Calici kitty

The cats had quite a scare on Saturday night.

Our neighbours son, who was thrown out a few months ago, snuck back into the house while his dad was away & threw a party. He then proceeded, without warning, to set off fireworks in the tiny courtyard right outside our back windows, apparently not caring about the danger or that almost everyone on our rather snug 12 house terrace has pets & many of them are outside cats :-( The neighbours on the other side of him had brought home a new kitten that afternoon, poor wee thing!

Our windows were open & our two kitties, who were dozing on the couch, got such a fright that they went into shock. I dashed for the feliway, a happy making pheromone diffuser & it got them out from under the couch.

But by last night Rufus was running a temperature & having trouble breathing. He has the calici virus, a strain of cat flu. He arrived with it when we adopted him, poor mite, but has only had it recur once, 3 years ago when our mighty queen Missy passed away.

It's triggered by stress, which can be quite easily mitigated if you have time to prepare him for change. But alas, the sounds of exploding fireworks a metre outside the window sent our little guy off kilter :-(

You can imagine how upset we are with junior ASBO thug :-(

As you can see though he was feeling much better today & enjoying the sunbeams. When the sun went down his nose closed up again & his breathing became laboured. He was less than impressed with being taken into the bathroom for an olbas steam, but it seems to have done the trick & fingers crossed he'll have a peaceful night.