Kitty Laryngitis

Since getting him in March, Tom has fit in nicely with the rest of our brood. He gets along well with Ninja (the black kitty) and somewhat tolerates the dogs. (Luckily, they don't pay much attention to him.) He is very affectionate, loves to be pet, and purrs constantly.

There is only one problem. He meows. ALL. THE. TIME.

He meows when he's hungry. He meows after he eats. He meows when he's inside. He meows when he's outside. He meows if you're petting him. He meows when you're not petting him.

You get the idea.

And the meowing goes on around the clock. We have to put him in a separate room at night and close the door, because even when we let him up on the bed he still meows all night long. And if we put him outside, he finds his way on to the roof and meows outside our window all night. Seriously. We are at our wits end.

And then yesterday a miracle happened.

Tom had sounded like he had a frog in his throat for the past couple of days. And then yesterday he greeted us at the door, opened his mouth and... nothing came out. Not a peep. Not a cough. Not a whisper. You can see he is not very happy about this:

We, on the other hand, are ecstatic. (No, we are not happy at the thought he might be sick, we are just happy for the silence.) Plus, he doesn't seem to be in any pain, as he still purrs constantly (when he's not trying to meow), and is still eating and drinking and just being Tom. He hasn't vomited or coughed or seemed like he's trying to expel something. We honestly think he has simply meowed himself dumb. This site and this one describe similar experiences.

We know this won't last, as I'm sure he'll get his "voice" back in a couple of days. (If not, it's another fun trip to the vet.) But for now, we are enjoying the beautiful sound of silence.

*Update*

Tom got his voice back yesterday. Unfortunately. He's been telling us all about his experience over and over and over...