| Author | Comment | ||
|---|---|---|---|
 Crawl and 1OOO |
|||
|
Posts: 15550 (06/22/09 8:07 AM) Administrator |
Sigh... Caramel got in the tower and Pepper was growling at her. At first I calmed Pepper down, but then Mel did start batting at her. That earned Mel a
squirt from the squirt gun. (I think this is only the second time I got her with that). Mel ran off.
But now Mel is in the tower again. |
||
|
Crawl and 1OOO |
|||
|
Posts: 15550 (06/22/09 8:17 AM) Administrator |
|
||
 Flying Omelette |
|||
|
That's where Pepper was when I came home just now, and Hermes was on a big pile of blankets on the bed.
|
|||
|
Flying Omelette |
|||
|
A few nights ago, we had a loud, flashy thunderstorm. I think it scared Pepper so badly that she got into the bed with us. I woke up and found her sleeping
right between Crawl's feet. She usually doesn't sleep with us through the night.
Lady will be coming home soon, now that we've closed on the house. The shelter has her listed as an "inactive" cat who has to be kept on special food, but when we gave her a catnip toy to play with, she gets high and rolls around, and she even now runs around. I'll keep her on food for older cats, but it's good to know that she's not as inactive as she seems. She just needs to be motivated to play. She's gotten to know me so well that as soon as I enter the shelter, she comes over to me. Before, she would just lie on the cat tree that's in the sun room the whole time. She looks a lot perkier than she used to. They took Baby out of the cage today and she ran and hid under a desk the whole time. She has the cutest "meow". I'll still consider adopting her, but not until after I've got permanent, full-time employment. |
|||
|
Crawl and 1OOO |
|||
|
Posts: 15550 (06/22/09 8:36 PM) Administrator |
Don't forget about Bailey!
|
||
|
Flying Omelette |
|||
|
I don't think they're going to let you adopt Bailey. I also worry that Bailey will try to "replace" Mel in the household.
Lady likes attention, but she also likes to loaf, so she can go loaf when it's time to cuddle and play with Mel. And Baby seems to like to hide a lot. She'd be our "hidden kitty" if we got her. But Bailey seems to need constant human attention and hisses away other cats that get close to her. I'd hate for Mel to have one of those moments where she wants to crawl up on top of you when you're lying on the bed or futon, but she can't because Bailey is there, hissing away. Man, there had to be almost 10 cats running free at that shelter today.. 1. Lady 2. Bailey (Crawl took her out) 3. Baby (a worker took her out while we were there) 4. Penelope (the calico that bit me) 5. Shannon (a brown tabby) 6. Mittens (a small, extremely playful orange kitten. Usually one cage above Baby and bats me in the head the whole time I visit with her) 7. Sissy (a small black kitten that was playing with Mittens) 8. Smokey (hadn't seen her out in awhile, but she was in her familiar spot, lying on the stacks of newsletters) 9. Emma (almost always out) 10. A very tiny orange kitten that escaped from its cage while we were there. There may have been one other tabby kitten running around, too, but I can't remember. |
|||
|
Flying Omelette |
|||
Another time, the woman who named Hermes told me about this cat they had for a long time named Octavious who had difficulty adjusting. She said he finally calmed down and was adopted, and the person who took him even wrote into their newsletter about him, going on about how well he adjusted to his new home. He's back there now. I actually saw him in the window as I drove over there today, and I thought, "That looks like that Otcavious cat...", and yeah it was him.Octavious is also a Maine Coon, and he was returned because he was peeing everywhere (probably marking his territory). That's sometimes a problem with male cats. I crossed my fingers when I adopted Hermes, but so far he hasn't done that. If he had, I probably would have had to return him. The people I knew in NJ who had a cat I called "Jimmy-Rolls" had another male cat named "Tiger" who used to constantly spray the side of the couch. That was why, originally, I was glad Mel was female. If she had been male and started spraying the apartment, we wouldn't have been able to keep her. |
|||
|
Crawl and 1OOO |
|||
|
Posts: 15550 (06/23/09 4:52 AM) Administrator |
I don't see any of that as happening. Also, even now there have been times when Caramel wanted to cuddle but ended up in a scuffle and ran off because
Pepper was already on the bed.
|
||
|
Flying Omelette |
|||
|
Most of the times, Pepper's not in the bed, though, so when Mel wants to visit you she can. I get the feeling Bailey will be with you all the time.
|
|||
|
Crawl and 1OOO |
|||
|
Posts: 15550 (06/23/09 10:05 AM) Administrator |
I had to spray Caramel again last night. Hermes was in her chair, and she was looking up in thrall for a few minutes. I had a feeling what was about to
happen, so I got the squirt gun ready. Sure enough, she eventually tried to attack him and I got her. She hissed (she might have thought the water came from
Hermes) and then ran off.
I feel kind of bad for her, because it is sort of her chair (though goodness knows we have plenty of other places for kitties to relax), but if I can condition the cats to stop attacking each other, it'd be for the best for all of them. And I'm pretty sure that Caramel is usually responsible for, if not starting their scuffles, at least escalating them to the point that Caramel and Hermes end up with scratches on their faces. "Of the three ways in which men think that they acquire a knowledge of things--authority, reasoning, and experience--only the last is effective and able to bring peace to the intellect." -Roger Bacon |
||
|
Crawl and 1OOO |
|||
|
Posts: 15550 (06/23/09 11:28 AM) Administrator |
Someone at work is moving and giving away his adult cats.
"Of the three ways in which men think that they acquire a knowledge of things--authority, reasoning, and experience--only the last is effective and able to bring peace to the intellect." -Roger Bacon |
||
|
Flying Omelette |
|||
|
The problem with taking cats from anyone other than the shelter is that we don't get the free vet visit. That, and I haven't gotten to know them.
|
|||
|
Flying Omelette |
|||
|
Lady's complimentary vet visit is scheduled for tomorrow at 4. I'm gonna go take some stuff out to the car and then go pick her up and take her to the
new house. I bought duct tape for the door in the basement. I'll just have to keep that one bedroom door closed until we can put a grill over the heat
duct. I think those were the only two areas that needed to be kitty-proofed.
|
|||
|
Crawl and 1OOO |
|||
|
Posts: 15550 (06/23/09 6:50 PM) Administrator |
FO decided to celebrate getting a house by putting a kitty in it.
This is Baby at the shelter. FO didn't get her yet. I swear, if FO gets Baby, I'm getting Bailey. 
Here's Lady at the shelter. 
Lady at the house! 
Lady on the stairs there. 
Close up on Lady. 
|
||
|
Crawl and 1OOO |
|||
|
Posts: 15550 (06/23/09 6:55 PM) Administrator |
Oh, man. I gave Pepper her dinner, but Mel, for the first time in a long time, had a wet food snack first. (Pepper was in the kitchen when I spooned it out,
while Mel was right next to the bowl)
Pepper patiently waited her turn, and is now going after the left overs. |
||
|
Flying Omelette |
|||
|
My hard work with Baby finally paid off. The reason I only got a picture of her inside the cage is because she now comes out of the cage on her own when you
open it, and by the time I thought to take pictures, I had already put her back and didn't want her to come back out again since I was almost ready to
leave. But even if I don't ever adopt her, I wanted to take a picture of her that shows how pretty she is because that one shelter picture I've posted
before doesn't do her justice.
Lady pretty much moved right in. She ran around, explored, rolled on her back, played with the catnip toys (which she does by pushing them along the floor with her nose and rolling), rubbed against my legs while meowing and purring (first I've ever actually heard her purr), sniffed around the stuff we brought into the house from home, and ate some dinner. She looked pretty tired and ready for sleep by the time we left. I feel a little bad having to leave her alone there overnight, but at least she doesn't have to be locked up in a cage. She followed me around a lot while we were there. 
I'm not adopting this cat (lol), but while I was taking pictures of Lady and Baby at the shelter, Smokey walked over and lied down on the floor, so I took one of her for the heck of it. She was looking at the camera as I set up the picture, but looked away just as I snapped it. She's another "bowling ball" cat like Minnie. |
|||
|
btizubayer |
|||
|
Posts: 320 (06/24/09 1:45 AM) |
|
||
|
Crawl and 1OOO |
|||
|
Posts: 15550 (06/24/09 9:57 AM) Administrator |
This was taken last night after Mel had the wet food. When she was done, she cleaned off her face as Pepper took her turn.
This morning, Mel and Pepper were in the tower again together. 
Don't be fooled. I think Mel likes Pepper, but Pepper still doesn't like Mel. They also were fighting a bit this morning. I think Caramel liked the cardboard bag I brought home from the Hard Rock Cafe, to sit on and look in, but Pepper likes to tear it up. Lady in the bedroom. It's rather bare now. 
And she was rolling. 
"Of the three ways in which men think that they acquire a knowledge of things--authority, reasoning, and experience--only the last is effective and able to bring peace to the intellect." -Roger Bacon |
||
|
Crawl and 1OOO |
|||
|
Posts: 15550 (06/24/09 5:49 PM) Administrator |
Oh, Pepper was underfoot and I turned around and unwittingly kicked her in the face.
She ran off and when I tried to apologize she ran from me. She must have thought I was purposefully being mean to her for no reason. But when I caught up to her and starting petting her, she stopped running. So, she either forgave me, or forgot why she was running from me to begin with. Man, the vet appointment for Lady was 2 hours ago, and FO still isn't back yet... |
||
|
Flying Omelette |
|||
|
Well, her appointment was at 4, I was there a half an hour, then I had to drive her all the way back to the new house, then drive all the way back here. Also,
I didn't want to just drop her off after her vet visit and leave right away. I spent a few minutes with her to make sure she was okay.
She's almost a completely different cat at the house than she was at the shelter. She was well-mannered at the shelter, but still very reserved. She'd usually keep to herself, and she'd enjoy attention for so long, but then she'd get annoyed with it and walk off or start caterwauling. At the house, she can't get enough attention! She follows me all around, rubs against my legs, purrs very loudly, and plops herself down on the floor on her side and starts rolling on her back. The only other cat in our immediate family that does the "plop and roll" thing is Minnie. She also seems to love running up and down the stairs, so hopefully that will wear off some of her excess weight. Don't get me wrong. Mel's still my special little calico thumb-kitty. But she shouldn't blame us for adopting a few more cats. When I try to pet Mel, she often nips. I love her with all my heart, but it is nice to have some cats you can pet all you want. For the record, Mel and Hermes still nip, but Pepper and Lady don't, so it's two-for-two. I'm keeping the name Lady because I don't really know what else to call her. She looks like a St. Bernard and she has an "eyepatch" and a black "beard" like a pirate, but I don't think she'd appreciate being called Beethoven or Long John Silver. And I can also called her things like "Lady Lumps" and "Lady Lady Lu". The vet said she pretty much has a clean bill of health. They found some healing scabs on her back that they think were caused by a flea bite, but they couldn't find any actual fleas or other signs of fleas. The vet said that in a shelter environment, that's not uncommon, and the scab was caused by an allergic reaction to the flea bite. |
|||
| Affiliates Websites & Yuku/Ezboards
YUKU & EZBOARDS
WEBSITES
|
