• Home
  • About Feline Health
  • About the Lintee Bean
  • About the Chi Town Fur Gang
  • About those Loved and Lost

Life of the Lintee Bean

Tales of a flexitarian (semi-vegetarian)-eating animal-loving small-town girl turned big city big-mouth

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« Lintee bean goes to the laundromat
Little old neighbor man »

Omaha

July 12, 2007 by Lynette

Omaha goes by many names: Omie, Omie da Great, Omie da Terrible, Omie overalls, Ohama bin Peein, even Bubba.

I thought Omaha was adorable, although a bit intimidating at over 20 pounds, from the minute I met him when I began volunteering at Tree House Animal Foundation in June 2002. Because of my initial fear, I began brushing him with the “magic pink brush” rather than petting. Turned out he liked being brushed – on the head only. He’d clean his front feet while I brushed his head. Gradually, I worked up to brushing his body. He began looking forward to our “beauty appointments”. I started trying to sneak some pets into our brushing sessions. Then, I began sitting on the floor and sometimes he’d crawl into my lap, nuzzle his head in, and purr. (Too precious!)

At the end of 2002, I began noticing his fur falling out in big clumps and scabs on his skin. I felt so bad for him! Asked the clinic supervisor, and she said he got these “hot spots” on occasion. Oatmeal shampoo baths helped, but it was hard for clinic personnel to find the time to bathe him every week. Meanwhile, Omaha’s best friend, Michelle, left Tree House. I don’t know if it was because he wasn’t feeling well, or he missed Michelle, but I noticed a change in his behavior. It seemed like he’d either just be lying there, seemingly not interested in anything… or would follow me from room to room and not want to leave my side.

I decided to take him home as my birthday present in February 2003. He was 13 years old. It took him about an hour to get over his “what is this?” frights… after being at the shelter 9 years, he wasn’t sure what to think of this! But he quickly got over it, and purred up a storm in his new bed. He was inseparable from me at first, and would follow me from room to room and cry for me. He’s still my best buddy, and always is waiting at the door when I come home, and follows me around- although not all the time now.

He scared the heck out of everyone at the vet’s office, and most guests in my home… but he was a big teddy bear for me. He’d lost a little weight, and was doing pretty well. In June 2004, his arthritis was getting worse, and he was beginning to have trouble supporting his weight with his back legs. Thankfully, someone referred me to Dr. Swanson, a holisitic vet and acupuncturist. After only two treatments, Omaha was *running*! After more, he was “bounding” up the stairs on occasion, chasing the other cats again, and twice I’ve even caught him standing on his back legs (with his front paws on a window or a bench)!

In 2005, I learned the benefits of a grain-free diet and got Omaha off the Lite dry food completely and onto a grain-free wet food (canned and homemade). The weight started to come off more rapidly than I could ever have imagined! Better yet, instead of only 1/8 cup of dry food twice a day, and being constantly hungry, Omaha could eat all the wet food he wanted. By October 2005 he was down to 14.5 pounds, by June 2007 he was under 12 pounds! You can learn more at CatInfo.org. Recent studies all show that a low-carbohydrate diet more effectively treats both obesity and diabetes.

Omie is very territorial, and unfortunately for me that meant he feels he needs to mark his house – and ME – with urine to let everyone know we are his. After complaining to a good friend that I was losing sleep as Omaha bin Peein would sometimes urinate on me while I slept (meaning I had to wake, change bedding, change pajamas, etc.), the friend suggested I get him some “stud britches”. I tried a few different brands and finally found Joybies overalls. They work great, and Omie doesn’t seem to mind wearing them in the least.

In 2007, he was diagnosed as hyper-thyroid and was treated by radioactive iodine treatment. It was a long week for me, as I waited for him to finish his quarantine – I lost a lot of sleep. Another good friend suggested I send a small box with Omie, for him to hide in while caged, and that worked well. The veterinary assistant even reported he would let her pet him for a minute on the head.

Omaha’s very intelligent and knows a lot of words. He plays games with me (like “get the mail” and “attack of the great white tiger”), and is a real joy in my life. He hates the song Space Cowboy by ‘N Sync and will scream “NOOOO!” if I play it and put his paw over my mouth if I sing it to him.

Unfortunately, I lost Omaha on October 14, 2008 to something neurological.

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Print
  • More
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posted in Chi-Town Fur Gang | Tagged cat food, obesity, Omaha | 2 Comments

2 Responses

  1. on June 4, 2008 at 8:41 pm Broken Engagement « Crazy cat lady blogging

    […] It was met with absolute silence. I explained how I was your basic crazy cat lady, as was probably obvious by the cat fur on my clothing – even days after I’d left town for the conference. I tried to make a joke about my “reputation” even among other crazy cat ladies, as the crazy cat lady with a cat that wore pants. […]


  2. on April 4, 2014 at 11:16 am My imaginary dog becomes not-so-imaginary | Life of the Lintee Bean

    […] with my one-night-stand with Sandy the dog. Or perhaps it was all the fun I had playing games with Omaha who, while a cat, some people described as “dog like”. I’m not sure, but I […]



Comments are closed.

  • Categories

    • Canine nutrition and health
    • Canine training
    • Chi-Town Fur Gang
    • Feline nutrition and health
    • Human nutrition and health
    • Knot misbehaving
    • Life of the Lintee Bean
    • Noms
    • Uncategorized
  • Pages

    • About Feline Health
    • About the Lintee Bean
    • About the Chi Town Fur Gang
    • About those Loved and Lost
  • Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 492 other subscribers
  • Blogroll

    • WordPress.com
    • WordPress.org
  • Feline Health and Nutrition

    • Cat Nutrition
    • Cat Nutrition Blog
    • Diabetic Cat Care
    • Feeding Your Cat
    • Feline Diabetes
    • Feline Nutrition Education Society (FNES)
    • Feline Outreach
    • Parenting Fur Kids
    • Your Diabetic Cat
  • Lintee Bean Websites

    • Crazy cat lady blogging
    • Mousabilities
  • Archives

  • Recent Posts

    • Miss Minnie Mooch
    • Gnome-loving neighbors
    • The “I” in bigotry
    • Big Changes, They are Coming
    • All washed up
  • Top Posts

    • Miss Minnie Mooch
    • Gnome-loving neighbors
    • The "I" in bigotry
    • Big Changes, They are Coming
    • All washed up
  • Blog Stats

    • 176,325 pawprints (hits)
  • Meta

    • Register
    • Log in
    • Entries feed
    • Comments feed
    • WordPress.com
  • AAFCO Afer amino acids arthritis asthma cancer canned food cat cat food cat nutrition cats Chicago CRF crochet diabetes diarrhea diet Dixie dog dry food DSL duel exercise FaceBook FDA feeding cats feline nutrition fiber fitness Fitocracy FIV food food safety grief gym hockey homemade cat food hyperthyroidism IBD Internet Jellybean jewelry Kitty.com knit Latifah loss Louie making cat food movies MySpace NutriSystem nutrition obesity Omaha pancreatitis personal trainer pet food pilling productive push-ups Ralph raw food Rumpelmintz scarf spay and neuter stomatitis Studley Tigger trainer training travel vegetarian weight weight loss yarn
  • July 2007
    S M T W T F S
    1234567
    891011121314
    15161718192021
    22232425262728
    293031  
    « Jun   Aug »
  • Twitter Updates

    Error: Twitter did not respond. Please wait a few minutes and refresh this page.

Blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


  • Follow Following
    • Life of the Lintee Bean
    • Join 49 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Life of the Lintee Bean
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
%d bloggers like this: