A quick note to Amy

First in the cat story series. Started as a note to Amy about how we might handle Power Puff's terror of the next vet visit, and her subsequent fear of us. Originally sent 7/31/2008:

I told Mom about at least one of your ideas (just one of us take PP - and I think you are right) but Im not sure I got the others. The boys were rough housing on the bed this morning, and I thought it would wake mom, but they didnt. Mom tells me that in the middle of the night they were sleeping while hugging each other! Now it looks to me like Lucky may not be feeling well - he seems so quiet - we are watching him. He still is real nervous around me, and PP avoids me like the devil. In the middle of the night I went by her sleeping on my desk chair, and she let me gently pat her but it made her nervous. As I went by her back to bed and she saw me starting to do it again, she jumped down and ran. Mom got her to come over and get close enough to just about touch her. But to get there she went all the way around the coffee table so she wouldnt get near me. I am such an ogre!

Stepping back to orient newcomers

This one is a little out of order, but since I gave some background as to how we got to this state, I thought it should be presented early... Here is the original note from 8/21/2008:

Heres Lucky on the left...

Having three cats is such a treat, even though I worry that we are drifting into becoming the cat lady on the block. I think we have it under control though. Our three cats give us an endless display of individual personalities, flowing interactions, mood changes and interactions with us. Its come at a cost though, since Marley, who never thought of himself as a cat, and (for a cat) was pretty interactive with us. Lucky and Powder Puff we "rescued" from a life on the streets after they adopted us whenever we were outside and were just the sweetest things. They also were largely inseparable when we saw them outside.

We first picked up Lucky since he was so scrawny, and although he looked like he was only about 6 months old, it was visually obvious that he hadnt been neutered. Local neighbors all thought the cats belonged to someone else, so with increasing interpersonal contact and occasional contact with Marley, we felt we should be sure they were healthy and fixed. We did the same with Powder Puff a month later

Our original intent was that after the convalescent period inside, they would go back to living outside and we could rest assured that they were healthy and could continue contact with them. They had different ideas.

When we would give them the opportunity to go out, by opening the glass door they were staring out, they would sit down and look at us as if to say "No thanks, we know what its like out there, and we rather just watch."

During this period, they both remained stuck with us, demanding lots of love, and just learning about and playing in their new home. Marley would just follow them around warily keeping his eye on everything they did, but avoiding contact with them. Powder Puff would try to rub up against him and he would jump back and raise a paw ready to strike.

Times have changed.

All three cats are pretty independant of us, and other than at food times, dont have anywhere near the need to get love from us, although they have begun to once again appreciate it if we spend some time with them when they are not otherwise engaged.

Lucky is all over the place, eating voraciously, crashing for a nap afterwards, then attacking and wrestling Marley, and Powder Puff when she is game, or if she is not, keeping up a chase and attack campaign against her. He loves to go out, and stays out longer than the other two. Powder Puff is still jumpy, but likes quiet time with us the best, has a little sprite in her and will instigate fights with Lucky when she wants to be chased or thinks she can strike and get away.

Marley remains the most sedate, although his original fear of fighting with Lucky has completely disappeared. He will wrestle and fight as much as Lucky wants, and we have skirmishes all day long. Marley has always been pretty vocal, and has a number of trills and squeaks and high pitched sounds that make him unique (as far as we know) in the cat world. Interestingly both Lucky (first) and now Powder Puff have started using the same vocalizations in pretty much the same way Marley does. So now its real hard for us to figure out who is talking most of the time.

Yesterday we got quite worried about Lucky though. For the first time, he didnt eat, merely sniffing at food but not eating. I tried several different things since I know how vital food is to him, but he just wasnt interested. He was acting lethargic, and let Mary Ann pet him and stroke his stomach. Since we have seen them tearing up throw rugs and the like, we worried that he had gotten fibers in him that were not good. I decided to let them out fairly early to burn off energy. Lucky was in and out a few times, but didnt seem much better. Then sometime in the afternoon he didnt come back. We worried about him, but after all he had spent 2 years outside on his own, so we thought he would be okay. It got late and still no Lucky. It got dark and still no Lucky, and he didnt respond to calls. It got windy and still no Lucky. Suddenly it began to pour rain from the sky, and Lucky appeared at the door, came in and acted if nothing ws out of the ordinary. None of the cats ate very much last night.

But this morning we have our boy back. Although the Marley alarm clock had me awake it hadnt gotten me out of bed. However, while he was on the bed contemplating how to interrupt his current "snooze" setting, he was hit by a surprise attack from Lucky. A quck tussle ensued, and while I decided i didnt want to get in the middle of it to get them off the bed, they rolled over onto my leg and I got a couple of minor scratches on the leg and I decided to get up. When I sat up all fighting ended and all three cats went into fixed focus on me. I felt I was Elvis (in the fat years) wearing a glittered white body suit on stage with adoring fans hanging on my every move. Suffice it to say that things are back to normal. Fighting in the morning, acute attentiveness as to the feeding ritual, and now sleeping off an orgy of eating means that our boy Lucky is back.

Whats this all about?

When we moved to Florida, we brought our cat Marley who was our only pet. We have had a variety of pets over the years, including beloved dogs and a Cockatiel named Charlie after my youngest brother who tragically died many years ago in a bike/auto accident.

Since we have been here we have become true cat people, and this blog derives from some stories about our cat adventures that I began writing to Amy and Cal so they could share the crazy things that have been happening. Amy also has a cat, and Marley came to us from Cal, who is truely gifted with animals as he is in many ways.

I hope that it shows through in this blog how much love, respect and admiration we have for our children who are wonderful people who have so many unique gifts, including those they they havent discovered yet. We are blessed to have such a close relationship with them, and with Alex whom Amy brought into the family and is a great, industrious, funny and complex surfer dude.