Meltdown was getting well enough to be tricked today so I made up five
identical bowls of treat (a soupy mush of Nutrical, Nutristat, Brewers
Yeast, Nusalt, Linatone, soggy Proplan, vitamin E oil, turkey, turkey skin,
turkey fat, ground up turkey cartilage, etc.) and gave three to 'Choppie,
Spot, and Meeteetse in the downstairs cage while I made Meltdown and Warp
look on.  Then into Meltdown's cage I put two matching bowls in matching
spill-over dishes, and Meltdown and Warp.  Now she had competition, even
though it was from her favorite individual in the world.  All I had to do
was get her started and she ate a reasonable amount on her own.
 
A few hours later she ate from the bowl without prompting.  Then about
fifteen minutes ago when she did so and we cheered and clapped for her she
acted like she was going to wow us, and staring right at us she marched
(okay, shifted her front feet over to the side twice) to the hard crunchies
and took one and tried to eat it!  She wasn't very incredibly successful,
but she probably got two in.
 
She won't be out of the woods till around Monday probably but it's amazing
now to realize that she was flat out so recently.  As I mentioned to a
friend here she's a mustelid Katherine Hepburn -- tough and too involved in
life to be ready to go quietly.
 
BTW, she is still possessive of her carnations if Steve gets near them so he
just praises her for being The Amazing Psycho ferret.  Except for the middle
of the night and when the gardenias need some light her carnations are on
one side near her cage (on the desk) and her gardenias are on the other (on
the printer).
 
This little, old, gray girl is a real grand dame and she milks it for all
it's worth.  One of these days she won't be able to, but her heart sounded
surprisingly good when she was in the vets' the other day.  There was an
unpleasant sound to her lungs but not definitely one thing or another at
this point.  With the GI bleeding stopped again, and her stools starting to
firm up she looks to us like she's going to be around for a bit more.  Can't
say how long, but since she's already bullied Death into letting her have an
extra 2 months who knows what amount more she'll try to get?  (I want to be
like her when I'm that old -- except for eating pet foods.)
 
Sukie
[Posted in FML issue 1825]