Susan Jacobson

My cameraphone takes really crappy high-res images (this is AFTER much color correcting in PhotoShop), but I couldn't resist. We move on Friday morning. Lori is coming on Thursday evening to put EKoD, here being hugged by Elmo, into a crate. My worst fear is that I drop the crate while carrying it the two blocks to the Garden Court Plaza....

elmo_the_cat went to the vet on Friday to get his blood glucose checked and it was - 63! Normal blood glucose levels for kitties are between 70 and 140, so he was low. He had been a lot less energetic in the past few days, sleeping most of the time, so I figured that something was up. The vet decided to reduce his insulin dose from 3 units twice a day to one unit twice a day. We came home and I fed him some dry Purina DM (higher in carbs), and stayed in last night to keep an eye on him. I'm not ready for another dead cat!



Elmo has also gained 2 pounds since he moved in with me, but the vet says that his weight gain is a sign that his diabetes is getting under control. Diabetic cats whose diabetes is not controlled lose weight no matter what. Once their blood sugar starts to become regulated, they tend to put the weight back on. And believe me, Elmo has a very strictly controlled diet! Elmo now weighs about as much as scrunch_the_cat did when he died. But Elmo is a much bigger kitty. You can tell from the top photo that he is probably about three feet long when he stretches out - by contrast, Scrunch had a stubby little body with short legs. Elmo is not overweight in cat terms, because of his giant stature, but he has to watch it now. Personally, I think he is part Maine Coon. Not only is he a big cat, but he has really thick fur for a short-haired cat (a lot more than Scrunch had, and Scrunch had a good deal of fur), and he often chirps instead of meows - a Maine Coon trait.