Cat pheromones, really?

I thought I would share a little about my first "baby", our cat Ella.  She was basically my child for about 5 years.  My sister found her on our parent's street a few months after Marcus and I were married, and she quickly became the perfect addition to our new family.  Ella and I bonded right away, spending most of my time at home cuddled together.  We always had "momma-Ella time" when I would get home from work and nice long cuddles at night. 

baby Ella in her favorite sleeping spot

cuddles

Well, when I got pregnant things changed.  I swear she was the first to know about the pregnancy.  About a week before I knew I was pregnant she started avoiding me.  This continued through the pregnancy.  I went through major withdrawals :(  Once Walker was born, Ella was even more distant.  She rarely came close to me and spent all of her time in another room or with Marcus.  However, I was so busy with Walker that I honestly didn't notice...I know bad momma. 

Well, two weeks ago, Ella started throwing up and even having accidents right outside of her liter box.  She had never done this before, so I got pretty concerned.  I took  her into the vet where they did some blood work to check everything out.  Turns out Ella is "stressed" (really, they have a blood test for this :) ) because of Walker.  The vet gave me the options of giving her amitriptyline (an anti-depressant) or using pheromones.  I went with the pheromones.  It is a little bottle that looks like an air freshener that plugs into the wall.  She said to put it by her litter box and that it should help her calm down and "go back to her usual self."  I was beyond skeptical, but went ahead and spent the $40 on this magic bottle.  Crazy thing is, is that it actually works!!  I'm not kidding.  Ella is eating more, no more throwing up, cuddling with me, hanging out with everyone again, and even giving Walker the occasional nuzzle.  I am happy to have my two babies back and getting along.

At the vet (notice the huge scratch on my arm...she hates the vet)