And Then There Were Four

Fluffy lost her battle with Chronic Renal Failure a little after 11:30 this morning. She went peacefully. The last few minutes, she was out of pain.

When I got home from school yesterday afternoon, I saw how changed she was. Her face was different. Her eyes were different. She wasn't Fluffy anymore. She was a ghost.

The dreams I had over the last week were her saying good-bye and begging for release.

I do have a couple of photos of her from yesterday and today, but I prefer to remember her with us, with her spirit engaged.

She will be buried tomorrow, after her grave is dug. I don't believe in digging graves unless I have to. So, I wait until they are needed.

The other cats pretty much ignored her the last few weeks. When I sat down to talk to Fluffy yesterday and last night, they crowded around asking why I was spending time on a ghost. They had said good-bye to her, but I had not.

This morning, when we arrived at the vet's office, she mewed excitedly. It was like she knew she was going home, over the Rainbow Bridge. She wanted to go.

Her gentle spirit will be missed. I've done most of my grieving before this, over her illness. I will probably cry later, but right now, I just have business to attend to. The business of dying.

Sleep in peace, my Flufferdoodle. My Fluffy Bear.

Bad Dreams

I've been having bad dreams all week. It's been hard to sleep. Several of the dreams are about Fluffy. I had another one a while ago, and I haven't been able to get back to sleep.

I was turned loose, running for cover, and Fluffy met me on the trail. I called for her to follow me. She was wearing some kind of square thing around her neck, hanging down. When I got to safety, she met me. The "harness" was hanging on by a thin thread, and I removed it.

I can't think of a more poignant dream about the harness of life. Fluffy is ready to go.

I'm at school right now. I've been running past her and doing so much for myself and everyone else, that I haven't had time to concern myself with her more than getting fluids into her every time I'm home. I've been "running past her" and expecting her to keep up or come to find me.

The other cats pile on me when I'm home. They miss me, too. They take my time, and she lays in her bed. I call to her, she looks my way, and then snuggles back into her bed. She comes up to my chair, and climbs into it using her claws, walks across the table beside it, and lays in the cat-tree by the window. She can't climb up into it anymore, to lay in the sun. She doesn't stop for cuddles. They hurt - unless it's her head or tail. She's spent one night on the bed with me in the last two months. Probably, that was her "good-bye" sleep with me, but I mis-read it.

I'll be home with her tonight. I'll take the time to sit with her and talk with her. I need to see that she's ready. I need to say good-bye to her. We have an appointment with her vet for Saturday morning for more fluids. It may just be her time to sleep the long sleep, instead.

I'm a little somber this morning. I'm a little sad. I knew this was coming, but I kept hoping I'd have a little more time with her. Wait till Thanksgiving. Wait till the semester's over. Wait for me. Don't go, little one, don't go.

I'll miss her. 

Fluffy Got a Bath

I gave Missy Fluffers a bath the other day. No, I didn't take photos. She did fairly well. I couldn't find the vaseline to put in her eyes, but the shampoo didn't get there, only the rinse water. She doesn't look too good because I used cream rinse to make sure she wouldn't have mats. It didn't work, and didn't rinse out very well. I guess it's a good thing she doesn't groom herself anymore. At least she doesn't have any more fleas!

Yep, she's really weak. She got on my lap once this past weekend. Only once. She is affectionate, but seems tired. She just wants to sleep and lol around in the sun. It was very warm yesterday and I opened the windows for a while. She got up in the windowsill, then laid in the cat tree - her favorite place - and sunned for a while.

She loves her wet food, and that's probably what's keeping her going. They each get 1/4 can of food a day, spread over 2 feedings. I have to spread it or Beasley gets sick. He still gets sick, but not so much as he does if I give him more at one time.

I don't know if Fluffy will make it this next two weeks until I get home again. I have several friends watching her and the others. There is a vet we can take her to, if we need more fluids.

Like "if" is possible at this point. Of course she needs more fluids...  Poor baby.

I wonder if she was saying goodbye last night, when she got on my lap. She didn't stay very long, just long enough to be uncomfortable. One side is very tender, and the other you can pet without her flinching. She tends to lay on the tender side, possibly protecting it. But it hurts her, so she moves around and seems restless, without being restless, if that makes any sense. She gets comfortable, closes her eyes, and dozes. She still wants to be around all the action.

As long as she wants to stay, I'll help her stay.

Fluffy

Fluffy has found someone she loves almost as much as she loves me - my soon-to-be ex-roommate. He's moving across country, but she's staying. Here is a photo showing her on his duffle bags.  They are currently filled with dirty clothes, so have his smell on them. 

Cats choose their people.  She loves me because I got her out of the cage, but it's more gratitude.  With him, she just loves him.  She picked him when he first came to live with us.  The others are friendly, but Fluffy decided that he belongs to her. 

She walks up to him and teases him, and he teases back.  If he would let her in his room, she would love it.  She doesn't sit in his lap like she does with me, but it may be more logistics.  She rubs against him at every opportunity.

She's sure going to miss him.  As much as I will.  He's a good one...

I haven't talked about the "kids" lately...

Beasley got stepped on this morning. I stepped back while washing the dishes (no, I don't have a dishwasher - totally superfluous for one person!) and stepped squarely on his tail. He yelped, and I let up enough for him to take off like a shot. He was spitting out hair he'd nipped off, while bathing and laying behind me in the kitchen. Poor baby! I picked him up and apologized profusely!

He's much better. Overall, this is a true rarity.

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Their behavior since Queenie took over as alpha, is really different. Queenie is a heavy-handed alpha cat. She lords it over everyone - even me - that she is now the true queen. Man, what a big head!

She picks on everyone, even Beasley. She used to tease him, but now she chases him. I've seen one positive, though. Fluffy is now engaging in the chasing games that she used to ignore. She would ignore everyone and everything, just going about her merry way. Now, she's involved.

Princess, my dethroned lady, is very insistent on snuggles all day now. She still won't come to sit next to me on the chair, but she is very snuggly all the same. Kissing is still part of the package, too. Very hard nips, along the hands, fore-arms and on my wrists.

Bugsy is less an instigator and more disobedient. She's not getting into fights like she did, but she still is bearing the brunt of the "discipline" by the others. She has taken to snuggling in the chair, in the most unlikely positions! She just wants to be held and cuddled. A stroke will cause her for flatten her ears - and I'm not sure if she's doing that out of fear of being hit (she's never been hit) or if she's making room for my hand. I make sure she gets a snuggle session as often as she asks for it. She pops up at least once a day.

Queenie keeps picking on Beasley. He'll be sleeping quietly on the cat-chair, and she will jump up and kick him off the chair. She will sit there about 15 minutes, then leave. Meanwhile, Beasley's sleep has been disturbed for no real reason.

She is also hogging the back of my chair, which used to be Beasley's refuge and his place to be close to me. I don't pet her like I do him while she's up there. But she won't back off.

This little cocoa colored tyrant needs to be brought down a peg!

Fluffy

My Fluff's picture after her haircut. She's SO sweet, she wants to sleep on my lap all the time, now. She is just so cute! She loves getting cuddles and scratches, now. The mats don't hurt her anymore. I've been training her to the brush so maybe she won't get as bad as she was again. Her tail was left pretty much alone, so she doesn't have a true lion cut. Also, we had to go a little bit up higher on her neck than the traditional lion cut.

She isn't as fat as I thought, either. She has a little pouch from her spay surgery, but she's otherwise quite well formed.

The dark spots around here are hair from the others. A white pillow doesn't stand a chance at my place!!!

Missy Flufferdoodle!

Well, still no good photos. Not for lack of trying! She lays on things that reflect too much light or are too dark to show her properly.

She has taken to being a lap-cat. I'm not averse to a lap cat, but every time I sit down, she comes over. Enough already!

Females always seem to be lap cats more than males. My boy, Mr. Beasley, will sit on the back of the chair and head-butt and cuddle from there. Queenie will do that or be on the arm of the chair. But Flufferdoodle (Fluffy) wants to be right on my lap, in my face, and goodness! If I'm eating, she needs to have her nose in it.

This place is too small for a true dining area, considering all the other things I do. So, I tend to eat in my recliner off a TV table. I can't wait for the new house! My dining set will get heavy use!

Anyway, Miss Fluffy is just very snuggly and actually gets upset when she can't have my lap for a little while. She comes back several times before she finally goes to sleep in the chair across the room - the cat's chair.

That chair is covered with cat hair, but protected from it, too. I have cushions and covers on the chair itself, and they lay on them - getting their hair on the covers. I clean it about once a week deeply, but by the end of the week, it's pretty covered with hair.

I also finally got the Ivermectin into her ear. She continued scratching for about an hour or so, but she finally stopped scratching that ear.

All is good.

Happy Easter to you....

Fluffy got clipped!

Boy! Does she look great! And her skin is in much better condition than it seemed to be, after she had a bath.

The groomer was Susie at Loving Hands Pet Grooming on Washington Pike, in Knoxville.

The charge was reasonable, and the service fabulous!

So much hair! No wonder I went through 2 clippers! Susie went through 3 blades on Fluffy. Yep, lots of hair!

Fluffy is getting groomed!

Miss Fluffy, on the left here, is going to finally get to the groomer on the 17th. She's been covered with mats for over 2 years.

I've been trying to remove the mats myself, of course. I've used a de-matting tool, 2 clippers (burned one set out, and almost burned out the second set) and gave up. I'm now using scissors to remove and loosen the worst of them. But she really needs a good clipping. Even under the chin!

Well, I found a local groomer who is willing. Fluffy is so sweet that "she makes my teeth hurt" so we'll see how she does with a stranger.

Fluffy and Bugs

Fluffy and Bugs have changed.

Fluffy has achieved "Fur Person" status and Bugs is working on it.

What is a Fur Person? Read the book and find out. The book is amazing. It helped me to refine my articulation of my attitude about cats. Basically, it's the story of an adopted stray male cat who gets neutered & loved by little-old-ladies. Told from the cat's point of view, no less! The book is available here:

The Fur Person


Anyway, the book is amazing & I hope you read it whether you buy it or not.

Fluffy achieved the "Fur Person" status by her continued expressiveness, her hugging my legs or belly, and basically just being herself. She's a total mess, you know! Her fur just won't stay unmatted, no matter what I do. I comb and brush all the time. I have to cut mats about once a week. She loves to lay by my knees and will come up to check what I'm doing about twice an evening. She comes over to my chair while I'm on the computer, and she herds me into the kitchen.

She asks for food all the time! I think she may be diabetic, so I feed her on a schedule, and I'm trying to reduce her weight. When she came out of that cage, she weighed about 14 pounds. She's down to 11, so that part is working.

When it's bedtime, she will walk into the bedroom and sit on the headboard, looking cute, rubbing her cheeks on the top of the headboard with her hind end up in the air. She's begging for snuggles... She gets them, of course.

So, that's miss Fluffy.


Now for Missy Bugsy Bear.
Bugs really changed after she got spayed. She turned into this loving kitty who just won't quit. She'd been in heat for over 4 months by the time I could get her in. The shortage of vets and the cost of having a cat spayed while in heat conspired to keep her (and the rest of us!) in misery. That all changed in one afternoon.

She became this loving kitty who is passionate about whatever she is doing. She is all play or all loving. She prefers play, but loving is right up there. Put a feather wand in her vicinity and she won't quit until you finally put it away - 2 or 3 hours later! She is a demon!

For loving, she is about the same. She tires of loves after about an hour, but she'll come right back in a few minutes. It's like she needs to patrol and see what the others are up to and then decides it's time to come back to you. She jumps on the top of my chair and washes my hair. She still has trouble with her claws, but she IS learning.

When she came, she was the first to get shots. I didn't have a good hold on her and she attacked out of fear. She got my face pretty bad. Yep, my face! She almost got my left eye, and I had to take antibiotics to clear the infection. I think she knew that it was bad, because she always steered clear and ducked whenever I stretched out a hand to her. I still see that reaction, but most of the time it's putting ears back for a scratch on the head!

Anyway, she reached out a few days ago and raked my hand. She doesn't understand that she can grab without using her claws. I tell her and tell her when it hurts. I gently squeeze her paw and tell her no. She seems to get it. She is much better now (after 16 months) than when she came. It's just that she gets excited and all the training goes out the window.

Bugs' favorite game it to help make the bed. I put the pillows up and fluff them. She comes running. I pull up the sheet and blanket on one side, she's meowing. I pull up the coverlet, and she comes up on the bed. I then go around to the other side of the bed and do the same thing. She is now waiting for the "cover" which is a sheet to keep the cat hair from obliterating my breathing during the night. It's just a sheet I use over the rest of the bedding. Anyway, that comes up and OVER Miss Bugs. She's started to purr, now. I go to the other side and pull it up - then I lift it and she comes running, purring all the while. She hops out and onto the sheet, and I finish up. She's so cute! She does this every morning. After I've got the sheet up, I have a half-quilt I use for the foot of the bed. It's for the cats to sleep on and it collects cat hair. I pull this up, sometimes over her, sometimes she jumps onto it. She likes that, too. I tell her how cute she is, give her a scratch and a cuddle & I'm off to the shower.

She loves this morning game.

So, how did she become an almost fur-person? I was sitting on my chair watching TV with my legs crossed on the chair (not hanging down, more like lotus position, but I'm not that limber). She jumped up and stood on that narrow strip between my feet and the edge of the seat. She didn't come up to me or climb onto the back of the chair like normal. Instead, she leaned into me and rubbed her chin on my toe. She watched the other cats playing all this time, and just stood there for about 20 minutes. I reached and scratched a bit, and rubbed her back, and she responded, but didn't move. Finally, she jumped down, checked the others out and then got up on the back of my chair. She was just being my baby, I guess.

I could understand her wish to be involved in the other cat's games, but at the same time she was seeking my approval. Like I said, her first love is play, and the second love is cuddles.

Poor little Bugs is still at the bottom of the pecking order. She gets it from all sides. I ignore her quite a bit, the other cats pick on her a bit and she just wants love. She really needs a home full of love where she can be only cat, but for now, she's our Bugsy. We love her and would miss her terribly if she ever left us.

Well, that's my post for today. I've been remiss in posting. I guess I got involved in other things.