REARVIEW 2007 (2)

Horatio

17 and counting.

The year has been up and down for my cat, Horatio. He's adjusted fairly well to California. He looks good and his coat has returned to its original color after having turned slightly orange-red just before the move. He has a couple new enemies, the neighbors cat and the giant raccoon that lives under the apartment building, and he's managed to escape the confines of 818 Las Palmas a few times by pushing out the screen on the large windows in the front room. He still throws up with regularity, but after a recent change to an all-Fancy-Feast-all-the-time diet, he seems to be keeping the food down much better. He has a very nice Indian vetrinarian who has treated him for the annual urinary tract infection as well as for a nasty case of fleas (something new, Colorado being so dry that fleas are rarely an issue). By all accounts he's a healthy old man of a cat (around 85 in human years).
The vet and I decided to experiment a bit on Horatio earlier this year. Through some research the doc found out that there was a medicinal treatment for incontinent dogs which may be suitable for cats. "On paper it works, but there have been no clinical trials as of yet." He told me to try it out. "If he shows any signs of anxiety, stop treatment immediately." Well, I gave it a go and right after the first dose my little furry pumpkin started drooling uncontrollably and running around the apartment like he'd just taken a paw-full of diet pills. His incontinence remains a frustrating condition, but seems to have no effect on his good looks or charm. And, with the amount of cat pee laundry I do every week, it's a blessing to have a washer and dryer in the apartment.
If you were to judge how he looked when he arrived in California to how he looks now and did the same with me, his adaptation would seem to be going significantly better than mine. I reckon he's on his sixth successful lifetime, while I am slagging behind in my less than stellar first attempt.