My cat, Helen
My cat Helen is very sweet, but like most tortoiseshells, she has a strong personality.
She would like to be the only cat.
She doesn’t like her “sisters.”
We live in a multi-cat household.
She purrs sitting next to me, but hisses at the cats.
Yet they are fascinated by her and she is their role model.
She is a survivalist who drinks water from the tap. She leads the other cats into the bathtub. It is necessary to wipe out the tub before we take a bath.
It is her bathtub, her couch, her books, her TV…
She also decides when it’s time to dine.
She stares and taps me with her paw. She rushes meowing into the kitchen. Then she decides who can dine with her.
One of our cats must dine in the living room, because she is not in Helen’s clique.
If Helen went to an addiction meeting (she loves humans too much), she would have to say she loves me too much.
Her favorite activity? Staring at me while I watch TV.
She is essentially a Kat-aholic.
If we take her to the vet, she doesn’t bond with anyone.
“She doesn’t show much interest in us,” they say when she has to be there overnight.
And now poor Helen has a thyroid problem. She has to take pills.
For a week I hid the pills in huge amounts of wet food.
Then she got smart. She knows the pills are there. Today I fed her three servings and she pushed the pill aside repeatedly.
She is very contented because she now eats several times a day alone. This is her dream. Today she tried three flavors of pâté. (And she still wouldn’t take the f—g pill.)
Both my husband and I tried tonight to give her the pill.
If she could write, her letter would say,
Dear Kat-Mom,
I won’t take my thyroid pills! You are completely crazy to think that you can hide a pill inside a cat snack and I won’t find it. I can see through tricks like that.
Luv ya, XXXXX, OOOO,
Helen
Anybody have any tips?
I take my pills, but she simply won’t take hers.
mirabile dictu 
I should take a picture of the current state of my right index knuckle and post it. Or maybe I shouldn’t.
My Claudius, also a faucet drinker, is currently undergoing chemo for lymphoma. I shall never retire because I’m adding a few months–at most, a year–to his ungrateful little life.
I bleed when I have to pill him.
I bleed.
That is all.
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Susan, when my cat had breast cancer I would have paid practically anything for one more year. It was quite a few years ago so no one mentioned chemo. Just surgery and we ended up feeling bad that we put her through that. It did nothing and the vet shouldn’t have pushed for it. I wish you the best of luck.
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Oh, Susan! Poor Claudius! Poor you!
This is such a challenge. I’ve looked at some videos of people giving pills, and the cats are so docile. Honestly, have they met Helen and Claudius? I need to HIRE a pill-giver.
Well, I got her to take one today. I really miss that liquid in the dropper! Hardly any of our cats have been prescribed pills.
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I had an ornery cat who wouldn’t take her pills and I resorted to radioactive iodine treatment. I’m not sure if this is available where you are. It’s a one-time treatment that requires the cat staying at a clinic for several days. It’s also pricey. But my cat ended up living for eight more years, pill-free, so I was glad I did it.
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Liz, thank you for the suggestion! The pills are the first step in her treatment, and then we have to decide what should be done next. I haven’t heard of the radioactive iodine treatment, but will look into it.
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Cynthia, so sorry to hear about your cat! I never thought o a cat’s getting breast cancer. But they do suffer so much with these diseases.
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