It’s Wednesday morning, early.

I dropped Meda at the airport last night. She’s off to Atlanta for several days to learn about hot summer weather. In fact, her flight from just landed in Denver, where she connects to ATL.

From the airport, I had to wind through a maze of detours to get on the H-3 back to Kaneohe, and to VCA Animal Hospital to bail Duke out and bring him home. The newly diagnosed diabetic seems to be feeling pretty good. Upon getting home last night, he (a) patrolled the house, (b) peed in his favorite cat box, (c) begged for a little snack, and plunked himself down in the catnip toys. Then we all went to bed.

I took this picture just a few minutes ago, soon after we all got up. Duke was stretched out on the island in our kitchen, enjoying being home. Or so it seemed.

I think the biggest problem is going to be shifting the feeding times of all eight cats to coincide with Duke’s insulin schedule. They’ve been used to getting fed when I get up, usually by 5 a.m., and then again when we get home at the end of the day, around 6 p.m. or just a little later.

But Duke’s on a 12-hour cycle of food-then-insulin, starting out at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

What I did this morning is to buy a little time by giving all the cats a small, snack-size serving of Duke’s special low-carb food. They’re all temporarily satisfied, and if Duke snacks on the leftovers in one of the other dishes, he’ll be fine. Then, sometime after 7, I’ll give them all their main morning meal, followed by Duke’s shot.

Oh, did I mention that our vet wants Duke to stay inside? That means I have to be the gatekeeper, attempting to regulate the constant flow of cats-want-in, cats-want-out that cat people know so well. It’s another serious management issue that the humans will just have to deal with.