Mr. Quinn's Kitty Diagnosis

Well, you've heard a lot about our dog, but I'm not sure you've been introduced to my kitty. I say "my" because I had Mr. Quinn before we were married. Sure Jason loves him, but whenever he does anything bad he's "my" cat. And so for the purposes of this post he's "my" cat.

So as not to unduly prejudice you against Mr. Quinn, I am going to share some of his finer qualities with you before I move on to the actual story I wanted to tell you about him. He is an amazing animal...more like a dog or a human than a cat.

1.) He has no "off mechanism" when it comes to the eating. If he was given food 24 hours a day, he would sit there and eat until his stomach swelled and exploded into a meow mix mess all over the kitchen. As a result of this quality he used to weigh 18.7 pounds. Mmmm, that's not a typo 18.7 pounds.

2.) He had to go on a veterinarian mandated diet...only 1/4 cup of food a day. Now he weighs 14 pounds! Yeah buddy! As a result of the lack of food though he's developed some other behaviors.

3.) When we eat, he sits aproximately 2 inches from your plate and begs. If you give him ANYTHING, he will eat it. He has eaten beans, chips, corn and yes, even a jalepeno!

4.) Also, when he gets hungry, you'll know it. How? Because he will walk over to our (quivering) 65 lb. golden retreiver and hit him, yes strike the dog with his paw while hissing and making a weird gutteral meowing sound. He does this because it's the one thing he's found that will get us to pay attention and give in and feed him. (As a result, our golden retreiver never walks within a 10 foot radius of Mr. Quinn and NEVER makes eye contact with him.) And some other wonderful qualities...

5.) He gives kisses.

6.) He lets me clip his toe nails and hold him in my arms like a baby.

7.) When he hears someone in the driveway or at the door, he bristles his hair and runs to the door to protect me.

8.) He crawls under the covers with us and often wakes me up in the morning by grooming my hair.

Okay, so do you love him? Good. Then I can tell you this story and you won't hold it against him... The other day I made a trip down to our (partially finished) basement to do a little creative memories at my fold out table, when, all of a sudden my sniffer caught a wiffer of a foul odor. Musty basement, I thought at first, but no. I continued to follow the old nose and alas, it led me to the source....a virtual LAKE of cat pee on our futon. (Don't worry Jen, not yours, the other one.) This was not a one-time pee. This was Quinn's "I've found a new litter box that I'm going to pee in EVERY TIME I HAVE TO GO" pee. And by my aproximation it was at least several weeks worth.

Needless to say, the futon is at the dump now. Also, we took Mr. Quinn to the vet to see if he had a urinary tract infection. No. NO he did not. Our vet, Dr. Richie (who by the way is an AMAZING vet) did a thorough job asking lots of questions and finally pinpointed the problem. He tracked the beginning of the issue to about the time I started my new job. And the diagnosis? Mr. Quinn has Kitty Anxiety! Yes, that's right. The change in my schedule and me being gone so much more had thrown Mr. Quinn into the depths of anxiety. He loves me and doesn't know what to do without me! And why, you ask, does this explain the pee? Cat's like the smell of their own urine. It is comforting to them. Mr. Quinn is stressed and feeling upset and smelling his own pee makes him feel better. Yup. Awesome!