Bruno (morning writing, cats)

[elainegrey]

We are welcoming Bruno, a young charcoal grey cat, in our home. He was a kitten rescued during Helene last year, and we are his third placement. It seems that children and a tumultuous household may stress him, and he has some sort of GI/urinary tract issue.

Christine had reached out to Cat Tales Cat Cafe (cattalescatcafe.com) on Thursday -- i think because her sister is likely to adopt from there -- to discuss our outdoor space as they only adopt for indoor cats. I overheard her chatting, explaining our past, acknowledging their boundaries, and concluding that they could keep us in mind if there were any cats who came through them who would be exceptions.

Thursday night she received an email:

 Thank you for your application for a cat in our rescue.... And we usually require that the cats adopted through our rescue are indoor only cats with a few exceptions. And I wanted to discuss one of those exceptions. Let me tell you a little about Bruno.

Bruno was found during the heavy rainstorms we got in our area from hurricane Helene last year. He was found with 3 siblings, all of whom have been adopted. Bruno was adopted as well but he was returned to us when he had inappropriate urinary issues when he never had those issues before. Bruno was a fairly shy guy and had been adopted into a very busy household with a bunch of kids. We believe it was just too much for him and the inappropriate peeing is stress related in addition to crystals being present in his urine. We had another person adopt Bruno and they were aware of his issues and told us they wanted to work on it with him. They also have young kids and they told us that Bruno only peed inappropriately when the children were around. So we feel strongly that Bruno could be a good indoor/outdoor cat in a low stress household without children. He loves people and other cats but has never been around a dog so that's an unknown factor. ....

 I personally fostered Bruno for a couple of months before he went to the second adopter and he never had a peeing incident unless a young person or a stranger was around. Would you be willing to give this very handsome, sweet and affectionate guy a try? He needs a special place that's not easy to find. He really is a gem and deserves to have a happy home.

Bruno was returned to the fosterer on Thursday evening. By end of work Friday we had chatted with my sister (who has a cat with crystal and kidney issues) to see what her experience was, and made plans to check him out. We brought him home last night. It's been OK so far, although i probably rushed taking him from the bathroom to the front room where there is a bed he can disappear under. He did get up to see me, but when i pulled a kleneex out to address a dingleberry he disappeared again.

He has a higher pitched meow. He was apparently named according to a pixar theme, and Bruno of Encanto is his eponym. (Haven't seen the movie; listened to the song, and read about the character last night.)

I hope he foresees peace and quiet with us.

Meanwhile, Christine is in a migraine cluster. My labile moods remain.

Comments

[tamena]

*squeee!!!*
we adopted a "Bruno" many years ago, his name was SoCo. He was blue and white blob who'd been in a shelter for 4 years and also had issues. For 2 weeks he never came out from under Kalen's bed. We realized he'd never been in a house, never been on carpet and never had seen a bed before
He was an awesome beast and did very well with us
I wish you the same with Bruno! And we need pictures please

[elainegrey]

Pictures in a new post.

By the way, did the stuff you get for the gnats work? What was it? I am about to go nuts.

[tamena]

yay pictures!!!

Gnats - it was a multi level assault
Stem Gnat killer - I pulled EVERYTHING off the sink and counter area, scrubbed it all and sprayed the Stem, let it sit for a couple of hours and then cleaned it with hot water first, then kitchen cleaner (I think I used the Meyer's Clean Day spray)
we hung fly strips above the sink and changed them out almost daily *gag*
I also got "gnat traps' from Dollar General - they're in the $1 aisle and it's a small plastic jar that I'm pretty sure is just apple cider vinegar but it helps a lot - get a bunch, you'll be replacing them every couple of days

and last buy not least Drano Max - I let it sit for an hour instead of the usual 30 minutes and used super hot water from another sink to rinse it down.
The gnats are tolerable now, we still have the dollar general jars on the sink and a fly strip up
Good Luck!!

[elainegrey]

Sigh, yeah, that sounds about right. I've used the little plastic gnat traps before; i bought little bottle top inserts that you can use with vinegar or whatever to make traps out of existing bottles. The gnat/fly trap above the kitchen sink isn't enough.

[tamena]

you need a multi level attack! It was the only thing that worked here

[sonia]

Welcome Bruno! Wishing you peace and happiness together!

[elainegrey]

Here's hoping we can give him the calm he needs to be at ease.

[annie_r]

He sounds very sweet. My own cats eat rx urinary kibble (Royal Canin) since Dutch once had an issue with crystals, and it's just easier to feed them both the same food (they get canned also.) He's never had an issue since then.
I hope I get to meet him when he settles in (and will tolerate a stranger without peeing.)

Can you not put enough bedding in the bathroom? I kept Finn separate for at least a week or two, but by then Dutch was playing footsie with him under the door. I did have to keep going in and playing with him, and he was/is a social eater, which I only realized when he ate as soon as I came in.

Has Marlowe been sniffing yet?

[elainegrey]

I'd brought him into the front room to more comfortably sit with him, but we did have everything set up in the bathroom. Introductions have gone well but not ready to not be supervising.

[elainegrey]

He's also on a special gastrointeric diet that does not seem to match his issue. So vet visit today to sort it. The rescue seems good and he's all vetted in theory, but our vet we trust. My sister also has a cat that has had crystals, and i think she has the same food as you for her boy -- we talked to her before taking on Bruno.

[allezhop]

We don't talk about Bruno! (Encanto is very good, seriously.)

Congrats on your new furball! I hope it all goes well.

[elainegrey]

Well we rage-quit Disney recently but when we inevitably go back for the inevitable next Star Wars series i'll give it a watch.

[ofearthandstars]

Welcome to Bruno! I hope you all acclimate to one another easily. ♥

Also seconding that Encanto is a wonderful movie, and Bruno is a great character. :)

[elainegrey]

Well we rage-quit Disney recently but when we inevitably go back for the inevitable next Star Wars series i'll give it a watch.

[weofodthignen]

Oh I do hope Bruno settles in well :-) Poor thing, scared by the sound of a tissue being pulled from the box.

[elainegrey]

I don't know if it was the sound or, as i thought about it, could some child have tried dressing him up? He's definitely going to be skittish for a while. Today he is off to the vet, so more disruption.

[egret]

Wishing Bruno and the entire household comfort, calm, and peace.

[elainegrey]

Thank you. Probably lots of laundry for a while but i hope things settle.

[lookfar2]

It's sounding good for Bruno! Does he need special food for his bladder?

[elainegrey]

Well, we assume he will urinary tract food but he currently is on a gastrointeric diet. To which my sister (who has a cat with a similar issue), Christine, and i all tilt our head and ponder that that is not this. Vet visit today to sort out that.