A story of a cat that was
Oct. 11th, 2013 01:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wispfoxHe was a stray who was caught when his foster was trying to catch another kitty, because she never thought she could catch him. He purred madly when she came to check the trap, and his tale with humans was started.
I may try to make a second post with photos, but not right now.
He was clearly top cat, as he had no visible effects from his time on the streets. No torn ears, nothing. He was also very self-confident.
When![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jasra and I were looking for a new cat, a requirement was that a cat come to us so that she could tell if her allergies could handle any new cat, outside the context of many different cats.
We had two options, both from the same foster. NSPy, then Nestle, was the first - and only - one we met. The foster brought him over, and intojasra's room. We wanted to minimize the new things for him to deal with. He investigated the entire room, purred madly, and rubbed against us frequently. Then he sat and stared at the closed door until we opened it. He then proceeded to check out the entire apartment, as if to say "yes. This is acceptable.". I brought down some dry food from when Ash was around, and after a sniff he started nomming on it. This shocked the foster, as she had only been able to convince him to eat wet food up until that point.
He clearly had decided that this was his home, and we were his people. So we adopted him.
He was initially confused about many things, such as furniture and the drinking of water. With the help of kitten milk, he learned what water was for, and with the help of patience and encouragement, grew to love couches and chairs and sitting on and next to us on them. He also learned to meow, eventually. Except that for most of his life, if he was stuck somewhere, he would sit and stare at the door. Even if we couldn't see him. This sometimes meant we lost the cat for a while until someone realized that they had recently opened a closet door. When he was much older, he might meow if he was somewhere he didn't want to be, but that was a recent behavior.
He learned to not sleep onjasra's pillows, and to sleep on top of blankets and sheets. He was ever a very smart, and polite, cat. At no point during the time we had him did he intentionally bite or scratch any of us.
He had a few illnesses from being a stray, and from having FIV. He had diabetes for a few years, and then it went away again. He loved pettings, especially the top of his head and his eyebrows. And his purr was often loud enough to be heard from a different room.
He dearly loved going outside, so we trained him to take a harness and leash. Once he knew what it meant, you could call him while holding them in your hand, and he would come running. Mind you, he wasn't necessarily patient enough to wait for you to put it _on_, but he knew what it meant.
Actually, he would often come running when called. He knew it usually meant good things, whether food or pettings or outside or something. Or laps! He loved laps, and comfy blankets and cushions, and windows. He learned about laps pretty early on. Of course, he also learned that he really ought to make sure people know he's coming up first, after having greatly startledthe_xtina one time when she was visiting.
He was NSPy because he would block the stairs leading out of our apartment. So, he became "None Shall Pass", or NSPy. He would try this when he and I moved in withgalaneia, metahacker, and hfcougar, but since there were multiple doors and we were worried about him managing to sneak out, it worked less well there.
One of the ways he would adopt people would be by trying to prevent them from leaving. I have a photo somewhere of him trying to preventmetahacker from leaving our apartment.
His original age was estimated to be 2 when we got him in '05, but a more recent check of his teeth suggested he was closer to 5 at the time, and thus instead of 10 now, 13 or 14. He'd started having trouble with stairs, although we thought it was because this house has so many of them, and we believed he had bad knees. When we first got him, though, he was so spry he would leap up into the air after toys. Indeed, you could see his stray reflexes in how he would look up anytime something vannished (birds, doncha know).
He was mostly not interested in cat treats, except greenies. And he would usually only take human food if we put it into his bowl. He was quite particular about where his food belonged. A tidy cat, he was. He basically never intentionally knocked things off high places, and would try very hard to not walk on things that were movable. His tail, though, was strong enough that he could, and did, knock things over by walking by. I was never sure how often that was intentional, especially since he definitely took to claiming people not only with an outstretched paw, but with a tail curled around or against a body part.
He preferred sleeping with people, especially when it was not summer. Such a social cat, one of his happiest positions was being on top of all three of myself,metahacker, and galaneia while on the couch. Definitely a poly cat. He would often follow people around, as if he were asking "whatcha doing? Is it interesting?".
He wasn't fond of small children, really at all. And loud or angry male voices freaked him out badly. And he never really got over his distrust of shoes, especially on men, although he did grow to tolerate them on his people. When we first got him, brooms were evil objects of doom. He seemed to be convinced for the first few months (maybe a year?) that every timejasra or I left the apartment, we were never coming back. Does make me wonder how he ended up on the streets, especially considering how affectionate and social he always was. Probably why he would tend to try to stop us, honestly. He took a long time to believe that food wasn't going to vanish on him, and tended to panic when he could see the bottom of his food bowl. New people were fine, and even good, unless they were moving around a lot or loud.
He was a good, sweet, astonishingly soft and absorbent kitty who I shared a home with for 8 years, and I miss him.
But he was miserable. He could barely walk anymore, and could hardly see. Half the time he wasn't even really there, mentally. We will never know precisely what he had, but it was probably a brain tumor pushing on his motor cortex.
But, as always, he was a fighter. I like to think that he didn't want to leave us alone. Who _knows_ what mischief we would get into without him! Maybe he and Ash are hanging out somewhere...
I may try to make a second post with photos, but not right now.
He was clearly top cat, as he had no visible effects from his time on the streets. No torn ears, nothing. He was also very self-confident.
When
jasra and I were looking for a new cat, a requirement was that a cat come to us so that she could tell if her allergies could handle any new cat, outside the context of many different cats.We had two options, both from the same foster. NSPy, then Nestle, was the first - and only - one we met. The foster brought him over, and into
jasra's room. We wanted to minimize the new things for him to deal with. He investigated the entire room, purred madly, and rubbed against us frequently. Then he sat and stared at the closed door until we opened it. He then proceeded to check out the entire apartment, as if to say "yes. This is acceptable.". I brought down some dry food from when Ash was around, and after a sniff he started nomming on it. This shocked the foster, as she had only been able to convince him to eat wet food up until that point.He clearly had decided that this was his home, and we were his people. So we adopted him.
He was initially confused about many things, such as furniture and the drinking of water. With the help of kitten milk, he learned what water was for, and with the help of patience and encouragement, grew to love couches and chairs and sitting on and next to us on them. He also learned to meow, eventually. Except that for most of his life, if he was stuck somewhere, he would sit and stare at the door. Even if we couldn't see him. This sometimes meant we lost the cat for a while until someone realized that they had recently opened a closet door. When he was much older, he might meow if he was somewhere he didn't want to be, but that was a recent behavior.
He learned to not sleep on
jasra's pillows, and to sleep on top of blankets and sheets. He was ever a very smart, and polite, cat. At no point during the time we had him did he intentionally bite or scratch any of us.He had a few illnesses from being a stray, and from having FIV. He had diabetes for a few years, and then it went away again. He loved pettings, especially the top of his head and his eyebrows. And his purr was often loud enough to be heard from a different room.
He dearly loved going outside, so we trained him to take a harness and leash. Once he knew what it meant, you could call him while holding them in your hand, and he would come running. Mind you, he wasn't necessarily patient enough to wait for you to put it _on_, but he knew what it meant.
Actually, he would often come running when called. He knew it usually meant good things, whether food or pettings or outside or something. Or laps! He loved laps, and comfy blankets and cushions, and windows. He learned about laps pretty early on. Of course, he also learned that he really ought to make sure people know he's coming up first, after having greatly startled
the_xtina one time when she was visiting.He was NSPy because he would block the stairs leading out of our apartment. So, he became "None Shall Pass", or NSPy. He would try this when he and I moved in with
galaneia, metahacker, and hfcougar, but since there were multiple doors and we were worried about him managing to sneak out, it worked less well there.One of the ways he would adopt people would be by trying to prevent them from leaving. I have a photo somewhere of him trying to prevent
metahacker from leaving our apartment.His original age was estimated to be 2 when we got him in '05, but a more recent check of his teeth suggested he was closer to 5 at the time, and thus instead of 10 now, 13 or 14. He'd started having trouble with stairs, although we thought it was because this house has so many of them, and we believed he had bad knees. When we first got him, though, he was so spry he would leap up into the air after toys. Indeed, you could see his stray reflexes in how he would look up anytime something vannished (birds, doncha know).
He was mostly not interested in cat treats, except greenies. And he would usually only take human food if we put it into his bowl. He was quite particular about where his food belonged. A tidy cat, he was. He basically never intentionally knocked things off high places, and would try very hard to not walk on things that were movable. His tail, though, was strong enough that he could, and did, knock things over by walking by. I was never sure how often that was intentional, especially since he definitely took to claiming people not only with an outstretched paw, but with a tail curled around or against a body part.
He preferred sleeping with people, especially when it was not summer. Such a social cat, one of his happiest positions was being on top of all three of myself,
metahacker, and galaneia while on the couch. Definitely a poly cat. He would often follow people around, as if he were asking "whatcha doing? Is it interesting?". He wasn't fond of small children, really at all. And loud or angry male voices freaked him out badly. And he never really got over his distrust of shoes, especially on men, although he did grow to tolerate them on his people. When we first got him, brooms were evil objects of doom. He seemed to be convinced for the first few months (maybe a year?) that every time
jasra or I left the apartment, we were never coming back. Does make me wonder how he ended up on the streets, especially considering how affectionate and social he always was. Probably why he would tend to try to stop us, honestly. He took a long time to believe that food wasn't going to vanish on him, and tended to panic when he could see the bottom of his food bowl. New people were fine, and even good, unless they were moving around a lot or loud.He was a good, sweet, astonishingly soft and absorbent kitty who I shared a home with for 8 years, and I miss him.
But he was miserable. He could barely walk anymore, and could hardly see. Half the time he wasn't even really there, mentally. We will never know precisely what he had, but it was probably a brain tumor pushing on his motor cortex.
But, as always, he was a fighter. I like to think that he didn't want to leave us alone. Who _knows_ what mischief we would get into without him! Maybe he and Ash are hanging out somewhere...
