(no subject)

[openscarf]

My ficus tree is shedding like a cat. He implies he’s been over-watered which I find slightly histrionic and dramatic. All winter I watered him half as often as during summer and fall- about every 2 weeks, and very slowly so there was very little runoff. However, he insists on yellowing and dropping those sickly looking leaves. So there will be no more water for him. I’ve misted him a few times this week to simulate some humidity, because I read that’s what he likes. However, he continues to spurn me. I can’t tell if death is near yet or if this is just the terrible threes. He’s about 3 ½ years old and two feet tall and wide, although his width is dwindling. I can barely look at him, I feel betrayed.

Persia, my 7 year-old Siamese loves eating foreign objects. She’s dog-like in this way. When she was about two, she ate chunks of a bathing suit she pulled off a shelf. The vet cut her open to make sure it wasn’t twisting around her intestines. She said she had never done this to a cat, only dogs.

Persia loves to chomp on plants, so all my plants have to be set high and away. It limits how many I can have which is a drag. I would love to have trees and plants all over my little place. It also presents a problem as they get bigger and I have to tend them. The ficus sits on a couple of trunks. Persia adores the fallen yellowed ficus leaves. We hear them drop and I race her to get them first.

It’s spring, so she’s shedding a furry storm herself. She coughed up a hairball the other day, with an intact mottled ficus leaf around it, like a burrito.

 Despite this, she’s the neat and tidy cat. Her little butt is always pink and clean, her face is always washed. She eats her food, very delicately and slowly.

 Tasha, the six year-old Siamese is messier; she doesn’t mind dirt at all. Her eyes leave little tear tracks on her face that she doesn’t wash off and her butt can’t compare to Persia’s. She gobbles her food as if she has an eating disorder; in about a third of the time it takes her sister. I have to watch them so she doesn’t eat all of Persia’s food.

I did a big load of laundry today that included the sheet I cover the sofa with, and all the towels and coverings I use for their window table and baskets. I vacuumed the floor and the seat cushions. Persia loves the fresh hair-free stuff. She goes around and sniffs at each piece. Tasha couldn’t care less. Tasha likes to be burrowed in. She spends most of her days under the bedcovers. When she comes out later today, she won’t show any noticeable appreciation I cleaned house today.

Comments

[sharpchick.livejournal.com]

Did you move Mr. Ficus? They will shed leaves when they are moved - even six inches or so to vacuum or dust around them.

I have the only cat ever diagnosed by my vet with pica. His deal is string.

[openscarf.livejournal.com]

I didn't move him that's what's perplexing. I'm thinking it's may be the unpredictable spring weather, warm one day, cold the next...He survived a crash and fall this past December, I beleive I wrote about it, didn't drop one leaf. I'll be sad if this is the slow demise. It's very sad. :-(

[dadadadio.livejournal.com]

Ficus trees are very common down here in the Sonoran desert. I have none but there are at least a dozen within sight of my backyard. They don't need much water and are very temperature sensitive. Every few years we'll have a cold week and the ficus will take a beating.

Mikey occasionally chews things we leave laying around the house when we leave him alone for several hours. I think he's rebelling, sendimg a message. Last night he chewed on toilet tissue, a fav of his. He likes paper products.

Next time he poops he'll be wiping at the same time.

[openscarf.livejournal.com]

that's a lot of fiber!

Diagnosis and Plan

[openscarf.livejournal.com]

There is a lot of info on the web about shedding Ficus'. The water seems to be shooting straight through the pot and the plant can't absorb it because salts have built up. I think he doesn't know if he's drowning or in drought. There are horrendous remedies for this. They talk about being root bound to, which I didn't think was happening, but there is a long thin ponytail of roots coming out the drainage hole.

SO, tomorrow I'm going to buy a bigger pot, dirt and fertilizer (I haven't been feeding him for a while) and repot him. Since he sits on two trunks, I will be observing all the bend knees while lifting rules.

I can't imagine how many leaves will fall off during this, but I will report it. ;-)