Two of them are adopted from shelters, and the third has a little story to go with her, which I will share with you, my faithful readers.
Let's start with the cat I've had the longest:
Meet Sarabi.
We also call her Pretty Kitty, and I call her Miss Kitty once in a while as well. She was the first cat and I got her as a kitten. I went to a PetSmart adoption and they didn't have any kittens there who weren't already spoke for. One of the foster parents offered me the chance to go to her house and visit the litter she had home who weren't quite ready to be adopted out yet. They were just too young.
I walked in and this little striped tabby with a hint of cinnammon in her coat and white patch on her nose walked up to me, sniffed me and walked away. They foster mom said, "That's her." I followed the kitten and picked her up. She looked at me and started chewing on my hand**. I told the lady I'd take her.
She called me less than three days later and said she was ready to be taken home. I was a little confused because less than a week before she was way too young to be adopted out and now she was ready? Well, I went and bought all my supplies and went to pick her up. I had to lock the little thing in my pseudo-kitchen in my first apartment for a few weeks, but she sure didn't like it.
I took her to the vet the next day and they were a little shocked at her size. She was TINY. Really tiny. The doctor looked at her and said, "I doubt this kitten is the eight weeks they say she is. She's 6 weeks at best and too young to be away from her mother. Make sure you take care of her and give her some KMR*** for the next two weeks."
She did fine. She had huge ears and she was curious as all get out and I lost her a few times behind the couch. She is the queen of the house and she has an attitude. If she comes up to you, Do. Not. Pet. Her. She will swiped/hiss/bite because it pleases her.
The problem is here that she is the sweetest cutest cat ever when no one is around. As soon as people show up, she turns in Demon Cat, and I don't know why. She purrs and nuzzles and sleeps on me, but no one but Tom ever sees this. We know she's a demon when people come over, so we have worked it out so that she gets the second floor when we have company. I don't want people to be subjected to her moods.
She shares that second floor with Henri:
Henri's full name is Henri Dexter Houdini Kitty, and also call him OJ. I refuse to try to explain that nickname.
Henri's adoption was an accident. I didn't mean to get a second cat so quickly after Sarabi. I was going to wait a year and then think about adopting an old cat. But I walked into PetSmart and there he was. An adorable, dopey kitten who kept meowing at me. I coudn't help myself, I put in the adoption papers and they were ready to let me take him home that instant. There was only one hitch. Sarabi had never been tested for FIV/FLV**** and they couldn't release him to me unless she was negative.
I drove home like a maniac and shoved her in the carrier. I drove like mad to the Vet's. The drew her blood and told me that the doctor couldn't see me today. I told them I only needed the results of the test because I was adopting another cat. Twenty minutes later me, Tom and my FIV/FLV negative kitty sped back to my apartment. I dumped her, and took my carrier and her papers with me.
I got home an hour later with a little black dopey kitty. He's as dumb as stump, but the most wonderful, tolerant little cat ever. He was also nameless for about week, and was very nearly named Xerxes.
He got one night when I got home from work at 11 p.m., and I seriously thought that he was gone forever. I walked around screaming for Henri to come back. As I was about to give up an hour later, I spotted him walking up my neighbor's stairs and he tried to run away from me. I grabbed him by the tail and took him back to my apartment. I cried for 20 minutes before I could calm down. He's been afraid of the outside every since.
Most people don't believe that he exists. He's skittish, the ultimate scaredy cat. If you ring the door bell or knock on the front door, he's gone for an hour; if you come in to the house, he won't come out from under the bed until you leave. He nuzzles everything. As I'm writing this he's nuzzling the window sill. Not a bright kitty. He and Sarabi are friends.
They and Motley don't get along:
The other two were staring out the window and seemed agitated. We looked out the window and there was a grey cat staring back at us. It was the middle of winter and she looked terribly cold. So I rigged a semi-water box for her and put a towel in it by the corner of our house.
She used that little box through the storm and into the early spring when it just became kind of beat up. She was there every day, and it started to become clear that she had no home. Because she appeared on the heals of one our neighbors leaving, we believe that she was a “dump” – they just couldn’t be bothered with her anymore. We started to put out a bowl of dry food for her in the morning. Just a little because we didn’t want her to starve.
That turned into a daily occurrence, and we would be happily greeted by her when we came and went from the house. She snuck in a few times, and we got her back out. I decided I needed to find out if this cat had a home, so I pulled out my camera and took a few pictures of her. I noticed the calico pattern under obvious grey tabby stripes. I looked at her, and said, “My goodness, but you have motley colors.” And it stuck. She was now Motley to us.
For a good four weeks I put up posters around, gave them to vets, checked the PetSmart. Nothing. No calls from anyone. I changed tack and went to the local pet adoption organization, Hope for the Animals, and gave them her picture. We told them we would care for her until she could be placed.
Six week went by, and there was not a nibble on her being adopted. We were standing outside, and she was sitting between us. My husband looked down at her, then back at me, and sighed. “Take her to the vet; we’ll take her inside.”
I did; someone had loved this cat. She was as healthy as horse, so as to say. Already spayed, we got her her shots. Motley was now an indoor kitty. I noticed a few days later that there was something wrong with her; there were little white “rice” all over the place when she sat. Back to the vet, and a pill later, she was cleared of the tape worm.
Since that day, Motley has been an indoor cat. She loves to nap, loves ear scratches right behind her big grey ears. She loves being petted, not scratched, everywhere else except her stomach. Don’t touch the tummy. She isn’t a lap cat and doesn’t like being picked up (but she’ll tolerate it). She will settle right next to you on the couch, and put her paws on your back and sniff your head. She’s very vocal; you will never not know where she is when she’s meowing. She is like a motorboat when she purrs, and she purrs a LOT and very loudly. She likes to play with string and chase straws. She’s just like a kitten when she does; she’s been pegged at about 6 and a half years old.
Motley is leash trained.
As you might suspect, she doesn’t precisely go for a walk. She will go outside and sit. And sniff. And sit. And sniff. And wander. And then want to go back in. But she loves to go out on that leash and be outside for just a little while.
She will answer to Motley or Mots. We also called her Matzah ball, Mozzerella, Stink Muffin and Spare Cat. The Spare Cat comes from the fact that we weren’t supposed to have 3 cats in our townhouse, so we always joked that she was a spare if one of the others went flat.
____________________________
*And which Tom diligently observes, "If you didn't feed them, the litter wouldn't be a problem, would it?"
**Kitten teeth are not very threatening.
***KMR = Kitten Milk Replacement
***FIV is Feline Immunodeficiency Virus, Kitty HIV. Not contagious to humans. FLV is Feline Leukemia, not contagious to humans. But both are extreme contagious to other cats, and there are people out there who take on ONLY FIV/FLV cats so they have a home too.
ADDED in 2020:
I'm sad to report that we've lost all three of these fuzzies.
We lost Sarabi and Henri in 2016 within weeks of each due to a wasting disease the doctor and I are convinced was tied to the 3-year rabies shots we'd given them.
Motley was with us until 2019, aged anywhere between 23 and 26! She was very healthy right until the last two weeks of her life, and she let us know it was time. <3
We have other kitties that I'm sure you're already aware of from newer posts. :)
I'm sad to report that we've lost all three of these fuzzies.
We lost Sarabi and Henri in 2016 within weeks of each due to a wasting disease the doctor and I are convinced was tied to the 3-year rabies shots we'd given them.
Motley was with us until 2019, aged anywhere between 23 and 26! She was very healthy right until the last two weeks of her life, and she let us know it was time. <3
We have other kitties that I'm sure you're already aware of from newer posts. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment