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Thursday, October 29, 2015

Happy National Cat Day

We hope everyone is enjoy National Cat Day! Mom asked, "And how is this different from any other day?" at our house. We pretty much get to do whatever we want so mom did have a valid point.

Johnny had to go to the vet on Friday to have his dew claw checked out. Somehow he got an infection in it and the claw stopped retracting. He is doing much better now and the swelling has gone.

And speaking of Johnny, he sometimes has an issue with his brother. Cash will be minding his own business and then this will happen:

Johnny will come up behind Cash and bite his neck. Johnny will hold Cash like this for several minutes. Cash doesn't cry out or growl, so Johnny must not being hurting him. Eventually Johnny will let go and Cash will walk away.

The sun is shining today, so I think I'll find a sun puddle and take a nap.

Purrs,
Clarissa & Co.

Monday, October 26, 2015

Zoe's Story

Happy Halloween Week! This is mom's favorite holiday and thank Cod that she doesn't try to put us in costumes!

We told you about Zoe, our friend in South Africa, who crossed the Bridge. Her human mom, Sheila, told our mom Zoe's story and we would like to share it with you:


Zoe came to me at 4 days old.  She was with her mom and three siblings.  I was going to foster them until they were old enough to be re-homed.  There were two Calico girls and two black and white boys – Mom was a  Torti.   Sadly one of the little boys died.  The kittens quickly grew and were very playful and eventually met all of my own cats.   One that was especially loving towards them was Moppett a Calico long hair who I had already rescued.


One of my German Shepherds also took the kitts under her wing and used to wash them and let them sleep cuddled up to her.


A friend of mine wanted the little Calico long haired girl  and another friend took the mom and remaining boy.   That left Zoe, so I decided “what was one more” and she stayed.   Right from the start she always slept on my head a night and would “make biscuits” in my hair.


For some reason or other she was always a scaredy cat and whenever anyone visited she would disappear.  The only people that she trusted and loved was me and my husband.  When my daughters visited they would always go into the bedroom and spend some time with her making friends.


When I decided to keep her, I had just lost my 19 year old tortie, Ziggy and I wanted a “Z” name in honour of Ziggy, and so she became Zoe.   Moppett was the mother figure in my bunch of 6 and they would all congregate around her on the bed and sleep together during the day.   Zoe fitted in very well.


When we decided to move from Johannesburg to George, in the Southern Cape, all of the cats flew down together and went into kennels, the 3 dogs travelled with my by car.   They all settled in very well.


It was while we lived in George that Zoe had her one and only adventure outside of the house.   Something frightened her and she ran outside.   I knew she would be terrified but there was no sign of her.   She was hiding somewhere in the garden.   I stayed up until the early hours of the morning with the front door wide open and a dim light shining to try to entice her back inside.   At about 2 o clock she crept back inside.   WOW!  the relief I felt, it’s impossible to describe.   She NEVER ventured outside again.


It was whilst we lived in George that my only tom became ill – Gandalf.   He was a black smoke Maine Coon, such a lovely boy and although he spent a long time on a drip – sadly he didn’t make it.  He was such a loss.   Soon after he passed we decided to move to Cape Town and so all of the cats, once again went into a cattery whilst we moved.  Once we had settled into the house it was time for the cats to arrive -  I was so happy!   They all spent time “sniffing out” the new place and all except Chui (my Bengal) were all happily settled in, Chui of course had to spend hours and hours trying to escape the confines of the garden.  But after her adventures in George (another story) she soon became satisfied with her new garden and house.


Zoe was a great hunter and often, in the early hours of the morning we would hear her dreadful call to tell us she had something new to show us.   She always took her new “capture” into the bathroom.   It could be a mole, a frog, a lizard…. and sometimes a baby snake.   She would stand over her prey either in the bath or in the shower – very proud!  Meanwhile we had to get up and dispose of her new find – somewhere or other.


As the rest of my bunch slowly grew smaller, due mainly to old age illnesses, Zoe eventually became the only one left – my baby!  As I said earlier she was a very nervous cat and when my husband became ill and I had to have carer’s in the house to help look after him – I think it all became too much for Zoe, who was already in the early stages of kidney failure.  I think the stress of different people coming and going exacerbated the illness and 6 weeks after my husband passed on, Zoe went to join him. She stopped eating and although I syringe fed her she got thinner and thinner and less and less active.   The last night she wouldn’t sleep with me in bed she was hiding – a sure sign that she had no long.  I had to let her go.  It was devastating for me – for the first time in my life I had no cat.  Unfortunately it is not possible for me take on another cat, even an older one, because  I have a very “prey driven” GSD and I just would not take the risk of taking in another cat with him.


And so, at 16 yrs and 2 months,  my lovely Zoe is gone and I am heartbroken – as I have been every time that one of my furbabies leaves - they take a piece of my heart with them.


Fly high baby Zoe and join all of the others up there waiting for me.
Thank you, Sheila, for sharing Zoe's life with us.

 

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Poe the Rescured Kitten - New Pictures

We have a couple of new pictures of Poe. He is growing up and is about 6 months old now. You can tell that he loves his forever home in South Carolina.

He looks comfortable while laying in his mom's lap. He has definitely grown but still looks like a kitten here.


But my oh my! Poe looks more like a real mancat in this picture. And look at his jade green eyes. Poe is one handsome dude! And if you look really close you can see that he is smiling!

We are going to make mom go back and tag the posts that relate to Poe. In the meantime, if you want to refresh your memory, you can read the first post about him here:  Intruder Alert

Thursday, October 15, 2015

In Memorium: Zoe

Our dear friend, Zoe, crossed the Bridge early this week. She had been feeling poorly and her little kidneys just couldn't take it any longer. Zoe lived in South Africa with her mom and dad (her dad passed away a few months ago).  Zoe left behind her human mom (who said this is the first time in her 77 years that she has been without a cat) and two dog siblings.

Fly free Zoe. We know you will be watching over your mom and will live forever in her heart. Zoe was 16.




Monday, October 12, 2015

T.C.I.M. = Thank Cod It's Monday

Oh what a weekend we had at our house. Some of the adventure was planned but a lot of it wasn't. So what happened? Read on and I will tell you all about it.

I am going to start on the planned adventure. Mom brought some fresh fruit home a couple of weeks ago. Apparently she brought home some fruit flies too. That's not unusual with fresh fruit. However, the fruit flies went from just a few to an invasion to a full blown infestation. They were everywhere in our kitchen. Mom was trying all of the natural remedies to get rid of them. Those did very little to curb the problem. She even tried spraying RAID, which she really did not want to do. She finally broke down and called a pest control company to come take care of the problem. Mom was told (over the phone) that the course of action would be to treat the drains, spray the area, then fog the house. That meant all of us kitties and mom would have to be out of the house for 3 to 4 hours!

One of mom's friends came over on Saturday morning to help round us up and get us into carriers. They were literally herding cats!!! Some of had to double up in the larger carriers. Once we were all crated, she and mom carried us out to mom's SUV. Mom put the seat backs down so there would be more storage room. She had us all in the back of the SUV except for one carrier. It had to sit on the passenger side front seat. All of the windows were open, and mom parked the SUV at the back of the driveway under a tree so it was shady. We were able to get plenty of fresh air and stay cool. Also, it was a pleasant fall day with the temperature in the low 70s.

The exterminator showed up and started searching for the source of the bugs. He found a pipe under the kitchen sink that was leaking. It was a copper pipe and it had a little split. Fruit flies need moisture to reproduce. They were breeding in that damp, dark cabinet space. The good news is mom now knows where they are coming from. The bad news is there was no reason to treat the problem until the leak was repaired and the area dried out.

Mom was able to get a plumber at the house on Saturday afternoon. He fixed the immediate problem (the leaking pipe), but he showed mom that all of the old copper pipes are bad and need to be replaced. He will be coming back on Wednesday to replace the remaining copper pipes beneath the sink, and any copper pipes that are in the crawl space beneath the house.

The bug man is scheduled to return next Tuesday (one week from tomorrow) to treat the drains, spray the house, then fog the house. That means mom will have to round us all up again and get us into carriers and out of the house. And she won't have any help this time. She is actually hoping now that the leak has been repaired and the area beneath the sink is drying out, our fruit fly issue will resolve itself. Keep your paws crossed that is the case. Mom really isn't comfortable with having chemicals sprayed and fogged in the house.

The bugman was the planned adventure. The plumber was not. Mom also had one more unplanned adventure. I will save that one for tomorrow!

Purrs,
Clarissa