Felines and Family Health

[kaffy_r]

Cats and Oxygen and Us
     The first doesn't have enough of the second, and the third has a whole lot more of it than expected.
     Which is to say that Our little ginger, Opie, has a head cold - the first cat of my acquaintance to be so afflicted.
     And afflicted is the word. When we realized late Sunday night that he was miserable, it was rather frightening. A mouth-breathing cat is a confused and unhappy animal, more apt to an unnervingly rapid heartbeat than is pleasant to see.
     A cat with a cold is also potentially in a hell of a lot of trouble, so off he went to the vet's this afternoon. He came back, courtesy of BB and FB, with a couple of appetite enhancement pills to be forced down his poor throat, and an intense desire to lay low. We'll coddle him as long as is needful.
     As to the rest of the household, we now have a large canister of liquid oxygen standing, frosty and intimidating - no, make that completely horrifying - far too close to the marriage bed.
    The LOX is there to fill up BB's brand new travellin' tank. A full six or seven hours of time for independent rambling. And a potential propellant for the inhabitants of CasaKaffyr to better the American moon landing record by one. (I eagerly await those of my friends who will hasten to assure me that LOX doesn't work that way. I know. Now hush;  the irrational power of my fearful imagination is of far greater magnitude, and a hell of a lot more twisted fun, than all your fannishly and/or scientifically fueled realities. Heh.)

Comments

[scottish-vixen.livejournal.com]

Poor cat. He must be absolutely miserable.

Does he have a box or anything of the sort that he hides or sleeps in? It may sound weird, but at the hospital when we have a cat with a really bad cold in, we tape a swap with the tiniest bit of Vicks or olbas oil on it to the roof of the kennel. I don't know what the equivalent stuff is in the US, but if you can find something of the sort it can ease their breathing a little. Just the littlest bit though - they have very sensitive noses.

[kaffy_r]

Oh, thank you - you're a dear, and we will check to see if we can adapt that idea to the enclosed spaces he frequents. He doesn't have a box, but there are some places (under the bed and in our closet,) where I may be able to put a Vicks-touched swap. Vicks always made me feel a bit better when I had a cold, and it might make Opie feel a bit better.

[dameruth.livejournal.com]

LOX -- just in time for summer barbecuing fun!


Sorry. Scientist.

[kaffy_r]

That? You know what that is? It's awe-inspiring, that is!

(In a freaky kind of exterminatory way ....)

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

Oh, you didn't know about the annual Purdue engineering alumni picnic?
That's a lot of engineers, which means a lot of hamburgers and hot dogs, which means lighting a lot of charcoal . . .
So when you get a whole lot of Real Guys together, it develops into a competition for getting the charcoal ready to use FASTEST. “Just something neat to do. It started with hair driers and vacuum cleaners (in blow), progressed to propane, acetylene torches, flight oxygen (gas), [that took 30 sec to light], and finally LOX for a 3 sec (or maybe even 2) ignition.”

[kaffy_r]

*iz pleased that Skience teechez us this stuf - w00t!1!!

[erikvolson.livejournal.com]

LOX doesn't work that way.

Mix LOX with Kerosene, however, and it does.

Bonus Fun Tip -- you can make ice cream with LOX, but you have to eat it quickly -- amazing how fast something oxidizes when you fill it with, err, oxygen.

[kaffy_r]

Wait, the ice cream ... rusts?

(And bonus points to you, my friend, for reaching for the Meta-trowel in your post. I treasure you for things like this.)

[maruad.livejournal.com]

A lox tank by the bed? Is that like professional football players having oxygen available along the sidelines so they can recover more quickly after a big play? Never mind... it would be too much information.

[kaffy_r]

And that, she said, is why I adore Canadians!