House of Growl

9:45am - You would think that Amber would be the only one with something to complain about, wouldn't you...

We have a VERY unhappy Dino bear today. After two hours of growling and hissing at Amber he has finally given up for a while. Maybe he has a sore throat. He is now sitting in the dining room ( as are the rest of the cats and The Housekeeper), watching torrential rain falling out of a very dark grey English sky.

Amber is contentedly snoozing at the side of the bed, having had a good night as far as The Housekeeper can tell and came up onto the bed twice in the night for cuddles. She seems to have accepted her limitations, wearing the collar and settled in the radiator hammocks both yesterday evening and this morning. She also ate her pink tablet this morning without any fuss whatsoever. The Housekeeper is now going to brave the rain to do some work in the workshop and is leaving the Abyssinians in charge for a couple of hours.

As with yesterdays post - we will do an update later on ........

Amber's Op

8:30 - Amber went off to the vets on time in a stress free state, having closed every available door at bedtime the night before to stop her being able to hide away anywhere and run the humans ragged trying to find her and catch her. She had a very "resigned" look on her face this morning in the cat basket!

12:00 - The Housekeeper has just had a phone call from the vets to say that the operation went very well. The lump, as expected, was a fatty one and therefore will not be sent off for analysis. However, the vet also discovered that Amber had an umbilical hernia which he has also repaired. Apparently, umbilical hernias these are more common in dogs than in cats. Trust Amber to be different.

She is now resting well and the vet says that she is an "absolute sweetheart". Having talked through the options for collecting her, we decided between us that the best course of action is for her to remain at the vets in peace and quiet until after The Housekeeper has finished work, mid afternoon so that she (or rather, the boys) can be supervised when she comes home so that she is not stressed out too much.

17:00 - Amber is home and currently behind the sofa. She doesn't seem too phased by her ordeal, other than having to wear another collar however Dino isn't quite so impressed and is hissing at her a lot. She has a neat row of no less than 8 stitches down her tummy. The last time Amber had stitches, she pulled them out within an hour and The Housekeeper had to take her to an emergency vet to be restitched so the collar should prevent this - and the chances of Amber letting either of the others near her tummy is pretty remote!

21:00 - Amber is quietly curled up in the dining room, snoozing. The Housekeeper has seen her eat so knows she can't be feeling too fragile. Dino is still very grumpy and hissing at her when he comes into the room but the two fawns seen to think that everything is back to normal as Crystal is asleep in her hammock and Jasper is in the bathroom, wailing at something - probably his shadow.

Hopefully Amber will have a good night's sleep, settled in one place to aid the healing of the wound as quickly as possible. Tomorrow The Housekeeper has the joy of administering THE pink post op tablets. However this should be quite easy whilst Amber has her collar on.

Thank you for all your good wishes both on here and on Facebook. They are very much appreciated.

Pre Op

It would be fair to say that The Housekeepers are not looking forward to tomorrow morning, one little bit.

Actually, to be fair, nor would Amber be, if she knew what was in store.

She has been very cheeky this week, running away from us during the day whenever she has been near enough to pick up and get pills down her and spending much of her day hiding behind the headboard of the bed.

Then, as soon as its nighttime and The Housekeeper is settled in bed with the lights turned out, Amber comes out and jumps on the bed and stands on The Housekeeper and purrs for England !

All the paws are firmly crossed that her op will go well and thank you very much for all your messages of support on our last post.

Lumps and Bumps

The Housekeeper can't quite believe its been nearly two months since she last posted. The 4 Abyssinians and The Housekeeper have survived several weeks of The Housekeeper working silly hours for Christmas Nativity productions and had a very relaxing Christmas and New Year but the start of 2012 hasn't quite started off as we had expected.

The Housekeeper took Amber to the vet this morning as she now has another 4 small red patches flare up on her tummy and under her armpit. Yet more anti-robe tablets and cream for the Amber-girl, this coming week. However, more worrying is the fact that because Amber has some patches of fur missing on her tummy, due to her ongoing skin problems, the vet realised that she has a lump on her tummy.

So, next Monday morning, Our lovely Amber will be going back to the vets for a little op to take away the lump and see whether it is a fatty based lump or something more sinister. The Housekeeper is obviously very worried about her, especially as she is due to be away from Wednesday next week for a few days but the vet assures her that once the anaesthetic has worn off that Amber will be fine.

The Housekeeper is also under the vets at the moment for high blood pressure and is due to go to have it checked on Monday morning after she has dropped Amber off. Think that appointment may need to be changed as the reading is going to be sky high. Oh dear.

Time to ring the insurance company !