Update on the Furpeople

My furpeople are like humans in some ways.  They live with me all the time, and I forget that not everyone has cats that they can relate to like I do mine.

Beasley is my baby, but he's also a very demanding, spoiled child.  I take full responsibility for it, too!  He's extremely communicative, and he misbehaves just because he can.  He has the cutest look on his face when I'm covered up with the girls and he wants to be on my lap...  It's not quite a pout, but a "wanting" that's so plain it almost hurts to see it.  He waits for the girls to clear a space (usually by mistake) and then he comes up.  One day, he was on my lap, Queenie jumped to the arm of the chair, and Fluffy took the other arm.  They were sitting on top of him!  He took it as long as he could, and then left.


Princess has been very ill.  She lost about 1/4 of her bodyweight to some worms, and not being able to get to the food bowls without the pack barring her way and challenging her.  So, I made some concessions in her feeding location, and treated her for worms.  She's doing better,  but she hasn't regained the weight.  She feels like a feather.  Imagine a cat that's bigger than a chihuahua dog, and weighing less than 11 pounds...  On the positive, she's very snuggly, and she demands attention now, which she hasn't since we moved into the house, almost 18 months ago.  She regressed from sitting on my lap when she got sick, but she's back.  It's nice to see.

Fluffy, my little (?) sweet bear-kitty, is as snuggly as ever.  She's finally stopped grieving the roommate we had who was her favorite person in the whole world.  At least I think she has.  She's snuggly again, but if he ever comes back to see us, we'll see how she acts.  If she's aloof, I'll know she still cares too much, but if she's OK, then all is well.  Cats are shy when they've been hurt- they love to see you, but they are also afraid they'll be hurt again.  I know she'll remember him!  Anyway, her mats are bad again, but I haven't had the time to groom her like she needs it.  Otherwise, she's doing very well.

Queenie - my wanna-be-owner pest, is very possessive of me.  She doesn't want anyone to get near me.  If I sit on the chair, she has to come be next to me.  I've told her to stop, and she's better, but she still wants to be on me or next to me all the time.  However, she hasn't slept with me for quite a while.  I greet her when she comes to bed, but she's been fairly distant there.

Finally, Missy Bugs.  She's still snuggling anyone, anytime, anywhere.  But she's taken to wrapping herself around my arm when she gets the chance.  She sits on me, instead of next to me.  She will wrap herself into as small a ball as she can manage, and sit just barely on my lap.  When the others leave, she stretches out.  In some ways, she's almost human.  The poor girl really needs a home of her own where she can get all the cuddles in the house.  I don't know how she'd do without the others, but since she still gets a lot of harassment from them, I think she would do well.  She loves to play, snuggle, and sleep.  Just like any cat, but she's using 100% of her attention doing whatever it is she's doing.  She's very smart, focused, and imitates well.  She's a fast study, for sure.  I still think she will be good for training purposes.  I haven't had the time....

That's the second time I've used that phrase.  I went back to school, so my time is not my own as much.  Things got tough about a year ago, when I lost my job, so to make things better, I went back to school.  I figured improving my skills wouldn't hurt.  But it takes time away from the house, cats and website.  Scheduling becomes an important part of my day, and if I get off schedule, things go downhill quickly.  Everything suffers.

I'm writing an article this month on "toxoplasmosis" for the e-zine, so I hope you are all subscribed.  It looks to be quite informative.

Cats Care!

I was very sick and in bed for about 5 days. My cats somehow got fed twice a day, and the litter box got changed in the middle (don't ask me how!).

They were on the bed with me most of the time - except when I was in my most restless periods.

I had a version of a cold, but it started in my lungs, like pneumonia. I still have a lot of congestion. I took Tylenol 8-hour (no compensation for this mention!) for the fever, and that really helped. When I remembered to take my temp, it was 100.9F, so it was pretty high for someone my age and general health. That was after taking the Tylenol, too. Goodness knows how high it was without treatment...

So, the cats really care! I had one on each side of me, most of the time. They laid right next to me, pinning me under the covers. When I turned over, they all jumped down, only to get back on the bed a few minutes later.

Beasley and Fluffy were close most of the time. Bugs would curl up in my elbow when they took a break, Princess would come check on me at least twice a day, and Queenie took a little time off from being the top-cat to check on me when Princess wasn't. In fact, Queenie and Princess are vying for top-cat position again. When they weren't really close, they were on the foot of the bed, or at the base of my dresser, which is basically in the same place but with a walkway between the bed and the dresser.

I don't know how I managed it, but I was able to keep them fed and the litter box clean. I was delirious, so I'm not really sure how that happened. Maybe my neighbor helped. She got some cough syrup for me when I ran out.