Meadow

We are once again joining the Kitties Blue at Cat On My Head for the Sunday Selfies today. Please visit the other blogs joining in on the fun, after this one, of course.

No, she doesn't want her photo taken

I’ve noticed a shift in the personalities of several of my cats since my “experience.” Glitter (19), normally calm and unflappable, has gotten noticeably nervous and panicky when visitors are present. She is blind so in her panic she forgets where she is and runs into things trying to get away from the sound of strangers in her house. Gooseberry (12) and B.W. Huckleberry (12) have gotten braver and braver about coming down to visit the strangers. B.W. even let one health care worker pet him!

She decided to hide her face

The most surprising and perhaps the most radical change I’ve noticed has been in Miss Misty Meadow (20). Meadow was born a feral kitten. I watched her grow up and have a litter of feral kittens, one of whom was Glitter. Even after I caught her and brought her inside, she maintained a feral streak, allowing me to pet her and treat her when necessary but not allowing much more.

Okay, so now she'll look up for only a second

Gradually she became more comfortable with visitors. She never did hide, choosing to stay in her cat bed in the living room. But now she is underfoot when anyone comes and even sneaks outside with them. She has also, in the last couple of days, decided that it is all right to be a lap cat! Tonight, she jumped on my lap and allowed me to cover her with a blanket as I watched the news. She even fell asleep in this position. Meadow has chosen a life of domestication in her elder years.

Time to get back to her nap

So, I guess something good has become of this whole ordeal. Now I have help in my recovery from a surprising front.

Ginger Cat Selfies

Gooseberry is joining the Sunday Selfie Blog Hop again this week even though he was too busy trying to see his nose freckles to take a selfie himself. This is an old one. 

This week he is doing so much better. He is getting used to or at least tolerating his collar and the staples are still in. Hopefully we’ll hear soon what the biopsy shows. 

Gooseberry’s brother, Strawberry, is a ginger cat (or red tabby in the show world) as well but I couldn’t find my photos of him. He’s extremely hard to photograph but I’ll keep trying 😀 

Here's a link to our host The Cat on My Head

Gooseberry's return visit

Hi everyone! I’ve decided to try to restart my blog for a bit. I stopped blogging a few years back because my loss of Mewdy Blue just took my heart. But now my cats are telling stories that I have to share. I’ll probably only posted once weekly because my day job of writing articles for magazines keeps me plenty busy.

Gooseberry came on the scene in 2008 and quickly decided that Mewdy Blue was his hero. He’d follow the older cat everywhere, to Mewdy Blue’s tempered annoyance. When his hero died Goose (his nickname) acted lost. He wandered around on his own and seemed as if he had lost his heart much as I had. But today Goose is much better and back to his crazy self.

I sometimes compare him to Waffles of Glogirly fame. He loves to leap high in the air for his toys. He also races up and down the stairs as I move his stick toy (feathers on a stick). And he’s quite the talker. He and I have long conversations at times. I think he must have some Siamese in him.

Last week I was petting Gooseberry near his tail, something I do all the time, and I felt a bump. He is 11 years old now so I’m always on the lookout for lumps and bumps. I got him into the veterinarian last Friday and scheduled him for a lumpectomy. Thursday of this week he had his surgery as well as blood work and everything went well.

This morning I woke up to see Goose sitting proudly on my bed and I slowly realized something was wrong. He didn’t have his e-collar on. That meant that he also chewed out all of his sutures – both layers of them! So today we were back at the veterinary office getting staples in this time. He’s fine now and I’ve fashioned a kind of anchor for his e-collar. I tied it to his harness (which he hardly ever wears anymore) so it will be harder if not impossible to get off. Of course I’ll have to watch him closely until that incision heals but I’m more optimistic now.

The only trouble now is that I have to wait up to a week to hear the results of his biopsy. I had another cat years ago who had a lump much like this one and it was a mast cell tumor. He had a lot more over the years and eventually died of them. He did, however, live to the ripe old age of 19 so that’s a plus. Please send prayers and whatever you have Goose’s way won’t you?
I've never done a blog hop before but I'm going to try to do the Sunday Selfies blog hop so here goes. Here's the link to the Cat On My Head blog, the host of this hop: https://thecatonmyhead.com/

Mewdy Blue's Story - a video

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I should have posted this a long time ago but I think I can still brag about it a little. Back in April the Cat Behavior Associates held a contest for the best video describing your cat’s behavior problem and how you solved it. Being the proud mama I immediately thought of Mewdy Blue.

When he was a kitten he excelled at slipping out the front door! It scared me to death because my front door leads to a sidewalk that leads to the street. The first couple of times he did it he didn’t get far. But one day he made it all the way to the middle of the street where he simply sat down. I knew I had to do something and quick.

This video describes my attempts to leash train him as well as my discovery of his ability to learn tricks very easily. Eventually Mewdy Blue became a champion agility cat. During the 2006/2007 show season he became the very first cat to win the award as Best Agility Cat in the CFA Midwest Region.

I’ve never produced a video before so I had a lot of fun using Apple’s iMovie to create what I think was a pretty good first attempt. We didn’t win but my video was one of the runners-up. You can see the video (and the other two winners) here:

http://www.catbehaviorassociates.com/my-cats-story-video-contest-winner-announced/

I’ve also uploaded my video to YouTube so you can always see it there if you are so inclined J Hope you enjoy it.

Have you ever created a video of your pet? Have you ever shared a video on YouTube? I spend way too much time on YouTube watching funny, cute or touching cat videos. How about you?

A New Generation

Rainbow

Funny how a day can pass. Today I found myself sorting through the many harnesses in a rainbow of colors, changing tags and reassigning them to my present cats. Each one holds a memory so precious, so far from my reach. A tear came to my eye as I set Rainbow’s aside, unable to reassign it.

The reason for this sorting evolved from a biography, of sorts, that I am writing about Mewdy Blue. As I typed in his age, 15, I realized sadly that someone has to step up and take over his activities. He is a local celebrity in that he started as a show cat early in life doing very well and developing into quite an accomplished cat.

Mewdy Blue

Eventually he moved into the agility ring and won the regional award. With his partner, Lady Butterfly, he became a pet therapy cat visiting youth shelters, adult day care and long-term care facilities to help brighten the day of many people. He has appeared on television, in newspapers and in person many times. He even acted as a guinea pig for veterinary students learning to do physical exams as well as giving demonstrations of his tricks and agility skills.

So now that Mewdy Blue is ready to retire from the limelight who can possibly fill in for him?

I planned to visit my mother in her assisted living apartment so I packed up Gooseberry, his new (reassigned) harness, leash and carrier and headed out. The first part of the day Goose talked and talked and talked about the situation (I know he’s got some Siamese in him) and looked everywhere for the perfect hiding place. When he’d finally settled down a bit I put on the leash and took him out into the hallway for a walk.

Gooseberry, ready for anything

You know that boy actually walked on the leash?! I’m not saying that cats don’t walk on leashes just that he has never done so before. The couple of times I’ve taken him outside to judge his reaction he panicked and raced for the door. Remembering that experience I had thought that an inner hallway might be easier on him. His first outing no other people were in the hallway but we could hear their “noises” from behind closed doors.

Goose was nervous but he did a great job of following me down the hallway. If he balked a little I simply pointed up ahead and he followed my finger. A simple stroking of his head was all the reward he needed. It wasn’t until we turned a corner and saw an air conditioner sitting on a cart that he decided he’d had enough. He took one look at that contraption and told me in no uncertain terms that we were going back to the apartment. No mechanical monsters for him!

Goose, packing for his first show

I left him in the apartment with my mother for a couple of hours then we went down for the obligatory early supper (who eats at 4:30 anyway??). Afterwards I took Goose out for another hallway carousing. This time other people appeared from out of the elevator and he decided it wasn’t fun anymore. He seemed comfortable as long as I held him in my arms so he got a little experience around other people that way.

So my little buddy, Gooseberry, is on his way to learning how to be a pet therapy cat. I’m sure with a little more exposure to different environments, other people and more leash-walking he’ll be up to the challenge. Who knows? It might even improve his chances at cat shows. And the day that started with a tear turned out to be rewarding.

Kittens with personalities

B.W., Spot, Tortie, Scotty

Sparks with Tortie and Spot

Ever conscious that all kittens need early socialization to help them learn how to function in a world filled with humans I regularly visited the kittens from day one. At first I just talked to them so they’d recognize my voice later but when I judged that the mothers would allow it I reached in and touched them several times a day. I never trusted the mothers. Instead I fashioned a shield of sorts out of a box. I left the bottom and one side open and lowered the open bottom over the kittens blocking mamma kitty from my hand. The only time the mothers had any complaint about this method was when I started to pick up the kittens and they would “mew”.

Even before their eyes opened the kittens were developing unique personalities. Taylor, for instance, hissed every time she heard my voice. When I touched her she even spat at me – before her eyes were open! Scotty was the most outgoing of his litter coming forward on his own toward my voice.

Taylor-terror

When it came time for their eyes to open it seemed like it happened in an instant. First I noticed Spotty’s eyes, just a slit but opening just the same. Next came B.W. and Scotty. Gaia was a little harder to tell because she liked to hide in her mother’s fur. As soon as their eyes were completely opened Tourmalina’s kittens eyes seemed to just pop open. And Taylor’s tirades continued.

Scotty's temporarily folded ear

This is when the names started coming. First it was Spotty and B.W., obvious names for black and white kittens. They were only temporary names, after all. Taylor’s name just came to me. I guess it was that mysterious connection again. I kept calling her Taylor Dane for some reason. When Scotty’s ears suddenly folded one day, he had his name, a nod to the Scottish Fold breed.

His tortoiseshell sister already had a home waiting for her so I didn’t even bother giving her a very imaginative name. I simply called her Tortie. She and I never did really have any type of a connection at all. Perhaps it was because we both knew where she would be going. My home was simply a kind of kindergarten for her.

Trucker's first venture out of the nest

It wasn’t long after their eyes opened that they started leaving the nest. One of the red tabbies came barreling out of his nest but then turned around and slipped back in. He wasn’t quite that brave yet. But a short time later he did it again. This time he came all the way to the door of the cage. He was truckin’ so I called him Trucker. Trinket, the brown-patched tabby, was next. She meandered about the cage and found the water bowl. She wasn’t interested in me at all. Taylor took charge and quickly came out of the cage toward me. She climbed up on my legs and made herself at home telling me all about her day. She was a talker just like a Siamese but with long hair.

The other two red tabbies weren’t interested in anything outside their nest. Finally I decided to pull them out myself and get them introduced to being held. One turned out to be a female, a surprise since most red tabbies are male. I thought Tinkerbell would suit her. Then, since all of the others in that litter had names starting with “Ts” I stuck the last red tabby with the moniker of Tweety Pie. I hoped that he turned out to be a sweetie. I received an email from a retired English professor (ironically one of my instructors from the past) that she wanted a red tabby female, so Tinkerbell was tentatively spoken for.

Soon the room was full of kitten bodies that at first stumbled about investigating their world. They quickly developed their sense of balance and made the room their own. Meanwhile the mother cats grew accustomed to the regular routine and gave me no trouble. As I cleaned their litter pans they stayed at the opposite end of the cage. When I fed them they waited until the cage door was closed to attack the food. We had a great arrangement.

Next time I’ll tell you what it was like to have 9 kittens running around a single small room and two wild mothers who cooperated while retaining their wildness. For now just remember that if you have kittens that need homes:

1.     Socialize them early

2.     Begin looking for homes as soon as possible

3.     Use photos – they really influence the soft-hearted

Outgrowing the nest