Auric's Opportunity

Auric will be leaving for a trial-adoption tomorrow. Though he will be on probation, as it were, in his new home, our rescue-group rarely makes a decision to place a cat in a new environment unless it is sure he will prosper there, and be a good fit. He will be living with a single gentleman and an eight month old kitten.

I am pleased for the golden boy. The cat whom he will meet on Friday is a very active youngster in need of a playmate. There was no question that Auric would go, when go he did, to a home with another, sociable cat. I think he will do well with the human, too. I believe Auric would want to be friends with almost anyone he meets, human or feline, and I expect this move will be a success for him.

I am sad for Hector, though, and disappointed that he and Auric couldn’t stay together. But Hec hasn’t had much interest in him in the way of potential adoptions, and Auric would have missed some grand opportunities if he were paired with Hector. To put it bluntly, my dark knight couldn’t stand in the way of the golden boy’s progress.

Hector will find his home, just as Auric has. And, like Auric, he will stay with me until that day comes. Hec and I have become good friends. I like Auric, and he likes me; he will sleep against me - even against my face - at night, and purr heavily. I suspect, however, that he will give any amenable human such a chance. Hector takes longer to evaluate a person and a situation; he is more cautious. He has decided to be my friend, and that will continue to make his time in my care enjoyable for both of us.

But he will miss his pal.

Today's Victory

I am worried about my big boy, Renn. He is thin and small, compared to what he once was; I can feel too many bones in him. I was going to take him to the veterinary, but he was there just in January, when his blood and urine tests showed nothing abnormal, aside from aging kidneys. My fear is that there is something that such tests don’t show. If there is, there is not much to be done about it.

One thing I can do is try to increase his eating. It wasn’t so long ago that he would consume a good amount of soft-food, though that consumption was irregular. Now, he eats almost none of it. He eats instead only hard-food. For the past couple of months, he enjoyed the gastro-intestinal food that would help his slowing kidneys and sooth his sometimes rebellious stomach. Now, he’s gone off of that but, thank goodness, prefers these days a decent commercial brand.

Still, he doesn’t eat enough. My big boy has always been a slight eater; the constant comment I would make about his diet was how impossible it was that somecat of his size and strength could sustain himself on such meagre fare. His consumption has diminished with his bulk, so that it has reached an unhealthy level. Rather than subject him to a pointless veterinary visit, I called his doctor and asked if I could order an appetite-stimulant without Renn going to the hospital for another examination. Fortunately, the doctor agreed, probably due to how recent his last tests were, and the doctor’s own concern with Renn’s vanishing weight.

Mirtazapine, transdermally applied to my Renn’s ears, will be available this week. With that, and luck, he will want to eat more. Even if it is a relief, it will likely be temporary. He is just fifteen years old this year, but, as a friend remarked, he looks nineteen. As with many senior cats, we think of their futures by the day, not the year, and if I can stop my big boy from getting any smaller, I will consider it today’s victory.

Minuet and the Threshold

Slowly, Minuet is growing accustomed to the other cats here. I am now allowing them to invade her sanctum – the library – for short periods, now and then. I don’t want her to feel insecure, but then again, she needs to interact with the others sooner or later, and the library must be open to all, eventually. The oldsters don’t seem to trouble her much; it may be the proximity of age. Renn likes to use her litter-boxes, which she does not mind.

Madame is also coming out of the library more. Her forays usually are of very short duration and she does not go far. I worried about her meeting the exuberant youngsters, but she has found a way of dealing with their forwardness. She emerged from the library a few days ago and was seen by Hector. My dark knight hastened toward her and I prepared to stop him. But Minuet let go one of her harsh and grating protests, like a particularly ill-tempered banshee, and Hector stopped in his tracks, turned about and trotted away. I think she would have clobbered him if he had come within paw-range.

Then, today, Auric observed Min in the corridor. He too hurried toward her, only to be greeted by another angry wail, like Donald Sutherland at the end of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The Golden Boy halted, looked one way, looked another way, and decided to visit the litter-boxes instead.

I can’t guarantee that Madame will be able to take care of herself, so I will continue to open the library door only when I am present. She and I have become friends, and she seems always glad to see me. She frequently gets up from where she is lying when I offer to pet her and walks to my hand, and she will lean into it for attention. There is far to go but we are in no hurry. She is a permanent guest in the Cosy Apartment, not available for adoption, so she has all the time she needs to adjust. So far I am satisfied with her progress.

An Enduring Friendship

Readers may recall that I have an outsider-cat who is a semi-regular at Café Cosy. Sable shows up most nights for several months at a time, helping herself to the hard-food which is always available, and partaking of the soft-food that I offer her.

For a long time, she has had a friend, a slightly tubby white and orange cat I’ve named Arliss. He shows up so rarely, with such intervals between his visits, that I often fear something has happened to him. I was surprised and pleased to see Arliss appear last night with Sable.

I know Arliss eats the hard-food but he is extremely skittish, so I’ve never been able to entice him to eat soft-food. Nonetheless, he does take advantage of the clean water in the heated bowl.

The two cats’ friendship interests me, especially after last night. Arliss, as I have mentioned, hardly ever comes to Café Cosy, though, when he does, it is always with Sable. Yesterday evening, Sable arrived, seemingly alone. I gave her some soft-food and, when I checked on her progress, I saw that Arliss had come with her. He quickly retreated when he observed me through the glass door, however, and kept his distance. When I opened the door to retrieve Sable’s empty bowl, Arliss ran off. Sable did not; she almost always remains for seconds. Yet, when I came back with her bowl re-charged, she was gone. I can conclude only that Sable preferred to leave with her friend than stay for more food, which was clearly her original intention.

I wonder about their friendship. Where is Arliss for the many months in which I see Sable without him? Does she maintain contact with him during these times, or is he gone from her knowledge, too, only to be happily re-united later? And where does Sable go during the periods of the year when she doesn’t patronise Café Cosy? They seem to be well-fed and well-groomed cats, though I know Sable has always been homeless and feral. Does Arliss have a summer-home to which he resorts during the warm days? Is someone else feeding Sable, and does Arliss go there, as well? And what is the extent of their friendship? How did it begin?

These are things I will never know in this life. Maybe some day, when I meet all those who have gone ahead, and those who will follow me, Sable will tell me. Then I will learn the secret of an enduring friendship.

A Surprise Gift for Minuet

Minuet received a surprise yesterday: a new, custom-made cat-tree.

As readers may recall, Madame likes to view the world from the top of the bookcases in the library. She also enjoys snoozing there, especially on the carpeted top of the low bookcase under the window. She ascended to these heights via the back of the couch. However, I couldn’t think that this was a comfortable means of travel for her old joints. The descent, which relied heavily on gravity, must have been particularly jarring to aged bones.

So I had a cat-tree made that would take her years into consideration. The platforms are only six inches apart, rather than the usual nine to eleven. Consequently, there are more than on the average tree. I thought this would assist her climbing. It has been placed between the couch and the bookcases and, as may be observed, allows easy access both to the lower and higher cases.

The important thing now is to get Minuet to use her new furniture / tool. This may have been aided, inadvertently, by youth; Auric, to be precise. He continues to try to invade the library (principally because he’s told he shouldn’t, I imagine.) Because Min must meet the residents sooner or later, I have been allowing them to penetrate her sanctum, under supervision. This morning, Auric nimbly climbed the new cat-tree and stepped off on to the bookcases.

This angered Minuet, who yelled and bawled at him. After a minute, I did remove the youngster, but I noticed that, after his departure, Min continued to stare at the cat-tree, where she had seen the offending cat. She stared at it for almost a minute, perhaps not noticing its height before. Twenty minutes later, I passed the open door of the library and noticed Minuet on one of the bookcases. She may have used, as in the past, the arm and back of the couch for part of her climb but, because of the tree’s placement, there is no way she could have simply stepped off the couch onto a bookcase. She needed, at least for part of the journey, to use the tree. The thought of using it at all was the first step, and she seems to have taken it.

Another worry was that Minuet, who is heavier than she should be and consequently a little bulky, might not be able to negotiate the twisting of the steps. But Renn also visited the library and investigated the new tree. Though much thinner than he once was, my big boy is still long, and had no trouble climbing the tree.

A beginning has been made. With time, I think Minuet will use the tree habitually, and her life in the Cosy Apartment will be a little easier.

Overheard

Dr Bellen liked watching the residents of the Cosy Apartment Feline Sanitarium. Sometimes he simply walked through the rooms and corridors and saw them sleeping and playing. It made him feel good. Now and then, he overheard conversations. He didn’t try to eavesdrop, but if he made out a discussion here and there, they often told him how things were faring at the sanitarium.

Very recently, he stopped to pass the time with some of the residents and, before he started on his way again, he heard, from around a corner, the distinctive voices of the two youngest cats in the institution, Hector and Auric.

“Noe, ai don’t wan’ to play rite now, Auric. Stop pooshin’ me.”

“Peep pip whrrrr oop.”

“Yes, ai still lyke yoo... Ai didn’t at ferst... Yer too pooshie.”

“Pip eep wip mrrrrrrr.”

“Ai think yoo tryd too hard. Yoo get inta trubble.”

“Whrrrp ip peep oooo.”

“Yeh, lyke wen yoo get on the mikrowayv ovven stand. That’s ware Dr Bellen keeps the stuf he duzn’t want cats t’get in too. Yoo nokked things off.”

“Peep poo ip crrrrrrr...”

“Haha, yeh, it wuz funny. All the paipurrs fline everyware. Hahahaha.”

“Pip woop pip pip pip unhh ooooo.”

“Noe, nawt reely?! The lawndree? Yor nawt s’posse t’bee thare. Wut did ya doo?”

“Reep ip whrrrt mip mip!”

“Hahaha! Thae cot yoo with th’ sawk? Hahaha! ‘Yoo don’t hav enuf toys?’ thae sed. Hahaha. An’ ai thawt ai cauzed trubble by aluss been underfut! Hahaha.”

“Eep mip putt putt wheeeee.”

“Awl rite, let’s go play. Last wun ta th’nylawn tunnel’s a rawtten fish!”

There was a sound of scurrying, and of eight feet skidding on linoleum. Dr Bellen smiled. He recalled, not so long ago, that Hector didn’t care for little Auric. Hec was right: Auric had been quite pushy. But it wasn’t long before Hector realised that the new arrival didn’t mean any ill by it. He was just young and eager for fun. Now, those two were the best of friends.

Then Dr Bellen frowned. Auric amid the laundry... That explains why the doctor’s socks hadn’t been coming back from the laundry in pairs lately...

Rasslin' and Tusslin'

Hector and Auric continue to enjoy their play-times together. I hope to record one of their chases, but every time I try, they stop running. A wrestling match will have to do for now. (If you double-click on the video, I think it may enlarge.)