She’s still taking prednisone, down to a half a pill twice a week. I did switch her to a different food, but that was over a month ago. It was getting tougher to find Iams Active Maturity in the stores so I moved her to Purina Sensitive Stomach. All was well for weeks. Then my mom gave us a tiny ceramic pot of cat grass. She ate some, threw up three times in one day. I got rid of the grass. She went another week puke free.

Then she threw up a hairball. Maybe spring is to blame? She’s shedding too much of her long hair?

And today… puke again. Three piles strewn from our landing to the top of the stairs. Ahh, this Purina Sensitive Stomach leaves a nice bright yellow color on the carpet. Thank goodness for Oxi-clean. But what the heck is going on?

I think I’m going to up the frequency of her meds. Poor kitty.

She has done it two weekends in a row, now. And I believe she’s done it for years before that — I just haven’t paid as much attention to know if it’s truly a pattern.

The last two weeks – we left town both times to ski with friends. Last weekend, she puked on the stairs minutes after we got home. This weekend, she puked at the entrance to our bedroom some time before our return.

The vet thinks it’s stress…exacerbating her “irritable bowels.” I can buy that.

We’ll be home for a good stretch now. No trips planned. Let’s test the theory.

This time, it was undigested cat food. Why does she do this? I’m still giving her prednisone, but way less than before (.5mL every 3 days) and she’s even eating a prescription cat food.

So it’s not a hairball. It’s not her food (at least I wouldn’t think so). And her irritable bowel syndrome (as the vet is guessing) should be controlled with medication.

What does it mean when she throws up undigested food?

In other words, I woke up to the sound of my cat puking.

This time she was near the bedroom door. At least she emptied her stomach somewhere off of my bed. But she was on the carpet. Even though I did try the mad dash through the dark to move her to the easy-to clean bathroom, she got away from me. She finished the job at the top of our stairs. sigh…

Once again, I put off cleaning to allow myself to sleep through the night. I’ll take care of it once my oldest is off to school.

Well, I think my cat is trying to tell me that her stomach actually does feel better.

Here’s why:

#1 – she sat on our kitchen chairs the same way she used to when she was younger – laying on top of the upholstered back, with arms dangling straight down either side.

#2 – she actually played with something – I saw her swatting the dangling ties of an apron that was hanging on a hook

I know, this is normal cat activity. It’s really too small to notice. But she has not done this in years.

I hadn’t thought about that before. I mean… she is getting older, she is blind (that’s another story), and I do have two young boys whose activity around the house is much more obvious than hers.

But could she be trying to tell me something? Did her stomach really hurt before we started the prednisone and now she’s feeling better? I think she’s saying yes.. even if it does sound crazy.

It’s hard to explain what a relief this is. Not because I think my cat is in any sort of pain or discomfort when she’s decorating our carpet with cat puke (she behaves, eats, poops and sleeps exactly the same way whether she’s throwing up or not). But because it makes those oh-so-crazy moments that come at unpredictable times throughout each day just that much less crazy.

I’m a mom of two toddler boys and one puking cat.

There are moments in my day when I’m ready to pull my hair out. Typically, it’s when we’re embarrassingly late for some time-critical event, or trying to clean the house because company is on its way…now. Whatever the reason behind the chaos, my kids somehow seem to operate in the slowest of slow gears (or in reverse at SUPER high speed), making it even harder to accomplish what should have already been done.

And then, it happens.

I’ll sprint through the house – one sock on, one sock in hand - doing as many things as possible at once. And I see it… I see the pile.

Cat puke.. on the carpet… needing to be cleaned.

It doesn’t help that I have a very anal husband who likes things in “like-new” condition (most of the time, this is a HUGE perk). But it makes cleaning up the cat puke as quickly as possible that much more important.

So, the fact that she has stopped her frequent tummy dumpings for two and a half weeks — that’s huge!

I’m just wondering, is it the prednisone or not?

Maybe, just maybe, this drug is helping my cat. My fingers are crossed.

Running out back.

Rolling in the dirt.

Wanting to go out.

She was actually doing quite well. Hadn’t thrown up in over a week. Not even after our stressful ride in the car to the vet to see what could be wrong with her tummy.

I know cats throw up, some of them a lot. But my cat is a very fruitful puker. She’ll go on stints of 5 or 6 times a day. She’ll throw up every day for a week. But then she goes a month without anything…. hmmm.

Diet change, hairball treatment, nothing has seemed to help.

$180 of blood tests and urinalysis later – the vet says, “nothing is out of the norm, no signs of disease.”

“Possibly irritable bowel syndrome,” he says. “Maybe lymphoma of the intestines. We’ll need to do a biopsy to figure it out.”

Or… I could just clean the carpet again and enjoy the puke-free days between her binges.

So I called the vet to let him know, as instructed, about the surprise present under my Christmas tree. He’s now filling a bottle of Prednisone for us to try. Really? Is this really what she needs?

Here are her favorite locations:

• Right in the middle of our main family room.
• On the landing of our stairs.
• In our bedroom just in front of the bathroom door.
• Under our bed.

You have to give her credit for these choices. She couldn’t have picked a better way to make an impact.

For starters, right in the middle of the family room. Where else would we – and our guests – be more reminded of her influence on the household? We have white burber. The burber has flecks of brown and rust, so it actually hides stains pretty well. But it doesn’t hide that faint hue left from what we assume is bile that has dried when she pukes when we’re not home. We usually catch these gifts days or weeks after the fact.

The next two are really smart – the stair landing and our bedroom floor. Both are locations where we step without looking. Whether racing around the corner of the stairs or walking half-asleep through the dark bedroom, I can’t count the times my toes have squished into an unexpected, pile of goo. Yuck.

And under the bed… this has to be her best choice of all. We have a king size bed that is impossible to move. Even rotating the memory foam mattress once a month is a chore that leaves me sweating and stopping for breaks. So when she leaves a present under the middle of that bed, there’s absolutely no way we can reach it unless we disassemble the furniture. I’ve resorted to vacuuming with our longest attachment and praying the colorful mosaic left behind won’t be that bad if we ever move.

Smart, smart kitty.