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Their names are Phoebe and Toonces. That's what we named them. Cat tears and anguish, purrs and stretches...fur-licks and kneading the carpet, and 25-year-old, cloth Lazy-boy...tarp for a bed on the laundry-room floor, or rafters above, where no one can touch her....How did this happen? I, who have never had a more demanding pet than a Siamese Fighting Fish, am the co-mother of two brown-haired, green-eyed, five-year-old domestic tabbies.
I offered Pat a cat as a 16-year anniversary present; we went that afternoon. The animal-shelter worker said, "How do you feel about taking a pair? They're sisters." The sister feature was irresistible, and we said yes right away.
So far, they're cute and sheddy, and their food smells bad, but they don't, and Phoebe rubbed against my legs finally after letting me pet her for a long time. She likes being brushed, too.
Earlier this semester, a classmate said I seemed like a dog-person more than a cat-person and when I asked why, she told me, "You seem very orderly. Cats are complex." I don't think that's primarily why we got 'em -- to prove my classmate wrong.
I think it's mostly because Pat has been asking for a cat for years. She had a series of them, growing up, and it's also because I saw a man carrying his dog in his arms the other day, apparently to protect the dog's paws from the burning sidewalk, and because I saw my childhood friend Sarah, posing with her dog in her Facebook picture, and I thought, Why not?
Pat has always said, "They relax you."
I've always replied, "They smell and they'll ignore me and will love only you."
So far, Toonces, who Pat named, isn't loving either of us while Phoebe, who I named, is the adventurous one. They will be indoor cats. If anyone has tips on how to make Toonces feel more at home, or any general cats-as-pets tips, please let me know....They did seem to like being in our car and going for rides....
2 comments:
Hi Rarly,
I've been reading backwards, catching up after traveling a lot this month. It's very interesting starting with the present and uncovering the past!
I thought, when i first saw the cats' names, "_Pat_ has to have named Toonces!" and i'm pleased to know i was right. ;)
And ya know - they eat dry food too, which is much less stinky. I wouldn't feed a cat canned food as a regular thing - Worfina was fine with dry food (and things she caught) for a long time.
When she was declining towards the end of her life and wasn't into eating, i fed her rotisserie chicken scraps and then organic ground raw turkey, which she loved. There was a book, i think it was The Natural Cat, which had recipes for actually cooking for cats - and there must be a lot of stuff on the web about that now.
Have you seen the Bento Box blog? http://www.cookingcute.com/gallery_1006.htmI bet there's a cat version of that somewhere, where someone makes beautiful meals for their cat and photoblogs them. :)
Hey: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kitsa_sakurako/695232834/
I still miss Worf a lot.
Oh, here's another 'cats don't have to smell that bad' tip, besides No Wet Food (Except Actual Meat or Fish or Whatever Real Food): Feline Pine cat litter. It actually smelled piney instead of disgusting - and not with perfumes but because it was just pine sawdust pellets - and is way better for them (and, i expect, us too!) because of not breathing the clay dust from the more common scoopable kind. Which i always found gross. Feline Pine changed my life.
For cat personality stuff, flower remedies can be a good thing to try - seriously!
http://www.fesflowers.com/FES_Quintessentials1.htm
Advisorially,
Marn
Marni, thanks for the advice. I researched the Feline Pine and it's US$4.69 for 7 pounds compared with US$17.69 for 40 pounds of Fresh Step. I hope I'm not being like people who don't bother to get Radon taken out of their basements, since it's expensive and only a certain amount of risk....By the way, we did have that done earlier this year, since it's where we watch TV.
Guess what? Phoebe just wrote her first blog entry: http://sarahsiegelstories.blogspot.com/2008/10/phoebes-first-blog-entry.html.
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