August 13, 2012

• The Missing Years – Changes

  I thought I would fill you in on some of the things that happened while I was not blogging.  One of the significant (surprisingly significant!) changes in my life was the loss of these two:

  

  
  The orange cat is Tigger and the black one is Hobbes.  It was difficult to get a good picture of Hobbes because he was a really, really black cat, so he just kind of faded into himself in photos.  Tigger died on St. Patrick’s Day 2010 and Hobbes died about a year and a half before that.  Both of them were cremated.  Hobbes sat in a container on the counter in the kitchen for about a year and then we sprinkled him over the grave of Herbie, one of our previous cats.  Herbie raised Hobbes (and Tigger).  Tigger is still sitting on the counter.  I am not ready to let go of him yet, but eventually he will join Herbie and Hobbes.

  Dan and I had talked about what we would do when Tigger and Hobbes died.  Our cats typically live about 17 or 18 years, so we are at a point where a kitten might outlive both of us or we might become unable to take care of it.  We didn’t want to do that to a pet.  It’s very hard on an elderly animal when its people die.  That led us to decide that we would not replace our cats when they died.  Well, you can’t really replace a pet.  Each one is unique just like people are.  You can fill the void with another unique animal, though.  Those of you who are not pet people will think that statement is just a little crazy.  Those of you who live with animals will know what I am saying.

  In theory, that was a good plan.  When it came to putting it into practice, though, it didn’t work out so well.  I have had cats since I was a very small child.  Because my cats live a long time, that’s 7 cats, usually 2 at a time.  They provide me with companionship and love me when I am not lovable.  I found it very, very difficult to live without a cat.  I made it until the end of September, 2010, and then I could not take it.  Dan and I talked about it again, and we decided to adopt an adult cat who needed a home.  On October 2, 2010, Sam entered our lives.

  

  Sam was picked up as a stray, so we don’t know exactly how old he is.  The vet who examined him when he was taken into the rescue program estimated his age as about 5 years.  That was in January 2010 and then he sat in a cage until October 2 when we adopted him and took him home.

  Sam was obviously someone’s pet before he ended up out on his own.  He was neutered when he was picked up.  He still had claws, which worried us a little because our cats have always been declawed, but cats who reach middle age with their claws should not be declawed, so we decided to figure out how to live with a cat with claws.  It turned out that he loved the scratching posts that we bought him and did not scratch anywhere else.  He always used his box.  He never jumped up on the table or counters, and he preferred cat food to human food.  He came immediately when called.  He liked to spend time with us.  When we told him “no”, he stopped what he was doing even if we did not raise our voices.  In short, we have discovered no bad habits.  Sam came to us as a very well trained cat.

  That’s not to say that he did not have some interesting quirks.  He was a stressed animal.  Sitting in a cage for 10 months was not good for him.  It took him more than a year to seem confident that he really had a permanent home.  He had a urinary problem that is common in stressed cats and the first year that he lived with us, we took him to the vet many times for treatment.  That has calmed down now, although we still see occasional signs of it.  As we approach 2 years with him, though, he seems more and more like a well-adjusted kitty.  Seeing the change has made us very happy that we adopted a rescue kitty!

  • 11:19 am
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