HOORAY! SUCCESS NEW CATS LIVE WITH OLD CAT!!

[GLynne]

I wrote a while back for moral support because I brought a pair of 2 year old littermates home to live with my 8 1/2 year old grumpy cat who bites me. (We still love him, he's ours.)

I isolated the new two in a big room for a week. When we went for their shots the vet said tolerance could come in two weeks. My husband thought the week was enough. He let the two new out.

TA DA. There was hissing all around, and some yowling but everyone is still alive, even me! The old cat is still grumpy but is busy now. He used to just lay around and get fat. Now he has a life staking out the high spot on the couch for the minute and slinking aroung looking altrenately dangerous and fearful. It is so good for him to have something to think about. He still threatens to bite me by showing his teeth after his required chin scratching but that has decreased.

The two new are darling darling very large (15 and 11lb.) puff balls, so pretty and real babies. Their past owner must have practiced her maternal skills on these sweet things. They have good manners and are clean and very affectionate. They are happy happy little souls and wonderful companions.
These given away at a garage sale. I am so sorry sorry sorry that they were declawed. The thought of the pain in little fingers just gives me the creeps.

Thank you for listening to me. Who else would listen about my kitties and how wonderful they are.

I have to tell someone how beautiful and happy the brother and sister were the other night sitting side by side on a soft footstool watching the rain through the screen.

Thank You

Lynn

[yorkster]

Good to hear that everything is working-out so well!

[Edwina's Secretary]

You so vividly describe the behavior of your kitties! I can close my eyes and see each one. Well done!

[4 feline house]

You handled it just right. I would tend to think two weeks would be too long, too, and of course the way resident kitties get to know and get used to the new kitties is by testing each other out, otherwise known as TUSSLING! Sounds like Grumpy is having more fun than he's letting on! What are all their names?

[GLynne]

Dear 4:

The cat's names are; Nicholas, the 8 1/2 year old, Theadore, the 2 year old male and Emily the 2 year old female sister. All spayed and neutered, of course.

Nick is a color point gray on tan in between blue and lilac, the brother and sister are nearly long haired cottony white with black spots, darling Emily has a perfect black mask and huge black caterpiller tail. Teddy is very large. His spots are mostly brown tabby so he has a huge raccoon tail he has a tabby striped cap. He has a large black heart on his back when he is sitting.

I could not understand why CNN was not outside the house to take pictures of Emmy and Ted because I think they are so exceptionally beautiful. We all said "OOOHH yellow eyes!! Forgetting that almost all cats have yellow eyes. For 9 years we have been looking into surly little pale blue eyes. I was just amazed at the white of their whiteness and the brilliance of their black spots. We are used to the color point's gradual shading.

We went to the local city shelter where we get pet licenses here and went in to see the cats in the "pound". There were at least 5 with simalar colors and markings.

I realized then that my new pets are just ordinary kitties, except for their size and the soft cotton fluff fur. My darling exceptional kitties are just cats.

Unlike Nick, they know that there is food in the cat food bag. Nick never seems to have caught on to that. They try to open the windows and doors knowing just how things work. One of them turned on the TV one day. I'm sure it was an accident but it got my son's attention. They make me get up and open the blinds and windows so they can watch the day.

I guess ordinary cats are this smart too. Poor Nicholas has never showed much of this. The vet said because his baby teeth were brown that his mother had been sick or taken medicine while pregnant. We excused his lack of "talent" on this. Maybe we came to think that no cat was very smart. These new ones can just about talk. I expect conversations soon.

Regards,

Lynn

[4 feline house]

They sound beautiful, and so smart, too! I can't either believe CNN wasn't waiting at your door! I would love to see Teddy's heart! Do you have pics you can post? And give Nicky extra sugars for not being quite so beautiful. We, too, have one that would not make the cover of Glamour magazine, so we give her extra sugars (and she pays me back by poking holes in my legs while she makes biscuits, the idgit!).

[GLynne]

Dear 4:

I don't have picture capacity at this time. Soon I will as I have been restraining my resident computer geniuses from expanding this machine. I fear they may never see trees or sunshine otherwise. Now may be the time. They'll give me photo lessons.

I think I have gone soft in the head. I really really really love my new cats. Usually I am not like that. I'm pretty non-sentimantal. I adored them immediately when they jumped on the table and told me hello at their former residence. I have no idea if they are as beautiful and wonderful as I think they are. My husband even loves them. Ordinarily he hardly notices anything but Hogan's Heroes. My great big boys seem to like them too.

Poor old Nicholas. Hugs and kisses he seldom wants. (Except if I've been gone a long time or he accidently gets shut in the basement. Then it's minutes of sappy cat hugs.) He is a big time jungle cat. I am so glad he's quit biting me. He keeps occupied with keeping his status among cats now. He thinks he is a dangerous predator. All that glowering from under the eyebrows is amusing in one so little and helpless. The actual attack is not so cute. Anyone would think I was crazy keeping an animal who enjoys hurting me.

I caused it by letting him chase and kill my hands when he was little. Bad. I'm sure he thinks that's what he is supposed to do.

Real cats are not impressed with the "King Of The Jungle" act. It's working out for all. How long has it been that anything has worked out so well?

I am too long winded.

Regards,

Lynn

[AvaJoy]

" . . . I was just amazed at the white of their whiteness and the brilliance of their black spots . . . "

Exactly my feelings upon seeing my new little rescue girl, Debra. I have never had a cat with more than one purely solid color before, and the sharp contrast of her black and white cow pattern is breathtaking! Today is her first day back from the vet, so I hope she and my senior girl Lily will hit it off . . . good to hear yours have integrated well.

[Logan]

Lynn,
You're giving me hope about my Butter....will he really stop biting me one day?? He will purr loudly, and I immediately start rubbing him....then "BAM", I have one more wound to add to the long list! LOL!
I love your descriptions of all of them....sounds like a wonderful house full of cats!!!
Logan

[thelmalu99]

Logan,
You and me both! I'm still hoping that Elvis will become less aggressive at some point. He's gotten A LOT better since he came to live with me, but he's still very temperamental and will swat or bite for no apparent reason. He doesn't bite hard anymore; it's more like a warning nip but he always startles me when he does it
Oh well, let's keep our fingers crossed!

[ October 15, 2001: Message edited by: thelmalu99 ]

[ October 15, 2001: Message edited by: thelmalu99 ]