Slobber Cat

I think I mentioned that I had a recent life experience with gravity and stairs that resulted in my right wrist being fractured (turn on audience sympathy tape and turn up the aw’s).  It’s made fulfilling my personal pledge to post every day for at least a year, more difficult.

  As I work the keyboard with rapid fire letter choices on the left side, the counter-point right renders some staggering errors of t’s instead of y’s and inverted vowels.  But that’s not the topic of today’s observation.  It’s just the preamble.  For in this very situation is where my cat Obediah chooses to sit in my lap. 

   Long before the wedding to my Badalona Princess, and prior to our purchasing another cat, followed by a dog, Obediah was the lone pet.  In short, he got all the attention.  As of late, his portion of human attention has been fractionalized and from time to time, I feel guilt.  Like, right now.  So instead of shooing him away, I welcome his presence.  He purrs loudly and the bond between pet and owner is reforged; until the drooling.  I mean, really slobbering,  but I am reluctant to use that word because I usually think of Hound Dogs, Boxers, Basset Hounds and a few Pit Bulls’ when I say that word; all dogs.  So what’s with the water works?  I don’t recall him doing that when it was just us.  So, I asked the vet the next time I took him in.

    Now a caveat to this tale is that over the years we’ve had to have teeth removed due to infections, so a part of me was feeling as if I had tipped the scales and now the poor critter just could no longer keep the saliva back because the gate of dental work was absent.  My vet mentioned the HISS test they use when considering cat’s and drooling. (H) stood for health, and as I mentioned Obediah experiences periodontal disease and so that was the vets guess. Yet, the vet also pointed out that drooling happens most times at meal times, so I wasn’t out of the woods yet. (I)  stood for instinct, and drooling isn’t a particularly instinctive behavior in cats, but that the sight or smell of certain foods can prompt salivation, just as a tempting meal might make my mouth water. This wasn’t about food, that much I was sure, but as I say, this was how Vets narrow the possibilities down. The first (S) stands for stress, and when a cat gets stressed, like say excessive grooming,  it may be a way of calming itself; although there is not always a direct link between drooling and stress, so that falls into the ‘what-ever-you-tell-yourself’ department.  The second (S) is symptom solver; which means, in effect, not all cats are wired the same.  Just as some impulses to knead can be lead back to nursing, and where eating can trigger salivation, then too human affection can be equated in a feline head as any of the above, even the love-hate of petting a cat only to have your hand attacked between purrs falls into this category:  unique to house cats.

   I didn’t get a conclusive answer as to why Obediah drooled,  but it did get me to wonder if there were a niche market for kitty bibs out there?  Today we’re prone to pamper our pets with indulgences as booties, rain coats and even pet diapers.  

   So maybe a kitty bib he can wear around the house might generate enough cash to keep him in litter for life?  It doesn’t erode cat dignity I’d think. I mean,  It’s not like he gets to go outside anymore and be bullied by the other cats in the neighborhood at the school bus stop.  I don’t think I’d have to worry about his self esteem being horribly stomped on by ridicule for his behavior.  But you know, I could almost hear my dog snicker whenever he passes.  But maybe that’s just my imagination.