no more pills for the reticent cat

the reticent patient

Some time ago, Ethan's cat, Red was diagnosed with arthritis. At first, it was very mild -- hardly noticeable (by us at least). But it has gotten worse. We often see it when he walks. Even more so when he climbs stairs. Sometimes he looks more like he's hopping, rabbit-like, to avoid pain.

Our vet recommended something called Cosequin. I don't know if that's a generic name or a brand name, but it's a "joint health supplement" for cats. It contains glucosamine, chondroitin and manganese. So, every morning, Blair would give Red one of these pills. Suffice to say he didn't like them. Fortuntaely, he's a red male Maine Coon. And he's 11 years old. So, while he would struggle and resist the pill, he never bit or scratched. We'd been seeing some progress. He seemed to be more comfortable on the stairs. But, who knows -- maybe we were imagining it.

But we stopped this week.

We'd been starting to wonder if the benefits of the pill (which we couldn't be sure were real) were outweighed by the stress that they were clearly causing. Until we started this regimen, Red was always friendly in the morning. He was always on someone's bed, and was happy to be held and pet when people started getting up. But after we started giving him pills, he started spending his nights downstairs. I'd go down in the morning and find him on the sofa, eyeing me suspiciously. And if I went to pick him up, he'd try to get away. Now, it's easy to say that he doesn't know what's good for him and we should just force him -- having less pain will improve his quality of life. While that last point is true, constant stress is bad for his quality of life. And he was clearly stressed out. And, of course, we don't relish the idea of repeatedly dealing with cat pee in the bed.

So, for now, Red doesn't get pills. And we've embarked on the slow process of getting him to accept that.

Now, I see on Amazon that there's a chewable version of the pills. Maybe they're formulated to taste good. I think we'll try those and see what happens.

it's zmedsday!! (xviii)

it's tunesday! "venus" by nervus rex

Nervus Rex was an underrated New York new wave band that should have more success than they did. I originally heard this album after buying a used copy on vinyl at St. Marks Sounds. For twenty-five cents. That was great purchase.

Now, one of the thing that I love is when two things that seem unrelated turn out to be related afterall. Another band I got interested in during college was a folk rock trio called The Washington Squares. I always thought of them as an updated and modernized version of Peter Paul and Mary. I bet they'd have bristled at hearing that, but whatever. Anyway, one day I was going through records and noticed that the purple-clad guitarist on the cover of the album looked a lot like the female third of the Washington Squares. And, yup, same person-- Lauren Agnelli. She's had quite a varied career, and should be better known than she is.

cinema history class: the legend of hell house

Session: Get Your Haunted House On, Week 2
Movie: The Legend of Hell House (1973)
Directed by John Hough

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL

Plot:
A physicist, his wife and two mediums enter the notoriously haunted Belasco House in hopes of understanding and ending the haunting. Hilarity ensues.

Reaction:
The Legend of Hell House is very similar, conceptually, to The Haunting, which we saw a week earlier, so it's only natural to compare the two. And, while Legend is a very good movie, it suffers by comparison.

This movie lacked the subtlety of last week's. A good example is the scene where the ghost has his temper tantrum (which, by the way, appears in the trailer) is exciting and drives the story along. But it doesn't get under your skin the way the implicit menace of the earlier movie does. I also found that I kind of appreciated the whole house-as-spirit thing more than the more-mundane house-haunted-by-a-person's spirit, which was at the heart of Legend.

One peculiar thing about this movie is that there are these title cards fixing the date and time of events. They start on December 20, and work their way up to December 24. SO the whole time I was thinking (and Joe was as well) that this would somehow reach its climax on Christmas. I distinctly recall thinking "Ooh! Christmas movie!" when that first title card appeared. And as Christmas edged closer, my anticipation grew. But nothing ever happened with it, which was distinctly odd. Now, it's possible that it could have been any period. The story could have started on October 20 and ended on October 24, and I wouldn't be giving it another thought. But the choice of December 20-24 seems too deliberate. It's possible that it was just a tease -- but I don't think so. Keith suggested that it may be something that was in the book (Hill House by Richard Matheson) that never quite made it into the movie. If so, that's just sloppy work. Having said all that, I have to admit that it didn;t bother me all that much. I think it annoyed Joe more than me. But that's his issue.

Overall, a very good movie. And I might have rated it higher if we weren't fresh off of seeing a similar-but-better film.

Oh, and not that it's crucial, but I realized that I'm the only one in the class who doesn't have an "E" in his name. Makes me wish Scott were still in the class.

Ratings:

Me: 8

Dave: 9.8

Ethan: 10

Joe: 9.8
Sean: 3 out of 4

it's zmedsday!! (xvii)