Saturday, February 06, 2010

Oxygen and Cats...

For a month, we've been trying to find the best way to deal with hubby's oxygen hoses. We have an Oxygen Concentrator to which he attaches long plastic tubing so that he can freely roam the house without having to carry an oxygen tank. First, he had a 50 foot hose which allowed him to travel to the lower level of our home if he wanted to watch sports on the large screen tv. Since we are supposed to change the tubing every 30 day, yesterday he removed the long tube and decided to replace it with a 25 foot which gets him all around the first floor.

The first thing he noticed were multiple small puncture holes along the tubing! A close inspection revealed the truth. Our cats had chewed the tubing. I do have to hide my purses from them. Especially, Templeton and Wilbur. They love to chew off the handles of my purse. So, they evidently transferred their love of chowing down to...my husband's oxygen tubes!

So, he decided to use a second 25 foot hose for the downstairs. He accomplished this by attaching it with wall hooks to keep it from dangling. If he decides to go downstairs, he removes the headpiece from the upstairs tube, attaches it to the tubing hidden along the stairway, and he avoides a long twisting, and very  enticing cat toy (er, tube).

Very ingenious, I thought.

Until this morning, when I noticed Wilbur staring at the upstairs hose, which is on the floor and close to the wallboard. Hmmm. I picked up the tube and....ACK!!!!....teeth marks.  Sigh.

Poor hubby needs the flexibility of being able to walk around, so we can't attach the tubing. It has to be free-moving.

I guess I'll have to file down the cats' teeth.

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