Junior missed the vet. Apparently. He’s been having a bit of trouble with sores on his feet. Nothing serious. The first one healed up. We also noticed he had a fat lip now and then, but again, nothing serious. It healed and it didn’t impede his eating. (Thank God that throughout all of his various ailments, the guy is a hoover when it comes to food!) Anyway, the one foot got infected last week; no biggee. We just gave him antibiotics and figured he’d be on his way. Of course, you, like us, must be wondering what all this could be.

Enter the ever helpful internet. We researched it way back when he had the first mouth sore–think fever blister. And sure enough, there is a cat version of fever blisters called rodent ulcers. I forget where the rodent name comes in–it’s a misnomer because it has nothing to do with rodents. Anyway, there isn’t a lot that is done for these things. But with this last one getting infected…and it was healing, but there was this one spot that we weren’t quite sure about.

Sigh. Or in his case, Howl. Whine. Even a hiss or two. But the vet confirmed it. Most likely it was rodent ulcers. He might grow out of them, he might get them on occasion. When they are on the pads of his feet (which apparently isn’t that common, but then, Junior excels in uncommon, at least where diseases are concerned.) we have to watch for infection. Which we were doing, but admittedly, this last episode took us too long to figure out. The vet gave Junior a steroid, which may or may not help them heal faster and may or may not keep him from getting more. Junior will continue to get more antibiotics to completely clear the infection.

If he’d stop chewing on it all the time…

Remember the cat door??? Junior LOVES it. So much so that he tends to be gone all day long, exploring here and…somewhere. We thought surely he was hanging out with Mom Scamp, but since he isn’t in the yard, guess who is? Yup. Scamp. She’s been stopping by, saying hello and wandering ever closer to our outstretched hands. She stays very carefully just out of reach, but we now see her quite often perched on one of our lawn chairs.

You know, this whole cat thing can make you a little nuts.