Smoky update: pica.

Months ago, in late October, we took Smoky to the vet. Twice. The first visit went well.

After the second visit, I wasn't happy with that vet, for she insisted he was "eating something from outside" and that Gatito be kept indoors.

What she didn't make clear is that "you can mix in his old food when he's better" was not really what she meant. Um, be clear. I'm not a vet, if you tell me it's okay, and then it's not--! Because on his second visit, the vet was upset that I'd fed him his old kibble.

Just like she said. So her premise was that I'd messed up his stomach bacteria. Even though she couldn't figure out what was giving him loose stools.



I know what it is. He's doing pica -- Smoky went from shredding paper and sometimes cardboard to also ingesting it. When she made us keep him inside exclusively for weeks, that got worse. Now sometimes he walks inside, and immediately starts eating his paper shreds.

And since he's a born feral cat, who chose to become an indoor-outdoor cat, keeping him inside was not right. He didn't understand; he got more into eating the indigestible; and so now poor Tiny Cat has permanently messed-up digestion.

She didn't understand either. A mostly tame feral cat must be all tame to her mind. And we told her that he was born feral.

I haven't taken him back to her. I don't know how -- or if -- there's a way to stop Smoky from eating paper, cardboard, and sometimes cloth. But I don't want to take him back to someone who wanted me to treat him like an indoor cat with outdoor privileges.

Not when he's an outdoor cat, not tame, born feral, who is partly an indoor cat. :(