Not Such a Hot Idea

Look closely at the picture above. You will see three screens, one with the screen pulled out of the spline and two with holes clawed in them. That's right, clawed.

Bringing in a new litter box worked like a charm on the "inappropriate urination" problem; Patches has used her litter box consistently since I switched them out. Our next problem is that Patches wants to go outside so badly that she claws her way out the open window and/or opens a closed but not locked sliding window by brute strength. Yep, she can do that.

Spraying her with a squirt gun brings a look of disdain, tossing a bottle filled with pennies only works to scare her when we are around. I purchased a Feliway diffuser and that seems to have no effect, other than Patches is still using her litter box well. So the vet said we could try a tranquilizer (which she was going to give me once it was discovered that there was no medical reason for Patches to be urinating outside of her litter box). Off I went to the pharmacy, where I had the prescription filled to the tune of $18. Once home, I shoved 1/4 of a pill down her throat as prescribed and went off to paint at the house.

Coming back to the rig that afternoon I watched as Patches "tracked" a bug flying through the house, only there was no bug. So I pulled out the brochure on the prescription and this is what I found: Patches was prescribed 10mg tablets of buspirone, which is also used by humans. Side effects in humans can be blurred vision, dizziness, drowsiness, excitement, headache, lightheadedness, nervousness or nausea. There can be uncontrolled muscle movements, chest pain, fever, fainting, irregular heartbeat, loss of coordination, memory problems, personality changes such as anger, hostility, confusion, depression, seizures, suicidal thoughts, restlessness and vision changes. What the heck did I just do to my cat?

Needless to say, that was her first and last dose of medication. We'll find another way to deal with the screen scratching. I'm thinking perhaps a Halloween themed remote controlled noise-maker of some sort might do the trick but whatever we do, it won't involve drugs other than the Feliway. *Shudder*.