biting behavior. harley gets greeted at the door with a pet on the head and a treat. the rest of the time i only pet him if he initiates, then i watch for the signs that he might bite: tail whipping around, angle of his head, puffy tail. i redirect with a toy, never a hand or foot which he likes to bite, and even physically remove him from the area if it looks like it's going to be an issue if he stays. when he's good, he gets treats and i tell him that good harley gets treats for being friendly and calm.

* the squirt bottle of water haas been in use for awhile but is now reinforced by time out.

* harley no longer sleeps in my bed or my bedroom at night. we say our goodnights outside my door and i sleep better knowing i'm not going to wake up to a toe or my arm getting attacked like i had been. this is the first time i've had a biting pet so this si new for me to not have him in bed at night.

* rescue remedy for cats. per the bottle, place 4 drops on a pet treat and 4 in their daily water. its used in situations of extreme stress like when animals are rescued from an emergency situation. deb had seen this work very well for a dog they had and i'm hoping it does the same for harley. i love that its a natural remedy and there are zero chemicals.

* last but not least is feliway which is a feline pheromone in a spray or plug in. it is supposed to calm him instantly. i have seen it work well and am waiting for the plug ins to arrive. they last 4 weeks and have refills available. i got two ordered from the pet store and plan to place them strategically in the apartment.

operation harley has been in effect since this past tuesday to we're not quite at a week yet, but so far i've only sustained a clean scratch on the back of my calf which drew blood. he's had 3 time outs, including one while i was blogging this. mom was here for a few hours last night and he needed no discipline. but he did jump up on the kitchen table which is a no harley zone so he got a squirt for that.

i'm off to run errands and sttend a nature inspired writers and artists workshop at white memorial in litchfield, ct. after a week of training harley, overtime and general loose ends to tie up, i hope this is a nice break and a time to feed my creative side. despite my present headache.

the "no harley" zone

harley has free range of the apartment, including the book cases where he will sometimes jump almost straight up to roost on a shelf, pushing all else to the side while he's up there, to make room for himself. he has a down feather pillow in a gold thread case on his favorite spot on the linen dresser where he can sleep or observe and see into the bedroom and the all the rest of the apartment except the bathroom, and also look out the slider door.

the one place harley isn't allowed is on the new kitchen table. it's actually the only table he's known here as i didn't have one when i moved in.

the glass top lets me see when he's sizing up the distance from the floor to either the cushioned seat of the chair or the glass top itself. this gives me the advantage of time as i grab the water bottle and give him a surprise squirt while saying, this is a no harley zone!

whether or not he is on the table and chairs while i'm gone i don't know. somehow i don't doubt that he is.

proud mama moment

harley and i ventured to the vet's office again yesterday afternoon. his third time in the carrier going to the vets and he is officially no longer happy about it.

the last visit they mentioned possibly stitching up one of his openings where the incisor had been removed during his recent surgery. i didn't want him to go through that so i'd been hoping he was healing well and they'd say he wouldn't need stitches afterall. additionally, he'd been scratching one of his ears lately and it seemed to be more than usual, and then there was that piddling incident to address.

after a little bit of a wait that had both harley and i napping on the cool metal exam table, him with his nose buried in my elbow as my arms encircled him, and me resting on his soft fur, the vet came in. harley's gums, she said, have healed nicely and stitches aren't needed (yea)! she checked his ears and said he has almost no wax in them, and that the little extra scratching could be environmental allergies. i vowed to run the air purifier i have more regularly for both of us. with the humidity more stuff may have been hanging in the air than usual which would explain why both of us hadn't been well last week during that hideaous heat wave.

next was the piddling. she asked some questions about when the incident happened, has it happened again, does he make pain sounds when in the box or otherwise. his bladder was empty so she couldn't get a sample for a UTI test, but when she examined him she said his kidneys and bladder felt like they were in good shape and the fact that his bladder was empty, and i could attest to his box being used regularly, she said she didn't think it was more than behaviorial when it occured. trust we will be addressing that at home. since it happened last week when the weather was awful and i was sick from it, i think i didn't pay him as much attention and he was letting me know. i hope thats all that comes of it.

harley now weighs 12 pounds, having lost a pound or two since i first weighed him in may. the vet said its a healthy weight, his shape is just right, his fur is shiny though even i know i need to comb him more often if he would let me. we'll work on that together. and finally, the vet said he had a clean bill of health, see you next year for his check up, and she wished all of her cats were in as good shape as harley is.

yea, that was a proud mama moment, knowing he's doing so well, and that we make a great team.

post op harley

it's been several weeks since my last post as harley and i have been both working with his post op, less teeth than before, care and making the most of the summer before this heat wave hit the area.

to re cap, harley went in to have a few infected teeth pulled. when they called me with the update, he was 12 teeth lighter than when he went in. the vet said there were impacted teeth and in the end it was a lot for a 6 yr old cat but we don't know what his life was like before the shelter, like what he was eating, and it could well be genetic. he came home, happily, i might add, and after reluctantly taking a yucky liquid antibiotic for several days, he seemed to have turned a corner.

the result is he bites a heck of a lot less, and when he does, it hurts a heck of a lot less! he lost an incisor which is part of that transformation. he is more snuggly and purrs a lot more than he did before. he even encourages me to pet him as he purrs, and that can go on for up to 15 minutes before he moves on to something else. the vet will see him again on monday. hopefully he won't need stitches for the incisor gap. they wanted to have it heal up on its own first.

good thing he sees the vet soon anyway. i don't think he has a urinary tract infection; no i'm pretty sure he was just delivering a clear message to me at 330am this morning. i was online checking something and without any fear, he peed on a beanbag foot rest i have in the living room. this was done right in front of me. i was amazed at his brazeness, but i had to say he wasn't happy with his food selection the last few meals - he expresses his dissatisfaction by scratching the cloth placemat so its covering his still full food dish - and i wasn't feeling well so i hadn't yet cleaned his litter box.

so i got the footrest and his litter box into a garbage bag and cleaned everything up. this morning he got a new placemat, a new bowl, and new food with new water. he ate then .... you guessed it ... proceeded to very cleanly pee in his litter box, followed by a ton of chasing his milk ring toy. when i made myself a sandwich for breakfast, he proceeded to annoy me for some of the turkey then moved on to a catnip toy.

i'm thinking he's just fine but i'll ask the vet to be sure.

what a character.

harley at the vet's

harley survived his first vet visit since sharing mi casa, and i'm pleased to say he faired well, though my wallet didn't i'm afraid, and he's going thursday to have some bad teeth pulled. but aside from that, he's received a good bill of health. he's been micro chipped in case he pulls a houdini, had his nails clipped (thank the lord!), weighed (12.11 lbs), and otherwise updated with shots. the infection in his tooth means antibiotics each night which he hates but takes and then the surgery thursday. i also picked up something akin to advantage to help with ticks, fleas, etc. all told, he now officially costs more than my new dining room table which is still on order.

but i have to say he did the crate thing very well and actually was bugging to get back into it after his exam. he's been very mellow since returning home, which is kind of nice for a change. he seems very comfortable around the apartment and is currently sleeping with his hed snuggled into the goose down pillow in a gold fabric i adore.

the pictures posted in this note are harley hiding out at the vet's office, on the exam room counter behind the computer.

random harley moments

harley lounges on me during a movie...he looks so content


it's been a busy few weeks since i last blogged and harley has made some strides in not biting as much and snuggling more. the squirt bottle is now second to simply blowing in his face and saying, "no biting!" to which he looks more offended to the air in his face than anything else. he actually attacked a kleenex box when i put it between us as he was going for my hand again. he's getting the hang of just relaxing with me, mostly on the couch as we watch a movie. he seems to be channeling tiger, my late cat, because he does some of the same moves and stretches and even lays on me in bed like tiger used to. i'm fairly certain that by now he weighs more than 14 lbs. his first vet visit is saturday. i'm sure they'll confirm it for me. lol he also tries to open cabinet doors and jumps into the tub now and then. the vet will be clipping his nails, thank goodness. getting him into the carrier will be interesting i'm sure. meanwhile he's relaxing on various pieces of furniture, loves the sun and the slider door being open, and continues to bring joy to my life by just being himself.

and in this corner, weighing in at...

14 pounds!

harley stepped on my scale last week as he's nosy, which we know, and i was getting ready for my day. with all four pays sqaurely on the scale as if i'd put it there just for him, he weighs himself in at 14 pounds.

i looked at him and said, in all seriousness, "WHO is FEEDING you?!"

uh, yea, that would be me lol

gosh, he sure is cute.