Eek Has A House
I set up the 'cat playpen', and all you people in LJ land were right- Eek doesn't seem to hate it. He even acts like he likes it, at least sometimes. As my vet said, sometimes older cats like life in a crate- they get their own territory and their own food, and none of the other cats bother them. Eek sometimes meows while he's in there. Maybe he's saying something like "You cats get off my lawn!".
For the past week, I haven't had to clean my floors. I'm letting Eek out to wander around for a while in the morning and evening, but not while I'm at work or over night, and that seems to be doing the trick. He's actually using the litter box in the crate. Don't ask me why- I expected I'd have to mop out the crate every day but it hasn't happened. He's also eating more of his food, since he's cooped up with it all day and night.
He also had a checkup this week. His thyroid levels are down, but not quite to the normal range. He's lost more weight- maybe because of the thyroid issue. Thus the thyroid meds are going up a bit. Unfortunately as the thyroid problems get better the renal problems get a bit worse, so it's not clear we'll be able to get his thyroid function really normalized. His liver enzymes are still elevated, but they're down from last checkup. I take that to be a good sign.
So that's the news from the guy who lives alone with a bunch of cats. Thanks, everybody, for talking me into the crate. It's a very good thing.