Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
National Delurker Day
I just found out that today is National Delurker Day. Lurkers everywhere, reveal thyselves!
Seriously, though, I don't have very high traffic at this blog (yet!) but if you are lurking around, leave a comment and say hello!
Seriously, though, I don't have very high traffic at this blog (yet!) but if you are lurking around, leave a comment and say hello!
Everything is going well...
Oliver is fitting in very well. He is very happy to accept his position as low man on the totem pole, which has made the transition much easier than it was when Annabelle came into the picture.
She absolutely refused to let Stubbs be the boss. She wanted to play and chase him. I don't even think that she wanted to be the "alpha" cat; it almost seems like she just wanted to be equals. Stubbs was not happy about that.
But in this case, Oliver defers to Stubbs. Sometimes, Oliver will approach Stubbs when Stubbs wants to be left alone, and Stubbs will raise a paw in warning. Oliver will instantly get as low to the ground as possible, as if he is kow towing to Stubbs. Oliver also allows Stubbs to sniff his butt for extended periods of time, which I believe is also a submissive thing.
Oliver and Annabelle are the best of friends. They spend their days chasing each other, jumping over each other, and generally stalking each other. The other afternoon, they both took a snooze on my "lap", Annabelle sleeping on my stretched out legs and Oliver on my actual lap.
We are still adjusting to having three cats eating at the same time. Oliver is a total hog with absolutley no table manners. This is not a surprise, since he was the only cat in his last home. He is still learning how to eat off his own plate only. He is also acting very much like a teenager, trying to push the limits of how much food he can guilt out of us by following us into the kitchen constantly, mewing his adorable mew.
She absolutely refused to let Stubbs be the boss. She wanted to play and chase him. I don't even think that she wanted to be the "alpha" cat; it almost seems like she just wanted to be equals. Stubbs was not happy about that.
But in this case, Oliver defers to Stubbs. Sometimes, Oliver will approach Stubbs when Stubbs wants to be left alone, and Stubbs will raise a paw in warning. Oliver will instantly get as low to the ground as possible, as if he is kow towing to Stubbs. Oliver also allows Stubbs to sniff his butt for extended periods of time, which I believe is also a submissive thing.
Oliver and Annabelle are the best of friends. They spend their days chasing each other, jumping over each other, and generally stalking each other. The other afternoon, they both took a snooze on my "lap", Annabelle sleeping on my stretched out legs and Oliver on my actual lap.
We are still adjusting to having three cats eating at the same time. Oliver is a total hog with absolutley no table manners. This is not a surprise, since he was the only cat in his last home. He is still learning how to eat off his own plate only. He is also acting very much like a teenager, trying to push the limits of how much food he can guilt out of us by following us into the kitchen constantly, mewing his adorable mew.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Service Animals
Please check out this article from New York Times Magazine about Service Animals. It is very interesting.
The article brought to light for me an issue that I have not thought about much in the past. There is a big debate about what qualifies as a service animal and where the line is drawn. It is certainly not a black and white issue by any means. I want to reflect on this more and perhaps write another post once I have collected my thoughts.
The article brought to light for me an issue that I have not thought about much in the past. There is a big debate about what qualifies as a service animal and where the line is drawn. It is certainly not a black and white issue by any means. I want to reflect on this more and perhaps write another post once I have collected my thoughts.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Back from a hiatus
I honestly don't even know where to begin with this post. I haven't posted since before Christmas.
The holidays were crazy as usual. Stubbs and Annabelle dealt very well with the revolving door of people that were in and out for the last two weeks.
Markedly, they were both very good with my niece, Miranda, and our friends' child, Alex.
Miranda came on December 27 to go see a play and to sleepover. The first time Miranda visited (last February), Annabelle was a bit skittish around her. We have reason to believe that Annabelle may have been treated poorly by children at her previous home, so it was no surprise to us. I am very happy to say, though, that after exposure to many gentle children whose parents have taught them to be nice to animals, Annabelle is totally comfortable with kids. In fact, she seems to crave the energy that little kids bring to the house. She and Miranda were the best of friends for her visit.
Stubbs also is very good with children. I have seen him be super surly with adults, including scratching and biting at them (always after fair warning...Stubbs has never scratched or bitten without first giving multiple cues that he wants to be left alone), but he has always been nothing but a gentleman with kids.
The second child visitor we had was Alex, a rambunctious 2 year old who has never had much exposure to cats. Kudos to his parents, though, who have taught him to be a gentle boy with other living creatures. After about 5 minutes, I was never once worried about how he would treat the cats or how the cats would treat him. He was a natural. Stubbs was being his typical sullen self, but Annabelle was in her element. Alex quickly figured out how to use the cat teaser, (which we call Annabelle's "birdie") and within an hour there were cat toys scattered everywhere. Annabelle was tuckered out by the end of the night. I know that she probably need more stimulation than we are able to give her, so nights like that are very good for her.
On a side note, I have to add that Annabelle is such a creature of habit. She does not go to bed at night until we do, no matter what the time. Over the last couple of weeks, we were up very late most nights, causing her to be tuckered out during the days.
Little Alex left on Friday, and Joe and I headed out to the humane society to help my brother-and-sister-in-law pick out a kitty. They have been wanting to get one for awhile now, so we were super excited to go help them out. Although we have been tossing around the idea of getting a third cat for awhile, we really had no intentions of getting one that day. We brought the carrier that B-I-L and S-I-L were going to use for their new cat, and that was it.
Well, we should have known better. We actually
almost made a clean getaway. B-I-L and S-I-L were signing the paperwork when I happened to notice a cat that we somehow overlooked on our first lap around the Humane Society. I walked over to the cage and saw the prettiest orange cat with a huge plume tail; his name was Blue. The dog I had growing up...the best dog ever...was named Blue.
Joe and I were smitten at first sight. He was rubbing his head against our hands through the cage, and his fur was so soft. Joe and I just kept giving each other looks without saying anything.
We read on his info sheet that he was an owner drop off. The reason: "Moving." I won't even get into by feelings on that right now.
We actually left the humane society empty handed. We didn't have a carrier to take him home in anyway, so we decided to run a couple errands and talk it over. In the car we decided that we would give it a try, putting the happiness of Stubbs and Annabelle first. We drove home, got the carrier, went back to the humane society, and picked up our new little guy without any hesitation.
The introductions between the cats were better than I ever dreamed, much smoother than Stubbs and Annabelle's. Stubbs, who we were worried about, sniffed him and just walked away. Thus far his attitude has been at worst aloof.
Annabelle, who we were not worried about, was a little tougher. At first she was fine, but within a couple hours she was hissing at the new cat (who we decided to rename Oliver Blue) everytime he approached her. We were a little worried, but decided that her good nature would win out, and we were right. By the next morning there was minimal hissing, and within hours they were fine.
We had company on Oliver's second day here, and he exceeded our behavior expectations by leaps and bounds. Instead of being a shy boy, he was Mr. Sociable. He immediately took to my S-I-L, sitting her lap for almost an hour. He even discovered the tent on the kitty condo while we were watching a movie and hung out with us.
By the second night, Annabelle realized the advantages of having a young cat around, and they started playing with each other. Joe said that they were up to the wee hours of the morning chasing each other around.
So that was the last two weeks in a nutshell. We have added another member to our crazy cat family, and we couldn't be happier with this gentle, sweet little boy.
The holidays were crazy as usual. Stubbs and Annabelle dealt very well with the revolving door of people that were in and out for the last two weeks.
Markedly, they were both very good with my niece, Miranda, and our friends' child, Alex.
Miranda came on December 27 to go see a play and to sleepover. The first time Miranda visited (last February), Annabelle was a bit skittish around her. We have reason to believe that Annabelle may have been treated poorly by children at her previous home, so it was no surprise to us. I am very happy to say, though, that after exposure to many gentle children whose parents have taught them to be nice to animals, Annabelle is totally comfortable with kids. In fact, she seems to crave the energy that little kids bring to the house. She and Miranda were the best of friends for her visit.
Stubbs also is very good with children. I have seen him be super surly with adults, including scratching and biting at them (always after fair warning...Stubbs has never scratched or bitten without first giving multiple cues that he wants to be left alone), but he has always been nothing but a gentleman with kids.
The second child visitor we had was Alex, a rambunctious 2 year old who has never had much exposure to cats. Kudos to his parents, though, who have taught him to be a gentle boy with other living creatures. After about 5 minutes, I was never once worried about how he would treat the cats or how the cats would treat him. He was a natural. Stubbs was being his typical sullen self, but Annabelle was in her element. Alex quickly figured out how to use the cat teaser, (which we call Annabelle's "birdie") and within an hour there were cat toys scattered everywhere. Annabelle was tuckered out by the end of the night. I know that she probably need more stimulation than we are able to give her, so nights like that are very good for her.
On a side note, I have to add that Annabelle is such a creature of habit. She does not go to bed at night until we do, no matter what the time. Over the last couple of weeks, we were up very late most nights, causing her to be tuckered out during the days.
Little Alex left on Friday, and Joe and I headed out to the humane society to help my brother-and-sister-in-law pick out a kitty. They have been wanting to get one for awhile now, so we were super excited to go help them out. Although we have been tossing around the idea of getting a third cat for awhile, we really had no intentions of getting one that day. We brought the carrier that B-I-L and S-I-L were going to use for their new cat, and that was it.
Well, we should have known better. We actually
almost made a clean getaway. B-I-L and S-I-L were signing the paperwork when I happened to notice a cat that we somehow overlooked on our first lap around the Humane Society. I walked over to the cage and saw the prettiest orange cat with a huge plume tail; his name was Blue. The dog I had growing up...the best dog ever...was named Blue.
Joe and I were smitten at first sight. He was rubbing his head against our hands through the cage, and his fur was so soft. Joe and I just kept giving each other looks without saying anything.
We read on his info sheet that he was an owner drop off. The reason: "Moving." I won't even get into by feelings on that right now.
We actually left the humane society empty handed. We didn't have a carrier to take him home in anyway, so we decided to run a couple errands and talk it over. In the car we decided that we would give it a try, putting the happiness of Stubbs and Annabelle first. We drove home, got the carrier, went back to the humane society, and picked up our new little guy without any hesitation.
The introductions between the cats were better than I ever dreamed, much smoother than Stubbs and Annabelle's. Stubbs, who we were worried about, sniffed him and just walked away. Thus far his attitude has been at worst aloof.
Annabelle, who we were not worried about, was a little tougher. At first she was fine, but within a couple hours she was hissing at the new cat (who we decided to rename Oliver Blue) everytime he approached her. We were a little worried, but decided that her good nature would win out, and we were right. By the next morning there was minimal hissing, and within hours they were fine.
We had company on Oliver's second day here, and he exceeded our behavior expectations by leaps and bounds. Instead of being a shy boy, he was Mr. Sociable. He immediately took to my S-I-L, sitting her lap for almost an hour. He even discovered the tent on the kitty condo while we were watching a movie and hung out with us.
By the second night, Annabelle realized the advantages of having a young cat around, and they started playing with each other. Joe said that they were up to the wee hours of the morning chasing each other around.
So that was the last two weeks in a nutshell. We have added another member to our crazy cat family, and we couldn't be happier with this gentle, sweet little boy.
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