It's been more than a year, April 4, 2013, that I had to put my precious Wee down.  He was 18.  His whole body was shutting down.  For his sake, it had to be.  He was suffering and wobbling when he walked.  Pitiful.

Gordon was not very keen on the idea of another cat.  He felt that Nolan was enough.  I didn't know how I would pull it off, but I wanted a lap cat.  Nolan does not get on laps.  He does not purr.

My new kitten, I said, would meet five criteria:

1. Female
2. Short hair
3. Would sit on my lap
4. Would purr
5. Would be a grey/black tabby cat

In late January, Billy called and said there was a kitten in his garage that had found shelter there after three days of rain.  He said it was cute and little, but he did I want it to keep it.  He asked me to keep it.  No, not now.  I gave him three phone numbers to call for Rescue.  After almost a month, he had not called, but adamantly said he could not have a cat with his work schedule.   He kept calling.  Finally, I said, find a box and bring it to me.  He had said it had short hair with orange, black and grey.  This told he FEMALE.

He arrived with a small box, I lifted the cover and my heart melted.  It was indeed a short hair, sort of tabby-calico kitten with big, big ears.

She was so precious.  So full of life.  She was a good Cajun right off, she played hard and she slept hard!  

I knew she was going to be a smart cat.  She purred, she was a lap cat, she was so alert and inquisitive.  She would be a great little bit of entertainment.  Little did I know that she was a Mensa Cat.  You know, the smart IQ people belong to Mensa?  

Well this little sister would jump on the bathroom counter With Nolan when Gordon would turn the faucet on for Nolan to drink from the lavatory.  Of course, Nolan is very spoiled and himself is smart, but he is not a Mensa cat.  Gerti Mae may have taken 4 to 5 days of observing; a person turn the handle of the faucet, water came out, cats drank water.  One day, we heard the water in the lavatory running.  We ran to find out what the problem was, and there she was.  She had turned the handle of the faucet and water was pouring out.  She was a little alarmed because it was gushing and making a lot of noise.  We said, "Aww, just luck, she won't do this again."  Not on your life!   We had to find ways to cover the faucet; didn't work,  Then we tried tying the  handle so it couldn't move.  Not working!  Finally, the bathroom door had to be closed.  We did have to mop up water from the floor  when we forgot to close the door.  That happened twice.  Water all over the bathroom, the hall and one bedroom before we heard the dripping.  The lavatory used does not have an overflow orifice.  To make matters worse, we found her sitting on the counter watching the water flow down the cabinets.  

I am training her to walk on a leash.  She wears a harness every day, but not all day.  She is also walking around with a leash trailing her.  Gerti Mae does not go outside.  She has not wanted to go outside.  I imagine she had a frightening time trying to save her life when she found shelter from the bad weather and rain when she found Bill's place.  Not interested in going outside, but she does sit by the window and watches the hummingbirds darting by.  Nolan goes in and out.  One of these days, she will want to go outside, too.  That's why the leash training.   She has a special toy that is like a small ball attached to a larger ball.  It gets stuck under the tv stand.  She cannot get to it.  She comes to me, and walks away continuing to do this until I follow her.  She leads me to the furniture that is too low for her to get under to get her 'toy'.  She watches me retrieve it.  One of these days, she will figure out how to get the swifter under the furniture, then she won't have to get me to do it.  We do the same thing when her food dish is low on food.  

When she first came, her name was Squeaky because she does not meow or mew, she squeaks.  Her vocabulary is increasing with her age.  She is 9 months now.  She has many different kinds of squeaks.  

  At one point, she was smaller, much smaller than Nolan.  Now, she is almost as tall.  Although Nolan was here first, she has become the dominant cat.  He lets her have her way and she takes it.

   In hopes of having peace between Gordon and Gerti Mae, I purchased a water fountain for cats.  She uses it, but Nolan is very strong willed and sits at the bathroom door until we feel sorry for him and spoil him again by letting him in to drink from the lavatory.

She's not too pretty, but she is a personality plus cat who happens to be a Mensa Cat.  

Harness training.  

This is a true story about two lost kittens.


When we got back from the softball game on Sunday afternoon, we were greeted by two black kittens.  Well, one of them had four white paws.  They easily could fit into the palm of a large hand.  They were moving all over and meowing like crazy.  One had an eye that wasn’t opened yet.

We had not seen a pregnant mama cat in our neighborhood.  We live on a dead end street, we have no traffic, no one drops off unwanted kittens.  Where did these kittens come from?  They were tame.  They ran after our legs.  They stayed under the car when we weren’t outside and ran towards us when we came outside.

After some phone calls and probing, we got our answer.  On Friday, we had visited our son’s home in Scott, Louisiana and had seen, at his neighbor’s, four solid black kittens, well, not quite, one had four white paws.  But, how could that possibly be?  They were in Scott, Louisiana, about 6 miles away.  They could not have walked here.

We noticed that the lawn had been mowed, Billy, our son, has been mowing the yard and wasn’t able to on his regular day, Saturday.  But, how?  Bill may have brought them here.  He loves BLACK kittens.  Why would he do that?  After a call to Bill, yes, he did come to mow.  No, he did not bring any kittens.  No, there are no black kittens playing in the neighbor’s yard.  Yes, he will go look under his hood to see if there is fur and blood.

“Mama, no fur, no blood, but I think I know how they got there.  There is a shelf under my engine (A Nissan Versa) and they could have ridden there.”

This all took about two hours, with church, in-between phone calls.   Gordon got the cat carrier and went back to Scott to return the unwanted black kitten and its sibling, the one with the four white paws.

Once back in Scott, the mama cat ran to their squeals in the cat carrier.  When they were released, she licked them over and then proceeded to bring them to the shelf under the engine in the Nissan.

What we figure happened is that she deposited them there on Saturday morning.  Four of them were on the ‘shelf’.  Two must have dropped off in transit.  Billy will put them in a cardboard box each time he uses his car.

Trouble = Nolan, Again!

His name became Nolan, again. He is still TROUBLE, but we thought maybe we'd better not reinforce that in his psyche. So, it is now, NO! Nolan. Or No! No! No! Nolan!!!!

Nothing escapes his curiosity. He absolutely loves water. Anytime we water the lawn, he is there. When we take a shower, he is there. He lays in the lavatory once I finish brushing my teeth.

We took him to the "inexpensive" vet last week. He had apparently gotten into a fight and got gouged. He had an abscess. The vet did not have any vaccine in the office, so she prescribed a liquid to be given twice a day. This would not do, as our house/pet sitter was coming in and was not too keen about putting an eye dropper of medicine in the mouth of a cat with giant teeth who did not want to take the medicine. We had planned a trip to Branson, MO, we were leaving in two days. The vet staff suggested we board Nolan with them where they could administer the antibiotics.

Yeah, how much would that cost, I wondered. Ten dollars a night! Wow, that is not bad! We could handle that. So, we brought Nolan to the vet where he was to stay five nights. We got home earlier than expected and he came home in four nights.

He was in fine shape when he returned. They fed him, they administered the meds. He remembered where his food was, water and the litter box. He remembered the doors and the placement of the rooms in the house. No adverse effects. Great!

He does not run up to Wee and chase him, jump on him or suck on him. He hardly acknowledges Wee. There has been no crying by Wee, no cat fights, no disturbances. Nolan has been awesome! He also is hanging around the house more. Of course, it is really hot outside and he may be more comfortable inside in the air conditioning. Dunno! But, he is much nicer.

No, this is not the first time we have been away from home. We did leave him home in a separate area of the house than Wee, the last time we left. We have only left three times since he's been with us. The pet sitter, Billy, had to keep them apart in order to have peace. We have two litter boxes, one for each, in different partsof the house. Maybe the trick was to send him to the Vet's where he

must have been in on some obedience lessons. Or maybe he missed being home! Yeah, Right!

Nolan now weighs 10.5 pounds while Wee weighs 5.5 pounds.

On the left is a picture of Wee and Nolan. Nolan is sucking on Wee and Wee is trying to protect himself. This is not a picture of two cats in a love hug!

This picture was taken before Nolan went to the Vet's for an extended stay.

As I write, it is midday, it is hot outside. Nolan is inside as is Wee. There is peace. It is amazing. I will try to post an album of some pictures of Nolan that I have been taking when I see him in funny positions. To me, he looks like the "straight" man in a comedic episode. Double Click on the picture at the upper left, then you can go to Picasa to see the comments and view in a larger format.

BTW, Nolan is a mixed Raggdoll cat. He isn't a pure bred, if he was, his eyes would be blue. They are gold. Enjoy the pictures.

Introducing the New Member of the Family.

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We had no intention of ever having a new kitten join our family. After all, two old people and one very old (16year old) cat were enough in a household. Everyone was set in their ways and things were running smoothly. Everyone knew each others rules. It was nice.

One day in late October, our next door neighbor, Angie, was gifted with a new kitten. Angie's old cat had been killed by dogs late one night about six months ago. She longed of another cat, but her mother has allergies and didn't really want to have a cat in the house again. Angie called her new kitten, Nola for New Orleans LA because it had black and gold eyes. She believed it to be a female. It was Gorgeous. Gordon called it a show cat. Its markings are precise.


That's Nola looking inside our house.

Angie's next door neighbor, Earline loves cats. Angie came to our house looking for Nola one Saturday morning. She told us about the kitten and how Earline really liked it. We said, "No, we haven't seen a gray and white kitten. She said she was going to wash her car, that Nola liked water and hopefully would come around when she heard it.

About two days later, Nola showed up at our house. She looked hungry. We did not feed her. She was very nervous, but let us pet her. She chased leaves and feathers. She was very entertaining and very unassumingly funny. Our granddaughter, Annie came over to make Jack-O-Lanterns and played with Nola.


Nola loves to jump up at feathers.
So, Nola began spending a lot of time at our house. We started to feed her. We talked to Earline. Earline didn't really want Nola, and said Angie said she couldn't keep Nola because her mother's allergies acted up every time Nola came inside.

Earline, Angie's neighbor, had taken Nola to her vet's to have her checked out. Vet said she was a he and less than six months old. Earline and her husband had a conference with me and Gordon. Both couples are retired. They have two inside cats. We have one. Earline agreed to pay for half of the neutering fee/rabies shot for Nola. She called for an appointment at her vet's. I have had cats die of feline leukemia and it was awful. I wanted the newly named, Nolan, to have those shots and the aids shot. He also had ear mites. When it was all over, Earline paid $68 of the fee for neutering and rabies. We paid $325 for the ear mites, the other shots, half the neutering, etc. Earline uses a very expensive vet. Nolan will not see this vet again. Our vet would have charged maybe half that.

So, it all boils down to we have a new kitten. He weighs 8.2 pounds. He is tall, long and has big feet. He is very handsome and a show stopper. He has changed his name from Nolan to Trouble. He changed it by his actions. We keep forgetting that he doesn't know the rules.

He's pulling Annie's hair, above. He's sleeping in my computer cabinet, below. He jumps on the table. He earns his name.

He is very inquisitive, he loves water. He puts his paws in it to drink. He is the most "pliable" cat I've ever held. He is not at all ridged. He has a big stomach. He makes noises when he eats, kinda like a pig at a trough.
I am typing about him in this blog and he just jumped up and got behind the monitor. He is so big, I couldn't get him out without displacing the monitor, so I took his picture.

Wee is really unhappy about the new addition. Trouble attacks Wee because he moves. When Wee tries to run away, it just makes Trouble chase after him. Trouble grabs him, engulfs him in his arms and sucks on poor, outraged, scared, Wee. Yes, Vet said he was weaned too early from his mother and he will always suck like that. He sucks on pillows, on my robe, on my arm. His sucking hurts. Wee screams and we run because we know he's being killed. You must know, Wee weighs 5 lbs. and has short fur. Trouble has long fur and is a big 'presence'. We find screaming Wee under Trouble and held tightly by the intruder who is biting and sucking on him. I have not taken a picture of this, but I've had many opportunities daily. I think it is more important to rescue Wee than snap a picture of his misery. Trouble gets put in "time out" about 20 times a day. "Time out" is either outside or behind a closed door in a room away from Wee.

Wee appears larger here, but that is an optical illusion due to the camera angle. Our solace now is that Trouble has a big fur coat and can take the cold. We don't feel badly about putting him out. Our promise to him is that he would always sleep in. We don't want the same fate for him as our neighbors cat.

He still visits the houses in the neighborhood. He's after the food dishes that are out for him.

He has been given flea meds and the ear mites are almost gone, so he is not as hyper as he was. He just got his big teeth in his mouth. They were those tiny ones up until about a month ago. Today, after he jumped on the back of my leg and I felt the claws Wee has been exposed to, I cut his toe nails. Argh! That hurt. I guess Wee feels like a pin cushion.

When he's being good, he is awesome!

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New Kid on the Block!

;

I don't think Wee (our cat) likes the new kid who showed up about a month ago. She comes from another street, but gets here through a hole in the fence. She is young, but will probably have kittens in maybe three - four months. She is one of those "leg cats". She likes to be petted and cannot get enough attention. We call her June.

I saw her jump up and catch a bird. I hollered and ran after her. She let the bird go and if flew away. She is very agile and jumped about 5 feet to get the bird off the feeder. Since then, I have raised the feeders, but still I have seen her try to get her bird. You can tell she just MUST have this excitement in her life.

One day, Wee was inside. June came on the outside ledge of the window and I thought Wee would break through the window. It was really interesting. See here.

THE Birthday Event!

Things were beginning to be suspenseful. . .Would the guest of honor show up? Or would he be too "scared y cat" to attend?
The "cake" was ready, the party hat was there, and the guest were soon to arrive.
The guest of honor was somewhere..... Would he venture to come forward? Did he know the party was in his honor? Did he know he was sixteen (16) years old???



That one was not to disappoint. Wee did indeed show up. He showed up right on time and remained with the "party" until he had had his fill of his special "cake".

Only, he would have no part of the party hat!




What is this, he sniffed?
"Oh boy! ... Oh boy! ... IT'S my FAVORITE!..... Tuna!" He eats dry cat food and rarely gets the opportunity for Fancy Feast, but today... was HIS day, let everyone else eat cake, he was onto something exceptional! And, you wonder... did he eat it all? ......... Every last lick!


.......................................But, he left the candle.
..............................................................HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Wee!

:-)

In honor of Wee or Oui, the cat!

April is about the time our dear friend and pet, Wee was born. So, this year, we're celebrating his life, his sixteen (16) years of life!

We will have a birthday party later on in the month. He actually was probably born on April Fool's Day since Nature has played so many "Jokes" (not funny ones) on him.

We got him from the Humane Society in October of 1994. We went to get a female, Billy likes black cats. Billy picked him out. They showed us this small, black cat and said it was a female. It looked scrawny. It was in a cage with a lot of shredded newspaper. They said it was between four and six weeks old.

The adoption papers were signed, the fee for the shots, neutering and adoption were paid. We took the small, black, guaranteed healthy, female kitten home. It came home to two other neutered cats. Kate, a real mean, dominating cat who chased yelping dogs out of the yard. Moose on the other hand was a real laid back male tabby cat. It must have been a traumatic experience for the tiny kitten.

Billy named her Kelly and she ate, then had the "runs" and couldn't stop scratching her head. Two days later, still having "runs", I realized it may not be that she was scared of the two other cats, so we brought her to our vet. Vet said, "Hun hunnn, not a female, a male, older than six weeks and full of worms and ear mites!" So began the almost weekly visits to the Veterinarian. We renamed Kelly, Wee, after Wee Willie Winkle in the children's poem.

Wee had had one testicle that had not dropped and had to be surgically removed which meant an incision in his underside. The ear mites required treatment for more than a month. I was the "treater", now that was fun! Wee had to be wrapped in a towel, then put on each side and had yulky stuff pulled out of his ears. I am sure you know he liked the procedure.

Once the worms were eliminated, the "runs" did not get much better, so the Vet prescribed Prescription (note: EXPENSIVE) Science Diet for cats with sensitive stomachs. Ahh, that worked! Along with the monthly flea medicine, Wee, who always kept himself very clean, seemed to be relaxing.

I wanted Wee to be a "house cat" since the other two were "in and out" cats. Our cats have always slept in so that we did not have to deal with abscesses due to nightly cat fights. So, Wee never went outside. He wanted to, but we didn't let him go out, no matter how hard he tried to get through the door. About in January, Wee's fur came off. He was bald, except where he could not reach with his tongue. He licked all of his fur off. (Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of this. )

Back to the Vet. She gave him Valium. Yes, Valium, the drug to calm humans. It made him climb the walls. The fur did not grow back! Another Vet Visit. "Cut the Valium in half and try that for a few days." Another Vet Visit, cut the pill in fourths and try that. This was about the third week of a bald cat in our house. It was cold, I cut a sock up and he wore a sock for another week. This also prevented him from licking the fur, but it did not grow back. Another Vet Visit. She said, "It must be psychological. Is there anything he wants to do that you are not letting him do?" Yes, he wants to go outside. We don't let him. Vet: "Try letting him out."

When we got home, he stayed outside until nighttime. The fur grew back and by the middle of February, we had a furry Wee cat again. Wee was not a year old and Nature had already played big jokes on him. He is a survivor.

Billy is now on his own and no longer lives with us, so Wee is totally, MY CAT! Kate and Moose have passed on. Wee's personality has blossomed since he became an "ONLY". He still chases leaves and his tail. He runs and jumps, pounces on lizards, tries to keep other cats out of his yard, and is in very good health.

He and I are on the same wave length and understand what the other wants us to do. (Mostly, what Wee wants me to do.) When I am patient, he is very obedient, is very well trained and willing to please. He follows me around the house. He comes to get me when he wants to eat and sometimes we know he wants company as he eats, so we oblige. He tells me his litter box needs attention, which it gets twice a day. He waits nearby where I take an afternoon nap, then he snuggles on my lap and we nap together. He sits by my side or on my shoulder while I do computering. He will not jump on the furniture unless there is a mat for him to lay on. He reminds us to lift the shades so he can sit on the window sill and look out. He loves massages and fur brushing. He has a sense of humor and I crack up with his silly looks. Oh, he still goes out, for maybe a total of 15 minutes a day. He is a HOUSE CAT! His name should be "Oui" which is French for "Yes". He said "Yes" to life and has for sixteen years, enriched mine.