First of all, I have a question about a symptom Scooter shows on and off.
 
Every once in a while, he'll make a bunch of gagging noises as he plays.
He never seemed to be in much distress, and he'll continue to run around,
play, poop on the rug, tip over wastebaskets, as he does this.  This
weekend, he did it, and a friend of mine (I had three in the room) noticed
he was heaving.  Another friend, who is very experienced with animals and
loves Scooter to death, picked him up and rubbed under his throat, trying
to help him throw up whatever was causing the problem.
 
He didn't throw anything up, but after he stopped heaving, I went to pick
him up off Jenn's lap and he squeaked in fear, like "No Dad, don't pick me
up!  PLEASE!"
 
A few minutes later he started heaving again, and after a few minutes spit
up a little bit of what looked like just foamy saliva on a friend's leg.
He was fine after that.
 
I'm not all that worried, since he doesn't show any other signs of
illness, and eats properly with everything coming out the other end as
normal, but I'm a bit concerned that this could be the first stages of
something.  Anybody ever see this before?  I should mention that he's a 4
1/2-month-old whole sable male.
 
Also: What is the "greenies?"  I would just like to know, just in case it
ever happens.
 
Of course, if he keeps acting the way he is right now, I'll fire up the
Hibachi and be done with it :)
He stayed with a friend last week because my landlords, who expressly
forbid pets, were coming in to do some maintenance.  This weekend he came
home, and proceeded to get into everything in sight and poop EVERYWHERE.
I don't know if I'll ever get him litter trained.  I reward him when he
does (rarely) use the box, punish him with confinement when he misses (he
knows he's supposed to use them!), and try to encourage him to get in the
box when it looks like he's about to go.  He never goes anywhere but the
box when he's caged, but once out, the box doesn't exist.  This includes
the six I have scattered all over my apartment.  He even urinated on my
desk this weekend.  I know he's probably just trying to express his
disapproval with leaving him at someone else's house, but this has been a
problem since I've had him.
 
Aarrgh.
 
Chris and Scooter
Bellingham, WA
 
[Posted in FML issue 0847]