Re: Of happy healthy kitties
- From: "CatNipped" <CatNipped@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:29:50 -0600
"Bridget" <bridgetmbaker@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:XTqUk.1220$4g5.1116@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
It seems we have lost quite a few regulars in the past year, so we have a
new generation of owners to keep us in line. I thought I would start a
thread where the new regulars start to shine so we don't feel like all the
kitties are going away. There are still a lot of vibrant characters in
this group. Let's hear about them.
I have three at the moment. I miss Tony dearly, and he was a wonderful
owner to me, but I have three characters to share.
1. Stripey Thing - he is 7 years old and is the sweetest guy I know. He is
a long haired orange kitty with stripes. He has an ability to tell who is
at the door just by how they ring the doorbell - I don't understand it.
For his friends, he greets them at the top of the stairs. Someone not
having the preferred status of friend and he hides out in the closet until
they leave. If I take an afternoon nap, he curls up under the covers with
me. Sometimes he is still there when I wake up. He won't do it during the
night. He is a cat, he doesn't have to explain odd behavior. At night, he
snuggles up next to my legs on the side next to the wall. I always know it
is him because he jumps up so silently and without touching me that when
he suddenly appears next to my legs, I have no doubt who it is. He is
still very active and will tear around the apartment with the least
provocation. And dare I forget his love affair with pom-pom balls. I have
no idea where he gets them at this point, but I know for a fact he has
thousands. I can always tell how often he has eaten in a certain time
period because he drops a ball in for each time he eats. And it is a
regular bedtime ritual that he will bring me a pom-pom to throw and he
retrieves until I throw it (unintentionally) someplace where he can't find
it. He is also in love with Mr. Red Dot and will make himself dizzy
chasing it in a circle.
2. My Mattie Marie - She is 5 years old now. Round is the only word I can
use to describe her. She isn't over weight, and fact has quite the girlish
figure. But when you look at her, every body proportion she has screams
round. Her spot is on my left side with my left arm around her and her
head on my chest. She is the announcer of the empty (almost) food bowl.
At the moment, she is trying to figure out how to get the best of the
Stripey Thing who is hiding under a blanket that has been draped over a
chair. It seems that being under the blanket is the position of power.
Despite charges by the other two, Stripey Thing is still king under the
blanket.
3. Toby - A snowshoe from the appearance of him. He is about two years old
and is a stitch. I've had him for about 6 months and he has learned to
play some in that amount of time. He is a great snuggler, but I am glad he
is getting a little more rambunctious. Mattie teaches him how to play with
the different toys in the apartment. The dawning look of comprehension is
hysterical. Before Tony died, he and he Stripey Thing were inseparable.
Toby has taken over that role for the Stripey Thing. The mutual grooming
sessions these two have are just a riot. He too is trying to become king
under the chair and not making it. If I had any idea a regular chair with
a blanket on it could provide so much entertainment, I would have done it
a long time ago!!
It is not uncommon for me to have all three of them in bed with me at
night - they all have their little spots.
Sammy, at four, is still a *VERY* large kitten (Maine Coons keep growing
until they are 5, and Sammy appears to have 99.99999% Maine Coon genes even
though she's a rescue like all my other cats). She was secretly delighted
when we got Da Boyz since she loves to play. Of course, she can't actually
let anybody *know* that she loves those stinky little brats, so she makes a
great show of swatting them about the head and shoulders - but with claws in
and not very hard. All three rampaging through the house rivals the noise
made by a herd of buffalo. At 20+ pounds, she looks very weird doing it,
but... she still sucks her toe! When I'm sitting on the couch she will come
stand next to it and stare at me until I "assume the position". I have to
be lying on my right side (for some reason, the left side won't due - I
think it's the logistics of her getting to the correct toe). When I lie
down she'll jump up, lick my face and hands while I pet her, then finally
settle down to a good session of sucking. She uses both front paws for
kneading at my belly, so she has to use the first toe on her right rear paw
for her "pacifier". Other than while sucking her toe, she doesn't like
being held or sitting in my lap (I've heard this about Maine Coons - that
they will be your friend, but never your baby). Maybe it's a good thing
that she doesn't like being held, because I'd probably have even more back
problems if she did!
Ozzy is one and a half years old. He is the most passive of all my clowder.
He never objects to anything anybody does to him - at most retreating under
my bed if Sammy's "abuse" (see above) gets too rambunctious for him. When I
dress him up for Christmas pictures he never struggles, he just lays there
looking up at me with sad eyes as if wondering why I'm doing that. He is
also a big boy - 13 pounds of solid muscle. I love watching him run and
play - since he's a short haired orinj-stripey boy you can see his muscles
rippling under his skin. He can jump to amazing heights, doing backwards
flips in attempts to catch his feather toy. He has the shiniest coat of any
cat I've ever seen - it reflects sunlight like polished gold. That plus his
dark orange eyes that almost match the color of his coat makes him
absolutely gorgeous!
Archer is also one and a half years old. He is the most hyper of all my
cats. When he chases his special toy all the other cats quickly clear the
area because he does not watch where he's going, and he will trample or jump
on anyone who gets between him and his toy. He is the cat who loves me the
most - maybe it was because I held and stroked him for hours on end when he
broke his leg (I could only let him out of his kennel to hold him next to
me, and I felt so bad for him that I held him almost the whole time I was at
home). It is a bit humbling to be loved so unconditionally. When the vet
was checking his toes when he still had his cast on, I was holding him, and
when the vet squeezed and really hurt him, Archer leaned over and started
licking my hand (of course I totally lost it). He sleeps next to my legs at
night. During Ike, Archer was sticking so close to my you'd swear he was
velcroed to my legs. But when a tornado went through our neighborhood only
a few yards away from our house, he did jump down for a second to dash
upstairs, grab his favorite toy, and then dash back down again to put his
toy on the bed next to us.
Just a quick word about my older cats since I feel guilty not including
them... Jessie, at 9, is still very kitten-like. She plays more than the
boys even. When she's chasing the red dot greeble, she'll run after it up
and down the stairs twenty times in the matter of just a few minutes, and
she doesn't even get out of breath. Demi, at 10, is still healthy, but she
never did play very much. She's very shy and can never just "let herself
go" in the moment.
Hugs,
CatNipped
.
- References:
- Of happy healthy kitties
- From: Bridget
- Of happy healthy kitties
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