A case of mistaken identity?

Yesterday morning I fed the cats as usual. Merlin, who resides mainly in the catio, must eat with Ginger in the cat's room as they get fed the same food. And, Leo must eat his special CD food in the catio. When they are finished eating, I must bring Leo back in with us and Merlin returns to the catio. WELL, Leo decided that he was not ready to come back in with us yet and I had a schedule to keep. So, I opened the door and Merlin b-lined it directly over to the tall three story cat condo which Leo was sitting on. He jumped up at Leo in order to bully him off the condo and I ran over to intervene. Leo's back was toward me when I tried to pick him up off of the condo and he reacted by biting me on my left hand so hard that his large teeth dug pretty deep into my skin!

I quickly cleaned up my fresh wounds with hydrogen peroxide and bacitracin, then bandaged up my hand. This morning when I woke up it was all red and swollen and although it looked clean, it hurt like HELL! I proceeded to go into work and my Line Lead took a look at it and strongly suggested I leave and go to our local Patient First facility to get it checked out - so I did.

Long story short, they made me fill out an animal bite report required by the State of PA, gave me a tetanus shot, dispensed two weeks worth of 875mg of Amoxicillin and Clavulanate Potassium tablets, and re-bandaged my hand. 

I couldn't blame Leo because it was my own stupidity for not thinking before reacting. I truly believe that because Leo's back was toward me that he thought it was Merlin who touched him and WHAM, BITE, OUCH!! 

Ah yes, the perils of being a cat guardian. 

🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾

Feline for Thought!

 

🐈🐇🐈🐇🐈🐇🐈🐇🐈🐇🐈🐇🐈🐇🐈

An old pic taken of my husband and our beloved Mr. Midnight many years ago ...

The Beckoning Cat

I have already told you all about our other house kitties. So last, but certainly not least, our 'beckoning cat', Butterscotch. He has the most cutest mannerism of outstretching his front leg forward at you then reaching out at you with his paw - looking much like the Maneki Neko cat. Hence, his full name is Butterscotch Maneki (maneki is Japanese for "beckoning").  

Butterscotch literally appeared at our doorstep only two years ago - a couple of months before we took in Ginger. My husband befriended him (or purrhaps it was the other way around?). I set up a cat bed and such for him in our garage and it wasn't long before we brought him inside the house and kept him separated from the other cats, as per usual, until we could get him in for an appointment at our vet. 

It is worth noting that when my husband showed him to me, I told him that "This cat is a male." He said, "Nah, 'she' is too small to be a male." And, to that I replied, "Most orange tabby cats are male, you know." Lo and behold, the vet confirmed it and told us, "Well, to begin with SHE is a HE!"  I was right - lol!  

Of all of the cats we have shared our lives with, I must say that Butterscotch was the most adamant about being a house cat! Every single day and night for a couple of months he slept at the bottom of the step at the door between our garage and our kitchen. 

He is by far one of the most gentle cats we have ever had. He never draws his claws on us or the other cats and only uses the cat scratching post in the living room. 

The only worry we have regarding him is that our vet found a malignant tumor on his left back leg. We had it removed and were warned to keep an eye on his leg because our vet guaranteed us that this type of tumor WILL come back. We check him every couple of days. Needless to say, it is nerve-racking to say the least. This type of skin tumor is described as such: 

Soft Tissue Giant Cell Tumors (Fibrous Histiocytomas)

Malignant fibrous histiocytomas are most frequently found in the skin and soft tissues of aged cats. They are most common on the lower legs or lower neck but may also occur at vaccination sites. They seldom spread to other locations in the body but tend to invade surrounding tissues and return after surgical removal. Because these tumors often recur, your veterinarian will remove the tumor and some surrounding tissue. This is necessary to provide your cat with the best possible outcome.

For a year now, we have been using turmeric powder for cats in Butterscotch's wet food in order to help fight his malignant tumor.

He is easy-going, affectionate, and quite the character. While Ginger is definitely a lap cat, Butterscotch is a "leg" cat - kneading your legs while you are sleeping then plopping himself down across your legs making himself at home. 

He loves the other cats and snuggles up with them, most especially Ginger, all of the time ...

He has many nicknames, such as "my orange creamsicle kitty" and "my punkin' munchkin:". We simply adore him to the moon and back!

Happy Sunday!

The "Court Jester"

 

Before we welcomed Ginger into our family, we rescued Merlin in 2018. We have been taking in stray/homeless kitties for over 20 years now and until Merlin, we have never come across an orange tabby cat. Merlin came from a former co-worker via another mutual former co-worker who posted on Facebook that a litter of stranded kittens left in their backyard were in need of a good home. Two of them were orange tabbies - one male and one female. Since my personal preference has always been male cats (mainly because it has been my personal experience that males are generally more affectionate - with a few exceptions of course), I asked if the male was still up for adoption. He was.  

And so began our life with a male cat whom we decided to name, "Merlin James" (his middle name is because of my adoration for musician Jimmy Page (James Patrick Page). My friend sent me a pic of Merlin on Facebook and he actually looked more white in color when he was born ...

I took these pictures the first night after we brought him home on Fourth of July 2018 ...

We let him decompress in the bathroom for a couple of hours for about a week before introducing him to our other three cats - supervised, of course ...

"What? I ain't doin' nothin' ma!" Little did we realize that was just the beginning of Merlin's obsession with WATER!

Next step, we made an appointment with our vet for his initial examination complete with shots, feline leukemia test, de-flea, cleaning his ears of ear mites, etc. Until then, he spent much of his time separated from our other cats when we were at work during the day. We temporarily kept him in a large dog cage which was easily big enough for his food and water dish, litterbox and toys ... 

He was not at all amused and needed constant attention from us and the other cats as well ...

Hence, daddy and Leo were happy to oblige ...

He loved playing in the kitchen with the catnip and ball ring. It's worth mentioning that when we let him roam around in the bathroom, he was a complete and utter WILD CHILD, jumping in the hamper, on the toilet, in the sink, anywhere he could find to explore!

And, to this day he still enjoys eating his cat treats out of our hands...

Like my sister Aurora's cat, Hammy, Merlin plays with his water. He does not just stick his paw into the bowl to check how deep it is, he totally dumps the entire water bowl completely over making a huge mess all over the floors, rugs, etc. Furthermore, after he uses his litter box with the clumpy litter in it, he sticks his dirty paws into his water dish and I am constantly re-filling his water bowl with fresh spring water. .

Anyway, I figure if Tabitha is THE QUEEN, Leo is THE KING, Ginger is THE PRINCESS, and Butterscotch is THE PRINCE of the house, then Merlin must be THE COURT JESTER!

Our little "Twenty Percenter"

Our little Ginger came to us in August of 2019. She was a rescue who was taken in along with her brother as a stray by a good friend of mine. My friend ended up keeping Ginger's brother, Dice, and asked me if I would be interested in taking Dice's sister because she knew that she would have a very good home with my husband and I ...  

Ginger and Dice as kittens.

As a rule, only about 20 percent of orange tabby cats are female - meaning the other 80 percent are male. Ginger is rather small for her age and it is my belief that she was the runt of the litter - as opposed to her brother Dice who I am told is huge. 

She loves her adopted kitty siblings, except for Tabitha who is much more timid and keeps her distance from her. She is so fun and loves to play ball ...

Run and fetch ...

and ... drop the ball into the palm of my hand! GOOD GIRL!

Butterscotch adores her ...

as well as Sir Leo with whom she plays with all of the time ...

Leo, Ginger, and Butterscotch just chillin' on the sofa as usual!

Ginger donning her Spring attire ... lol!

Have a great weekend all!!