Word of the day for Tuesday, December 2nd

Who doesn’t love a well thought out collective noun for a group of animals? An unkindness of ravens, a business of ferrets, a smack of jellyfish. At some point, someone said that geese are in a gaggle when they’re hanging around on the ground, but when they’re flying they’re a skein. Nobody objected, so that’s what they are.

Today I am going to present two words in honor of my 19 year old cat Joaquin. I know I’ve been dedicating a lot of posts to him lately, but he got very sick just before Thanksgiving and I want to make sure he’s recuperated fully and will cheer up some time soon.

A clowder of cats is a gang of cats. Of course, there is an alternate term that might be more appropriate for a group of elderly Joaquins:

Dude, stop glowering. I know I took photos of you in your diaper, but it’s not like I posted them on the internet.

Pants Cat

I took my cat Joaquin to the vet this morning because not only has he not been grooming, but lately he’s been rather dramatically incontinent. This is kind of a gross combination, even by Joaquin’s standards. He made it to the vet with no problems, but as soon as the animal tech picked him up to weigh him (a whopping 4 pounds, 11 ounces), he peed all over the place (Joaquin, not the tech). And then he started in with some loose Number Two. I was mortified but both the vet and the tech seemed pretty unfazed. The vet gave him a little medicine and shaved Joaquin’s bottom, and is doing some blood tests, but the preliminary diagnosis was “He is a thousand years old.”

So, now I have some diarrhea medicine for him, and I’m supposed to give him warm Gatorade from time to time. I wish I could just get him to re-toilet train, but I don’t think that’s going to work. The vet gave me a nice speech about the circle of life and such, and said that this behavior is normal for a cat this age, and that I’ve done a good job by him. I am looking into cat diapers, and I guess there’s not much I can do beyond that. Take it easy, Mr. J. I’m rooting for you.

Thanks for the cartoon, Tori.