My kitty Trixy had a vet visit yesterday due to some erratic behaviour he's been displaying. Trixy had been jumping on our beds and urinating on them instead of using his litter box like a nice kitty.  He first did it on my bed which I excused as I had just upset him a bit by putting some strong smelling natural oils on him intended to repel fleas. The second time he had been miaowing outside our bedroom door for a while as I did not feel like getting up that early in the morning (like 4:30 am). I finally got up at ~5am to get him some food and checked his water then his litter box just in case. When I returned to my room I decided to hang out a bit as I was now wide awake and noticed that he jumped on Rahi's bed and proceeded to scratch just below her feet over the blankets. I watched him with an awful feeling in my stomach squat and start to urinate on her bed. I was so astounded that I moved him a bit just to be sure I wasn't imagining what I was seeing then picked him up off the bed and placed him on the floor. As quietly as I could I chastised him "no Trixy, no thank you kitty" but the deed was done. I had to put all my daughter's bedding in the washer and she had to bunk in my bed for the rest of the evening.

The straw that broke the camel's back came when Trixy had the audacity to sneak into my house mate's room while she was in the bathroom and jump on her bed to leave her a sloppy wet present. Ohhh, she was furious (it was 6am) and stormed into the kitchen as I was preparing lunch for that day and stuffed the comforter into the washer.  The comforter was too big for the washer and the kitchen floor was quickly covered in water. It took 30 minutes to soak up all that water with bath towels by wringing them over the kitchen sink and getting down on our hands and knees to wipe. I was quiet the whole time. I could no longer make up excuses for Trixy. The line had been crossed and I was too embarrassed to even apologize for his behaviour.

What's absolutely funny about this whole situation is that my house mate and I had spent the night before practicing "loving-kindness" (meta) meditation. Somehow at 6am while cleaning a completely flooded kitchen seemed like the best time and place to experience the effects of our efforts. Instead, aversions were being fostered and deep sankaras were cutting into our lovingly cultivated equanimity. 

Later, when our "karma cleaning" (as my house mate put it) had been finished, she suggested that sometimes cats do this when they have an infection. When I arrived at work I was able to call Trixy's vet and made an appointment. The tech suggested that I also try pheromones at some point to see if his behaviour is curbed by "chemically" tricking him into believing he is "happy" and therefore not needing to share his discontent with the rest of us. 

Trixy's appointment was yesterday. When I took him in, his bladder was not full enough to produce a specimen so his vet asked me to leave him over night. I left the office feeling 15lb. and 8oz lighter but with a heavier weight on my shoulders. The vet had discovered Trixy was carrying around a few friends of the intestinal kind and this was due to his last flea infection I tried to get rid of by treating him naturally.  I felt absolutely awful, like I've been neglecting him somewhat. The vet was very gracious in reassuring me that the worst thing about tapeworms was that they were "just gross", however, I was disgusted! 

I called around 10:30 am this morning to find out how Trixy was faring. They asked me to call after 12 noon because they had finally been able to get a specimen but they had not yet sent it to the lab. 

Well, I just got off the phone from speaking with Trixy's vet. It appears Trixy was trying to tell me something. He does have a bacterial infection along with "crystals" that are produced through not having enough meat in his diet. Trixy's vet is surprised to hear the his current food is causing him this as this is not usually a problem with this brand. However, a diet change has been prescribed. I'm relieved in a way as I was really hoping this would not be behavioural.

Awwwwhhh. I get to pick him up after work and I will be relieved to have him back with me again!