THE NEW CAT ROOM! (or the Cat Room #2)

Good evening, and thanks to all who posted encouraging comments here, and also the personal messages.

This morning was really tough with no routine revolving around our cats, and while we are both very sad, I was really worrying about my wife. She was beside herself and didn't want to get out of bed initially.

Anyways, to make a long story shorter, we talked some more, and although we initially weren't going to get any more pets (we do still have one bird a cockatiel), we did end up getting another cat today.

It's a female brown tabby, short-haired cat called Sophie (we couldn't bear to get another black & white one). She is from a shelter and was abandoned early in her life. Her approximate age is between 1 to 1 1/2 years old.

Apparently, Sophie has had a litter of kittens (imagine at that age!), and is now, of course, been spayed.

She appears to be healthy, and her first few hours here have been very positive!

I'll go into more detail perhaps tomorrow, and I hope to take some photos soon, to show off our new kitty!

Thanks again everybody for your kind support! It was really appreciated. I was passed on your comments to Vivienne.

Ah.

Lucky Sophie!

And I LOVE tabbies! Excellent choice, Reyn & Vivien!

Whoops. Vivienne, not Vivien.

Sorry, Vivienne!

cool beans.

So sorry for your loss, its sad to lose a pet and I have always vowed to never get another animal, but somehow I always end up getting yet another mad child to add to the list of nutters running around the house.

I planted up a big urn of herbs the other day and turned away to proudly show it off to my visiting mother, my mother asked if 'Yuki' was allowed to do that, I had no clue what she was on about and I turned back around and that damn cat was rolling all over my new herbs grounding them into the dirt! Its no good yelling or making 'pssss' noises at her, her ears are for decoration only, I had to physically lift her out of the urn and cart her over to the vege garden to do her dirt rolling thing over there! ......one of lifes little wonders.

I made the same vow, perhaps a dozen years ago. Two weeks later, I decided it just didn't make sense to get up in the middle of the night and not have anything to trip over.

Oh, Reyn! I'm so sad for your loss! It is good to see that y'all have opened up to another kitty. She won't replace anyone, but it does help.

Gosh, I remember one of the worst years of my life was when I lost all 5 of my kitties in the same year. It was so hard. One of the outdoor cats caught cat leaukemia and we had never heard of it before. Before we found out what was going on all of them had caught it. (It's highly contagious!). I had to see all of them go from being happy and healthy to wasting away. It seemed like we lived at the vets office that year. Worse still was that the vet reccomended not bringing home any other cats for almost a year so we could be sure that the disease would not resurface. I had to throw away all of the boxes and food bowls. We spent over a year sans cats.
My dad said it was probably time to get another cat when he walked into the living room and saw me sitting on the couch absent mindedly petting one of his fluffy tiger slippers. I make sure from now on that all my cats have their cat leukemia shots and boosters. I can't do that again.

Hello to everyone, and thanks again for your comfort and encouragements!

Well, last night went very well with Sophie. I didn't hear her at all, but Vivienne (who is a light sleeper) did say she came on both of our beds about 3:30am, but didn't make any noise. Perhaps she was missing us, and just wanted to be reassured that she wasn't abandoned (?).

Anyways, all looks good with her, although there's three things we need to take care of:

1) Her nails are little daggers, and have NEVER been cut. The vet really should have taken care of them when the shelter people had her in for her spaying. So, we took care of them this morning. We were a bit worried about her possible reactions, but she was surprisingly very good. My wife had the brilliant idea to play with her right afterwards (with a laser pointer, which she loves), so as not associate too much negativity with the experience. she seemed to soon forget. Vivienne is really quite excellent around cats and doing stuff like that.

2) Sophie has ear mite "dirt" (not live mites) in her ears, which isn't too uncommon. The shelter lady made us aware and gave us the appropriate solution to clean out with. My wife has dealt with this before with our oldest daughters cats. It'll take a while, but we'll start on that this afternoon.

3) Sophie is a bit overweight. When she came to the shelter, about 2 months ago, she was way underweight. With eating a steady, reliable diet, and being in a cage, she's packed on the pounds. I weighed her this morning, and figured she weighs about 10 1/2 pounds. For her size, we feel that around 9 pounds (or perhaps even 8-9) would be more appropriate.

Of course, she's used to having food in the cage all day long. That's not going to happen in our home. Set meal times (breakfast and supper - wet food), with just a very few dental-type crunchies left out next to her water.

We believe with her being more active, she will be able to lose the extra weight within a couple of months.

Anyways, when we get a chance, I'm really eager to show her off in a few pics soon.

Thanks to all for reading!

How old were your cats, Aldistar? I had heard that feline leaukenia was so widespread that most adult cats were immune. You've got me worried, now.

Wonderful statement, Roger - exactly right!

Reyn - so glad you have another owner! I remember how it was after my last cat died.

On a lighter note....


Click on photo for caption:

Oh Reyn I'm just thrilled you've adopted Sophie!

Pictures, please?

Yesterday I had a truly awful day at work.

As soon as I got home I told hubby, "Hand me a cat, please... Right Now!"

He did, and I felt so much better. (We have 3 cats, the Bare Minimum as far as I'm concerned.)

((((hugs BorisKitten))))

When I have a hard day at work, I cannot wait to go home and climb under the bed covers. Tazmo will be right there scratching to get under. I create a small fort with pillows and he starts purring so loud he squeaks and starts kneading. Nothing like being kneaded after a long day.

I have pictures, at least just some quick initial ones so you folks can see what our new kitty looks like!










I hate using flash with cats, as it inevitably makes their eyes "glow".

Hopefully, at some point, I will get some better shots.

Sophie is beautiful Reyn! You can certainly tell she is going to be the queen of the house in no time!

Reyn, she's magnificant!

She's got a good, intelligent face, that cat!

She looks lovely.

Thanks, I'm pleased you liked the photos of Sophie. I will come back with something better in the future.

My wife is really into scrapbooking. Moreso the digital stuff these days, as the other can get so expensive.

Below are just two samples that she did as a memorial to Kory and Kira. The scanned versions don't do them justice though. We've got lots more with different variations. It brings her peace. Just this evening, we brought home Kira's ashes to put alongside her brother.

now, here's a relaxed critter:

Such a beautiful tabby, Reyn & Vivienne!

Well done! Excellent choice!