Anyway, back to West, which is why you're here, right? As I said, he's quite fine. A bit neglected, training-wise. I am house sitting at the moment, so not home with him. Before I left, we tried to introduce him to Chris. I was fairly certain it was way too soon, but it would have been really nice if Chris was able to let him out, etc, while I'm away, so it was worth a shot.
His first meeting was going really well, but due to a few factors, it ended with a reaction and though he was able to investigate a bit, he ended up MORE afraid of him the next day. Sigh.
So day 2, we did BAT-style introductions. For more on this, see Grisha's site. I kind of winged-it on the fly, but we made some serious progress, and no explosions. But, it was the day before I had to leave, so no time really to do more.
On a hunch, I gave Chris an idea. I suggested he take his laptop out to the motorhome and just lie on the bed, with West's crate open, and see what happened. Well.. Here ya go:
He's certainly not comfortable, but he DID it. He got some delicious treats and kept his cool. This will be repeated several times over the week I'm somewhat-away, and hopefully by then, West can add Chris to "people who don't eat my brains" :)
With the kitty... try some of the following ideas:
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*Try warming up the canned food you are feeding a little bit. Or adding hot water to it to make a thinner version of food.
*See if she'll take a little bit of canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling).
*Try human baby food (no onions though). You may need to try more than one flavor, and meat ones are the best (obviously).
*Maybe adding some albacore tuna juice to the food will help make it smell more, which helps cats want to eat.
*There's a product called Kitty Kaviar that's supposed to be irresistible to cats, even when they are ill. I've never tried it, but lots of people swear by it.
*Try boiling some plain chicken (no skin), and see if she wants that.
*Sometimes exposing kitty to catnip will make her hungry. It's worth a shot.
*Give her some Nutrical or similar supplements to help her out.
*Pick up a couple cans of Hills A/D from a vet and try those out. I'm not a huge fan of Hills at all, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
Best of luck with her. Having sick pets is not fun at all!
We had good luck with force-feeding meat baby foods. If you thin it a bit with water or broth you can syringe it into them. It's got a very smooth texture, much easier to syringe than canned food which tends to get stuck. Good luck with your kitty; it can be a long tough road.
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