Introduction2WildCats

I have 2 adult male cats, Spooky and Skitzi. I would not trade my cats them anything in the world. I also have a new kitten, which brings new life and joy into the household. She already has quite a hold on me. Imagine that, a playful little kitten capturing your heart.

Spooky was born on the middle of my bed February 27, 1997. One day after my birthday. I was at the Rice Owls Pajama Party basketball game. odd that I have a ticket from the day he was born, I look at it as his birth certificate.

He was the smallest of the bunch and had, and still has, no sternum bone to connect his ribs. He was not supposed to live past a year at the most. He is now 13+ years old. As a kitten he had a great obsession with plastic, which at his age and with his health problems was sometimes dangerous. He still has that particular aversion. Especially things such as plastic bags, cigarette wrappers, speaker cords and such. He also loves plants. Especially of the Rose kind. I think they smell particularly nice to him. He does NOT like catnip, go figure. I had him declawed so he does not go outside and that does not bother him one bit. He does NOT like the outdoors.

He's entering his senior years now and has no particular ailments, I am proud to say. He did have a little problem with a boil on his butt but $250+ that was all taken care of. His only real health problem came after my husbands brother died. We spent a week and a half at his parents house and when we came back Spook would absolutely, no way, no sir, come out from underneath the bed. He did this for months. His health steadily deteriorated, his muscle loss decreased dramatically.

There was nothing I could do to get him to come out from under the bed for more than a few minutes at a time. I wound up putting a litter box under there and food dish, and gave him those yummy vitamins you spread on their nose's. Nasty stuff. Finally I took the bed off the frame. He then sought refuge under the covers for a few days. Funny thing is, my husband and I were talking about buying a house, or at least had it one the table as an option, and when we started packing to move into said house, he suddenly snapped out of it.

Cats have a sixth sense and his sense scared me, what with my brother-in-law dying and his reaction to that feeling of sadness we were feeling. I had to rehabilitate his leg muscles and he kindly let me do it as he loves any type of affection, and he thought that was particularly awesome. I got him back up and running within about a year and we've had no other "major" problems since then. I think it was more of a "mental" health thing with him.

Right now he is raising a kitten I rescued from the gutter, literally. I am glad he accepted my new kitten and is now showing him the ropes. I was afraid he wasn't going to like the kitten at all. He hissed for a few days but then decided "whatever".

I'm so glad to have Spooky in my life, he has truly been a blessing.

 I got Skitzi by sheer accident. My husband and I were at CAP's (Citizen's for Animal Protection) to "look" at cats. I didn't see any that I really liked, their cats get adopted pretty fast. When we were walking out this man with a box was walking up, with, imagine this, a box of kittens, practicaly newborn kittens at that. I look in the box and there he was. I really wanted the one that was light colored, same striping, but my husband said no, he liked the other one better. So I got him for free, as he had not been sheltered yet.

As he grew into an adult cat I realized he looks exactly like Spooky's mom (Sibia), who was run over a few months after Spooky was born. He's an awesome cat. There is NOTHING you can do to piss him off, he puts up with whatever you can come up with and actually enjoys it.

His aversion is skin. As I said, he was not very old and definitely not properly weened. He began to think that our skin was his mothers and then the kneading started. He's not so bad about it anymore, but you gotta watch out, cuz sometimes, just sometimes, he sneaks up on you, stealth mode, and starts licking your arm or your neck, or even your eyelids.

He is also approaching his senior years and nowadays he loves to spend his time outdoors. 6am, time to go out, for sure, on the dot. he even knocks at the window when he wants to some in. It can be quite a hair raising sound.

He has not quite accepted the kitten just yet. At least he's not swatting at him anymore. He's not declawed like Spooky is. I hope him and the kitten can eventually be friends like we've been friends for 12+ years.

Our new little ray of sunshine from the gutter. She is tons of fun. She loves to sit on my shoulder, which I know probably isn't a good idea but it's so cute, I can help it right now. I'll teach her how to lay around my neck one day, like I did Spooky and his mother Sibia. I am trying to teach her how to put her head on my head like I do with the other cats but she just thinks I'm trying to play with her. I had no problems potty training her with the litter box, showed her how to get over the baby gate we have up because we have dogs as well, showed her where it was and presto. I will love watching her grow up. I think she's going to be huge, her feet are enormous. I don't have any pictures of her right now, as my camera is broken, naturally. I will get some up as soon as I can.

I have updated this section to include a real picture of Bella, she has a bit of infection still on her nose from her circumstances, but that is almost gone now too.

Shadow past a year ago today, October 24, 2008. He suffered from complete kidney failure. He went quick, in a matter of days. Hurricane Ike came thru in September of 2008. We were without power for over 10 days and all he did was hide. I tried to force him to eat and drink but he was already letting me know it was his time. He lost almost all his body weight in a week. Going from a big 15+ pounds to a mere 4+ pounds. It was heart breaking. I did get a love mark from him before he died. I was comforting him and he leaned over and planted his teeth in my left forearm, he didn't do it to be malicious, he did it because he was hurting. Now I have a permanent mark of him forever. Funny thing is, I wouldn't trade that scar for anything. I finally had to put him down. I got to do it in the privacy of my own home and he went peacefully, I got to bury him in my backyard, but he is still sorely missed.