Since 9 months I have a Main Coon, CH Caparos de Campos, 6 years old, since his birth it seems that poor Lince (his name since he left the show business) was a show cat. I do not know how he was treated, but … he did not have a normal cat behaviour when he came to me. His fur was in a bad condition, he had extreme diarrhea, could not jump, nor run, nor play and did not leave the small space in a big room which he had made his own. Now 9 months later and after many different diets, lots of love, he jumps, sits in front of windows outside, even walks outside, sleeps on top of the dogs, has an occasional difference with my other cat, asks loudly for food and enjoys laying on my lap and purrs loudly, but ….. the diarrhea is still there, although sometimes less sometimes more and there are movements in his belly. He was on different medications, but nothing helped. I gave him for a while a bit of yoghurt in the morning, seemed to help a bit, but then after 2 weeks back to diarrhea again, Is there somebody out there who can help!

 I wil be the first to admit that I am not a cat person. I have always had dogs. However, when Isaid “I DO” I inherited my husbands 6 year old Main Coon as part of the package. Tanner, our cat and more is an anomaly. As he is now a senior kitty his ways have changes. He begs like a dogs, favors Dennison chili over cat food, and insists on cereal with milk in the morning (Frosted Flakes are his favorite). He loves to snuggle and pretend to bite me with his lone long tooth. As with all of us accomadations need to be made as the cold weather months are setting in. He has taken to the nest-like bed his brother fashioned for him out of a favorite fleece blanket. I secured a heating pad underneath (it has a timer). He now takes longer naps and wakes with more skip in his step. As he is now solely an indoor cat, he will linger by the screen door sniffing the great outdoors. I will on occasion let him walk out front and he does with great hesitation. He loves to carress the jade tree, tip toe by the hedges, and chew on a long blade of grass. I LOVE PETS, but tanner is not a pet yet a family member. I often like peoples pets more than I like them. I feel so blessed to have my slew of “Fairy Dog Children” I am so pleased Honey just adopted an amazingly mellow kitty after loving my big kitty. I adore Rocky (4 pould RATweiler), Lucy (full figured chihuahua), Marble (petite mini doxy, who like Lucy doesn’t know she is a dog), and Diesel (An extraordinary lab my friend adopted from the SPCA). I have realized I am better with dogs that are not my own. Well pets are clearly a weekness of mine and make sure you consider hem and their needs before you adopt and as the climate changes.

Photographed by Kevin Steele

I am counting my big orange furry blessings.

Big orange cat #2

– License

Couldn’t have a better model to test my new camera…

An Update on all the animals:

1. The duck pond is now almost a small lake thanks to lots of rain this past 6 weeks and the city dredging out the surrounding area. I counted 10 ducks the other day, but could only find 2 geese out fo the 8 or so that used to be there. There was, of all things, an egret there, way off base from his coastal home,..at least 75 miles away as the egret flies.

2. The raccoons. Little Bit, who was fist-size early this summer when we captured him, is now a heft 9 lbs. and ready for release to a new home with lots of trees and brush and year round water, on some land owed by my friend Amy.

There are 3 possums here, all looking like teen-agers. Spot is out munching on some leftover cat food as I write, underneath an incredible full moon that is giving off, literally enough light to read by, as long as it’s not small print. Stripe and Spot seem to take turns showing up; there is another one a bit smaller who also comes by almost nightly. I rarely put anything stinky in the garbage, the possies eat almost everything edible except veggies..they really don’t like green veggies–except their delicious avocados.

3) There is a raccoon which comes by, very confrontational, refuses to back off. As they can be dangerous to possums and to cats, and to people with tooth and nail as well as diseases, I threw a glass of water on him and haven’t seen him since. Felt like scrooge.

4) The house has a new roof and some new flooring and counters. The cats were very stressed, so was their mum, but now it all looks so pretty, and the noise and the saws and pounding and people are all gone. Is good.

5) After a crisis, Leo is back and behaving. He is truly a “wild” cat who has never known human contact before. How he has kept himself alive all these years I will never know. He was getting a bad habit of coming toward the door when I came out with food, and because of the porch configuration, I would be backed into a corner. He doesn’t seem to know the difference between a meow and a hiss. Carol says that he is just warning me, even as he is very grateful to see me. I told him though her that if he didn’t stop hissing I would stop giving him his cream, which he adores, even if it’s 1/2 and 1/2 or milk. And he disappeared, and didn’t come back for 5 days. So I called her again, and had her explain that “cream” didn’t mean “food”, that I would always feed him, but he was scaring me. He was back at his next evening feeding time, has figured out to stay a bit aways and has, almost, stopped hissing.
To make up for the 5 days he missed, he now comes morning, noon and night, :lol
It’s getting colder at night, into the 50’s, and that’s when he started coming in the morning. He lays on the bench and waits for me. When he sees that I see him, he gets up and comes to the door, sitting there as I open the door to bring his food out. His enthusiasm for his food and his regularity in coming, show his gratitude as far as I am concerned.

6. Birdie has now been here 4 months. Her watery eye almost has disappeared–dry for days and days. It’s obviously very stress related. I was getting very concerned because, after a period of being mostly in the house, she began ostracizing us and spent about 22 hours a day in the garage, coming out a bit in the evening and at meals. She slept almost all the time. She didn’t seem ill, but didn’t make any attempt to interact.
During the time the repairmen were here, I made some grabs for her to get her into the bedroom where I put both cats as repairman, I’m sure now, have a “never shut the door if you can help it” gene. I sort of grabbed her under the arms and “walked” her into the bedroom, a distance of maybe 6 feet. She would panic after about 2 foot. I really don’t want to have to fight her into the carrier, though it may come to that if she starts acting ill.
But, I finally put some “reliv”, a nutritional supplement that I had given to another cat when he became clinically depressed after I adopted another cat.
By the second day, she spent some time in the house with us; by the third day, she spent most of the day, by the 4th, she was actually playing with a little mouse and some tinfoil balls. She is now sleeping in he house at night, usually in the bedroom in the cat tree. She sits on my lap several times a day/night, even sharing it with Tucker. She has been tearing around chasing flies, will do anything for her treats, and stays in the same room as Tucker or I. When all the reconstruction commotion was going on, she actually came out at times when the repairman were on the roof, not likely to come inside, and I let them out of the bedroom. Tonight a neighbor came over, ..Birdie ran away when she came, but then popped out a few minutes later, showing much braveness.
We finally got 5 of her nails cut…5 to go. She is chubby, bowling ball with legs still, yet I rarely see her eating. Now that she is not so reclusive, I’m hoping she will skinny up a bit. She never even cleans the little bit of wet food I put in her bowl 2X a day, and Tucker usually lurks around waiting for her to finish, then cleans up the remains.

#7. Tucker is doing wonderfully. The beige in his coat has changed to a gray tone and he is gorgeous. Despite the recent photo of “Beer Belly”–from the way he was sitting, he has lost a little over 1/2 lb. (I thought it was more, so it is that he lost the fat and gained muscle. ) He is much more energetic than when he first came to live here one year ago. He recovered nicely from his 2-tooth surgery. Occasionally, he lurks, waiting for Birdie so he can scare her and then chase her, very benignly.
He usually sleeps with me, though never wakes me up. When he knows I am awake, he makes a beeline from the foot of the bed to come up and nuzzle my nose and pet my face and loves it when I pet him all over, especially under the chin.
Both cats come when I call them–Birdie almost 100%, Tucker most of the time, and 100% when the call is accompanied by the rattle of the foil sack around some treats.
He still throws up fairly often. They each get about 1/3 of a 5 oz. can of moist cat food a day, though I’ve, (aghast!) resorted to Friskies, etc., after I threw out about $30. worth of the “good stuff” because they wouldn’t eat it. The good stuff feels very dry and gummy, even when I add water, so I cant’ say I blame them–it doesn’t have any of that pungent animal leftover smell either. They also get kitty kibble/krack of Origin and a Wellness brand to eat “at will.” However, I learned that 6 mos ago, Wellness sold out to…a financial company. As profit will be the ultimate goal, I doubt that I will trust that brand again….IAMS used to be THE! cat food until Proctor and Gamble bought them out years ago…the quality suffered, IMO, as evidenced by the observable changes–dryness, more shedding, dander,– in my cats’ coats. The internet was rampant with testimony and pictures of the animal abuse as P&G tried to develop cheaper products, or so I read and was told by some of the small retail pet companies.
Tucker still runs when company comes, and is not seen until after they leave. The good news is, he comes out after 15 mins. or so, instead of 5 hours later, once he considers the coast clear.

#8. And finally! in addition to some playing between the cats, Tucker feeling much better and getting svelte (Birdie and I are now the only fatties in the house), Leo doing good about faithfully showing up on time for meals, the possums fed, the raccoons gone, the ducks afloat, the plants and weeds growing for the first time six months, I even managed to get 5 of Bridie’s claws cut! All is good.

Lanci, Remus und ich sind wieder retour von der Katzenausstellung im Ferry Dusika Radstadion.

Wir haben wieder viele bekannte Gesichter gesehen und ganz nette Unterhaltungen geführt.

Well, that explains why he is getting so big.  After a bit of research, I learned that these cats can grow to 20 plus pounds, have a distinctive meow, and generally like water.  Additionally, they also grow until age 4 or 5.  Since he is 1 and a half and checks in at 13.7 lbs, we probably have a ways to go.

In related news, Clara has a tabby pattern (apparently tabby is not a specific breed) and has the mark of the M on her forehead.  She also has thumbs, which I think are awesome.

Oscar at 10 months and 8 lbs.

Clara at 1 and a half and 7 lbs.

Boo has the best life. He has to be the most joyful feline around, especially today while we raked the leaves. He kept chasing after them and running around and jumping like mad (he can jump REALLY high!). He tunneled through the piles and here he is hidden beneath them.

What a lovely dear guy Boo is. And such a beautiful cat. I can’t believe he’s already six months old. His tail has become an amazing plume. He still follows me everywhere and tries to help with everything I’m doing. A wonderful companion.

Bigger all the time. He was sleepy today so I actually got some work done. He’s become an expert in distracting me from work.

Here’s Boo on my desk again – he’s starting to stretch out, and between knocking pencils and things off the desk and jumping in the waste basket underneath, he feels he’s contributing quite a lot to my work. He’s also pretty good at walking on my keyboard and might be able to type in his own blog notes soon.

Boo was such a wildman today! He LOVES being outside, and he ran right up and down trees and started sharpening his claws on them and even let out a wonderful little tiger-growl. He’s very bold and confident. His favorite spot was this lilac tree.

He loves this spot of sun by the bathtub. He also loves the bathtub itself and jumped right in while we were taking a bath. Kind of surprised him! But he still sits right on the edge and dips his paws in even after that. He always wants to be doing what we’re doing and loves water.

I picked Boo (his real name is Mifune, named after Toshiro Mifune the Japanese samurai actor, but we keep calling him Boo for some reason) at first because he had the most beautiful face, and then because he let me hold him in my lap a while and looked up at me with the most intelligent sweet eyes. My fiance isn’t that big on pets, but I told him I came with at least one Maine Coon, non-negotiable. When we brought Boo home, he hid under the bed and we sat on the floor a while waiting. Then Boo came out and lay there just looking at us, and the room, soaking it all in. When I looked at my fiance he had a tear falling down his cheek, something I don’t believe I’ve seen before. He said, “He seems like John Keats.” I think he loves him.

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Wie viele vielleicht wissen oder auch nicht ist eine meiner gezüchteten Katzen “Flash Fire” in den USA bei einer ganz lieben Züchterfreundin Liz Thomas Hansen – Chemicoon Maine Coon.

Fire hat in der vergangenen Showsaison folgende Titel erreicht:

Witchcraft Flash Fire of Chemicoon

RW – Regional Winner (2x; einmal als Kitten und einmal als Erwachsene)

SGC – Supreme Grand Champion

IW – International Winner

LA – LifeTime Achievements

und

Best Allbreed Cat 2008 – 2009 in der Great Lake Region TICA USA

Word can’t express how happy we are about this & proud of Fire. Fire is a very special cat, one whom will always be with me. – Die Worte ihrer Besitzerin Liz

Und heute fand ich doch tatsächlich eine Homepage wo Bilder von Fire sind – World’s Tallest Domestic Cat

Ich möchte mich hier noch bei all meinen Katzen bedanken, das sie ihr Leben mit mir teilen und meines so sehr bereichern,

bei Fire dass sie nicht nur eine großartige Show und Zuchtkatze sondern auch noch eine Krankenhaus “Therapie Cat” ist,

bei allen Fire – Fans und zu guter letzt noch bei Liz!  DANKE

Dallia des Princes du Maine, la Maine Coon blogueuse…

My favorite seat is the recliner where I read, watch TV and take naps.
Tucker’s favorite seat is the left hand arm of the recliner.
Birdie rarely sits on the chair or anywhere near me.
Tonight, Birdie jumped up and sat on the left hand arm, Tucker jumped up and sat on the right, with their butts on my lap. And they sat that way for 45 mins., about 40 mins. more than Birdie’s “closeness” record. I alternately petted them, and then just let my hand lay on them–and I could feel the very quiet purring.  It was very sublime.

Then they jumped off and I got up. An hour later, I sat down and here they came again. For another 20 minutes. Wahoo!

Leo has gotten crazy, he wasn’t here for 5 days, then acted like I was going to chop his head off when he showed up today. His face looked swollen, and he was as skitzy as the first day he came to eat years ago. I had asked the communicator to talk with him to tell him to stop hissing at me, at times he looks so mean, he scares me a bit, as I am somewhat in a corner when I take food out to him. I told him I wasn’t going to give him any cream if he kept hissing at me. I’m thinking, to him “cream” meant food.

I’m not very good at animal communication, as the saying goes, when I sits, I sleeps. So this morning I managed to stay awake long enough to, I think, communicate. Then I had to leave. When I got home he was waiting for me but acting very scared. He ate and left.
Lots has been going on here,..we have a new floor and new counter tops, and we are about to get a new roof. If you’ve never had the delight of being in a house getting a new roof, you can’t imagine how much fun, and loud, that is. I was concerned about the cats, so had Carol also talk with them, to give them a choice to stay at the vets where it was nice and quiet or here. I’m especially concerned about Tucker, as stress can localize into all kinds of illnesses,..figure the vet bills will cost more than the roof. Tucker is a huge scaredy cat with any noise, even a doorbell on TV sends him scrambling under the couch. But they both said home was better.
Birdie also said she liked it here, that it felt very safe. Her eye is rarely watering, I am still giving the L-Lysine. In the past week, I only saw it squinty and watery on a day when the repairman was in and out of the house.

When I came into the office, having left the recliner and TV in favor of the computer, both of them followed me and Tucker is now on the desk next to the ‘puter, and Birdie is in one of the chairs I keep for them on the client side of the desk. Awwww.

I got new pictures of Little Bit the baby possum we rescued in June. He’s now 9 lbs., and ready for placement somewhere. But the computer had been crazy since the back-up Hard drive quit! So I went for online back up and it took 3 days of continuous run to back up all of the computer. And of course, that’s when I uploaded the new version of my word processor, and now all kinds of weird things are happening, probably encouraged by me. And one of the things that happened was,…I lost the possie pictures,..sob! I will upload them when the rehabber resends them to me.

It’s been raining since Friday, every day. Hope it get sit out of its system as I will be having a booth to sell my greeting cards Sunday the 26th for HOWL-oween. Even though it’s a doggie event, since I have doggie cards, I can be a vendor and promote the cards and my Kitty Kounseling business. Still not quite ready to start that but close. Huge project that has been an elephant on my shoulders for over a year…will be complete tomorrow, almost all done except some xeroxing and taking it to the post office . Yeah! I think I will have my life back then.
Cats and I are fighting over there litter. They want the smelly sand stuff which weighs so much I can hardly handle the jugs and boxes; I want the Feline Pine, because it’s lightweight, cheap easy and controls order better than anything. Guess who are winning?
The other news event is that Tucker is in love with the repairman’s mowing machine. He left it here overnight; I went looking for Tucker who seemed to be missing in action, and found him in the garage, rubbing his cheeks against the motor with his nose and cheeks totally covered in soot! Ewww….

The cats, especialy Birdie, loves the new floors in the bedrooms…Costco laminate. She runs, then stops, and slides across the rest of it, slams into something, and turns around and runs the other way, :lol Tucker watches.

All of the rain has refilled the duck/geese pond. It took several days before they made thier way across the street from the kind neighbors yard where they had been enjoying the blue wading pools and the free dog food donations from the neighborhood. I expect them in my yard any day now, as it has turned into a second pond. We have very little dirt, maybe four inches at most, and the rest is caliche, soft rock, that goes on down to China.
Gotta go. Didn’t realize this was so long..however do people write short blogs? Check back soon. and thanks for visiting.  Oh, and let’s give a big hand to Christopher Columbus for being able to find America, before, during or after everyone else was doing it also, but to get the credit for it.

I haven’t posted any pictures of Cricket since the day I got him, so here’s one for you. He’s soft and fluffy and insane, which is a pretty good combination for cat (less-good for my laptop and curtains).

But not as fat as he was a year ago!  The prescription diet is working.  Hamlet officially lost a pound.  Only six, yes I said six, pounds to go.

My cat is part Maine Coon, which translates to big fluffy cat.   Somewhere my cat’s fluff got way out of hand.

It was an easy enough thing to let happen.  He was a shelter rescue.  Very underweight.   I was committed to making him happy, and who knew some cats can’t regulate their eating?

Vet visits ended with a, “He’s healthy.”  After a while I became concerned, but even my questioning of Hamlet’s weight during a doctor visit two years ago ended with my vet saying the cat was healthy.  Nothing to be concerned about.

Thankfully I found a sane doctor who agreed, yes, Hamlet is overweight.  No, not overweight, obese.  My 22 pound cat had to lose 7 pounds pronto.  That is almost 1/3 of his weight.  I was mortified.  I had become one of those pet owners.  Loving my cat to death.

Well, that was a year ago.  My attempts at play, measuring food, and cutting out all treats didn’t do the trick.  Three weeks ago I decided to give the prescription food a try.

Thank god it’s working.  Hamlet is officially thinner.  Here’s a photo of him tonight on the patio, looking happy:

Here’s a photo of the bag of food he attempted to rip into.  Okay, I admit that I left the bag on the floor.  Upon noticing my cat dragging the back around the room, and on one occasion lifting the full, brand new bag off the floor and walking a foot before letting it drop, I let him play with the bag for my amusement.

Unfortunately I didn’t get his best tackle on video, so I’ll spare you.  Here are the puncture wounds:

]]> http://matthewgraybosch.wordpress.com/2009/09/29/are-you-sure-cats-dont-like-water/ Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:43:03 +0000 matthewgraybosch http://matthewgraybosch.wordpress.com/2009/09/29/are-you-sure-cats-dont-like-water/ http://metropolitanhomesickblues.wordpress.com/2009/09/27/molly-the-mouser/ Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:13:19 +0000 metropolitanhomesickblues http://metropolitanhomesickblues.wordpress.com/2009/09/27/molly-the-mouser/

Molly is a cat that couldn’t care less. She is content to sleep most of her life away. All she wants are her treats, some catnip and of course your undivided attention when she demands it. Don’t expect anything more from her. She will only come to you for scratching and stroking when she feels like it. When she’s had enough, she will leave. Try to make her do what you want and she will scream at you incessantly until you let her be. Molly deals with you on her terms. Don’t expect anything more.

She was six years old when we took her in. We’re not sure what breed she is. We think she’s a Maine Coon. That’s not important, though. Whatever she may be, Molly is a beautiful longhaired tabby.

N. rescued her from a house already populated with a dog and three cats. When she first saw her, Molly was sitting, Buddha-like, high atop a hutch, as far away as possible from the surrounding confusion. Her attitude hasn’t changed much.

Now and then there are sparks of aggression. She will sit with me in the evening and allow me to pet her. Then after a ten or so minutes her ears go up and her tail flicks in agitation. Suddenly she bats my hand with her paws and bites. Now this cat has no claws front or back. But her teeth are needle sharp. She’ll fight with me for a minute or two, and then leave.

Molly isn’t much of a stalker either. Birds, chipmunks and squirrels ignore her. It is as if they know she isn’t much of a threat to their lives. I’ve seen her on our deck slinking towards finches and chipmunks. But nothing ever comes of it.  This cat is no hunter.

Or so we thought.

The other night, in the family room, a tiny mouse ran from under the chesterfield, along the baseboard and behind the TV. Molly saw it and to our surprise reacted like a real cat. But before she could pounce, the mouse, terrified by this creature no doubt, made it safely back under the sofa. Molly followed. Nothing happened. We went to bed. Normally she races us to the bedroom. But not tonight, tonight she stayed…watching.

We didn’t feel her presence on our duvet until about four AM. She was more rambunctious than usual and for some reason, tried to wake us up.

Later that morning we found the mouse. When I lifted the blanket off the sofa the poor thing fell to the floor. It lay on the carpet on its back, legs flailing, unable to right itself, unable to run and hide. It was injured and helpless. Our blasé cat was elsewhere…sleeping.

Obviously Molly the Mouser spent the night toying with the poor creature. After she tired of annoying her quarry she must have tucked it between the cushion and blanket and retired for the night.

We never, ever thought she had the killer instinct in her. It was latent, deep in the blood, I guess…

Molly is still sleeping. And after a night of mousing she probably believes she needs the rest. Molly has debunked her own self-created myth…she is a real cat after all.

we had 2 maine coon cats.  the manger of the town home complex we lived in found them abandoned in one of the garages & called to ask if i wanted them.  of course i said no (i was never a cat person).  but, she talked me into at least seeing them.  both kittens fit into my hands.  one lifted up a bit and kissed me on the nose.  and i was a goner.  i officially became a cat-mom then & there.

they were extremely young when i got them, so i had to bottle feed them for 3 or 4 weeks.  i really did become their mom.  they brought so much love, laughter & joy to me / us over the next 10 + years.  alley died 2 + years ago of cardio myopothy (heart disease ~ a common problem with bigger cats because their organs haven’t caught up with their size & have to work 2ce as hard as regular sized cats).  bodhi followed his brother a year later with a complication from kidney disease.

there isn’t a day i don’t miss them both.  they completed our little family & it’s felt like something’s missing ever since.  we purposely decided to wait 1 year from when bodhi left us before we’d consider another furr-baby.  it was a year in july.  we negotiated a cat-clause in our lease for the upcoming year, but so far neither of us is ready to consider it.  for now, our memories hold us.

love & miss you boys.  hope you’re basking in the sunlight where ever you are.   xoxo. <3

(interesting little side note:  this comic strip is written by a man who used to be my tennis coach, david coverly.)