Most cats don't like change. What upset mine was moving, adding a dog, then a second dog (with high prey drive and having to put a baby gate up). Has the cat always been nervous? How many people live in the house? I'd try adding play times where the cat chases a string toy or feather on a wand. The fishing rod toys are nice. Some cats will even play fetch with wads of paper. Cats need to get the adrenaline out of their systems or they can be really wacko.

I think that your new resolve to let the pets sort things out is admirable, and a big, huge step in the right direction. If you can get your mom on board too, then you could both go off into another room to make coffee or fold laundry or occupy yourself in a similar way if a scuffle breaks out. (If there is a special show or movie on TV that you really want to see with no interruptions you might lock the cats out of the room while things are calm before the program begins so that no arguments occur between the pets while you are watching.) To the best of my memory none of my cats ever drew blood when smacking my puppies in the past. When I wrote in a previous post that they got their noses "shredded" regularly I was using imagery and exaggeration to make the point that these conflicts are normal and commonplace. One of my cats did claw the nose of a neighbor's German shepherd once who came up onto the front porch where my cat was sleeping and, judging from the yelps of the retreating dog, probably drew blood. Cats can distinguish between a strange dog who doesn't belong and a dog who is a member of the household, and the latter is treated with more tolerance and restraint even when the cat is meting out discipline to its doggie housemate. No dog or cat in my experience has ever had its eye clawed by a cat. All animals have a protective reflex to close their eye lids if an object approaches. The Siamese cat I had when I was a kid was quite a fighter and used to really get into it with strange cats in the neighborhood. I am talking actual real cat fights here, not a tussle between housemate kitties. He came home frequently with bite and claw wounds, some *near* his eyes, but his pretty blue eyes lasted him a lifetime unmarred. If one of your cats should inflict a wound on one of their housemates I'd recommend that you treat it with peroxide for a few days to prevent an infection, as you would with any puncture wound. But I really doubt that any of your pets will have skin broken on their noses, and having an eye clawed out is only slightly more likely than being hit with falling debris from a satellite. Unneutered dogs can be a bit more feisty, but since you plan on neutering Punkin this year anyways, it sounds like you have this covered. I've always fed my pets separately to avoid fights. I would keep on feeding your kitties separately from your dogs just as you are doing now. This is a good policy. Everyone deserves to be able to eat in peace. Food is a key thing that tends to provoke conflicts, and your pets are already in conflict over their own space and place in the household. Your pets need to sort out the issues of their place in the heirarchy, but there is no point in giving them something else to argue over. If prescribed medication helps you and your mom to overcome your anxieties then it is a good idea to take the medication according to the doctor's directions. If you have time amidst your school work to fit in a walk with your mom and the dogs everyday, I also think this would have immeasurable relaxing effects. Punkin might be aggravating the cat simply because he has excess energy to burn with no outlet for it. A tired dog is always a good dog. Anyways good luck with your college studies and try not to worry over the critters!

I don't use liquid antibiotics anymore because they taste vile and almost always elicit a major battle. Instead, I request tablets or capsules and use a piller to place it as far back in the mouth as possible. First, though, I offer the cat some canned food gruel or tuna juice or chicken broth or maybe even a tiny bit of milk - just a few laps to wet the cat's throat before I administer the med. That makes it MUCH easier for the cat to swallow the pill (just like a drink of water makes it easier for us to swallow pills). As soon as I've given the pill, I let the cat lap up some more of the desired liquid to wash down the pill. It also helps to coat the pill with a tiny bit of butter which not only masks and taste of the pill, but also helps it slide down the throat easier. Since you're also syringe feeding, you can simply load the med into the piller and have it handy to administer between syringes of food. The syringed food will wet the throat and wash down the pill. With a very skittish cat, your best bet is a firm towel wrap, then sitting on the floor with him between your knees. With one of my boys who required syringe feeding, I was able to keep him adequately controlled and prevent him from hooking me with his front claws by simply pinning a hand towel around his neck and letting it extend down his front like a long bib. Your boy may require a more encompassing wrap, though. You just need to experiment to see whether more or less restraint works best with him. With his extremely high WBC count, it is imperative that he gets the antibiotics every day as instructed, even if you have to take him back to the vet or hire one of the vet techs to come to your house to help you administer them. As far as the food in concerned, keep trying to tempt him to eat on his own. Eating the veterinary diet would be best, but it's more important that he eat something - anything. Try some baked chicken torn into small bits for him. Try small amounts of tuna. Or perhaps deli ham. When a cat is inappetant, he is easily overwhelmed and put off by large meals. Offer him only very small amounts at a time, but offer them every couple of hours. Warm his food to really bring out the aroma. If all else fails, make yourself some Tuna Helper or a nice salmon filet and sit down next to him to eat it. Even when my CRF boy, Billy, won't eat anything else, he'll sometimes try to "steal" something tasty off of my plate while I'm eating. And of course, under the circumstances, I let him. Once you get his infection under control with the antibiotics, I expect his appetite will return. You just have to do whatever it takes to get food into him until he's feeling well enough to eat on his own again. You can figure out a way to handle this. I know you can! Laurie

My two year old baby has started peeing occasionally in my bathroom sink and on the rug in the kitchen (it has a rubber backing). I took her to the vet and she had a slightly elevated ph in her urine. I was told to try CD. Which I switched over to, but that hasn't helped. She refuses the canned CD. Previously she was eating Evo, which I thought was one of the best cat foods. I've had her since 3 weeks and bottle fed her. We also have her littermate and two older cats. None have ever had a problem before, and we have three very large boxes, which I religiously scoop out daily. I really feel that it isn't physical. At first I thought she was peeing in the sink because she watches me on the toilet and put two and two together. She also twice peed on a pillow on our screened porch. It was a rubber backed non-scooting pillow. I think the rubber smell attracts her for some reason. I've been researching and am going to try 'Cat Attract' brand litter. There are a lot of positive reviews for it where it has cured litter box problems. I'll let you know how it works. Another thing, she does this right in front of me. When I tell her 'no', she speeds off, but seems to have no remorse. She will use the litter box when I'm cleaning it, too. No problems with me watching her. No problems with the other cats being in the box, either. She is very close to me and it sitting on the back of my chair right now. She sleeps on me and is the most affectionate of the four cats. All are spayed. This is a once in awhile issue.