lavendertook (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lavendertook) wrote2020-04-22 03:35 am
lavendertook) wrote2020-04-22 03:35 am
Entry tags:
Do you wanna build a snow cat?
So back to a simpler time, when cat wrangling was my major anxiety and hope, back to the last day of 2019 and the saga of Purrsimmon and the rocky introduction of little Shuri.
Though Shuri did not have such a storied background as Purrsimmon, and thank goodness for that, here is what I do know about her history. Her mother Silverbell was found or surrendered to a shelter in Rowan County, NC between Winston Salem and Charlotte--central piedmont area of the state. I had driven just north of that county many times when I lived in Carrboro and Chapel Hill in the 80's. That shelter needed to make room for coastal shelter refugees from the effects of Hurricane Dorian in September, so a foster in Harford County, MD took in the pregnant Silverbell and there she gave birth to a litter of 7, on September 20th, Shuri among them. Here are pics of Silverbell I saw on petfinder:
Her fluffy coat is nothing like Shuri's short one or in color except for the cute little snowshoes. I can see a resemblance in face shape.
Shuri shares Silverbell's eye color, though much less crossed.
I hope her daughter is as snuggly one day.
Her daughter shares the same expression when face stroked. Silverbell's entry was taken off petfinder later in January, so I assume she found a forever home then, and I hope a great one. She was described as friendly and loving and sounded like a well-adjusted kitty, so hopefully she experienced little unkindness, and I expect Shuri and her siblings had no distress, but probably learned early to compete if they were to get nipple space to feed. You can see here the heroic attitude that allowed Shuri to push her way throughthe bickering at The Council of Elrond 6 siblings to say she will take the ring to Mordor get her share:
Back to cat wrangling: I know I started out the day New Year's Eve feeling pretty worn out, but by afternoon, I opened the bedroom door, where I was keeping Shuri and gave her the run of the house.
She looked around but didn't do much climbing or jumping, keeping mainly to floor level, and focused most attention on any cat toys laying about.
I kept close to make sure she didn't run into any trouble, like finding some spot to disappear into that I couldn't get her out of, or get attacked by Tuxie or Purrsimmon. Purry watched her with interest, but she wasn't so sure about this little beastie yet, playing with HER toys.
Shuri wandered around, but did not take long before focusing her interest on the downstairs bathroom that was Purry's main hang out still and filled with her toys.
Purrsimmon kept a watch on what Shuri was doing with her toys.
With a little help from me dangling string and rolling balls and tossing toy mice between them, it wasn't long before Purry was hesitantly playing with Shuri, who had no hesitation about playing with Purry.
In fact, Shuri had never met a personal boundary she wouldn't cross. Case in point:
"Why there's a tempting plot device!"
"There's a reason why 'Danger' is my middle name . . . "
"If only it would stay still just for a moment . . . "
"Come to me little corn snake!"
"Excuse me, but that tail happens to be MINE!"
"Oh, um, I wasn't doing anything. I wasn't even looking at your tail, or even knew you were there."
It was not long before the Purry Express came zooming through the living room with an added second car, zooming around into the kitchen/dining room and back through the living room again. I have to tell you I was over the moon cheering to see this. Tuxie sat on the couch and watched the two car train with what looked more like excitement than annoyance or alarm, but it might have been a mix--it's hard to tell with him.
Maybe Purrsimmon had needed the 2 bad starts to get used to Shuri before accepting her, but I later realized I might have made a mistake in introducing them in Purry's safe room with the door closed so they could interact without Shuri wandering off to explore, because for Purry it might have felt like an invasion, especially with Shuri playing with HER toys, that she had neatly piled in the shower stall. But I'm not sure what would have worked better. Still, the important thing was that it was working now. Shuri and her high spirits had won Purry over.
And then came the Purry Parades with Purry marching and singing with her head high as she dragged her string in her mouth, followed by an eager kitten! Best. Parades. Ever!!!
Team Purry & Shuri began. Watching Purrsimmon and Shuri bond was just the happiest New Year's Eve I ever had. I could put away all worries about having to take Shuri back. And frankly, I don't think I would have been able to. I think I would have wound up getting another kitten or young cat from somewhere as a playmate for Shuri, hoping Purry would take to this 4th kitty as well, or just remain a skittish, aloof cat with issues. But thank goodness, that was not to be her fate.
So they played all evening and conked out in separate cat beds in the living room when I went to bed.
Tuxie stayed downstairs in his bed to keep an eye on them. But when I woke up in the morning I found a tiny kitten curled up against my ankles--bliss! It was the cutest start to the first day of the new decade I could have.
All New Year's Day was full of a romping, happy pair of kitties with their cheering human audience that they liked to play to. These two had bonded like sisters. Shuri is absolutely the cute, rambunctious, inquisitive little sister Anna to Purry's elegant, troubled, smart big sister Elsa. I was delaying posting this because I so wanted to share this withfebobe, the biggest "Frozen" fan of my friends, hoping she would come home, but it was not to be. I thought she would have gotten such a kick out of this. Here is Anna Shuri kissing her big sister Elsa Purry:
I love how unexpectedly blissed out Purrsimmon looks to be so loved on by this kitten grooming her. I wasn't sure how Purry would take to a kitten as a companion, having raised kittens a few months ago--they would be 2 months older than Shuri. However, Purry's kittens were re-homed just before they got to Shuri's age. Just when they got to the age when they could have begun to be real playmates and friends to her, or not, they were gone. And I wonder if Purry had any companions to play with--she still had, and has plenty of kitten in her, so she and Shuri are perfect companions. Elsa and Anna, except for the ongoing viciously joyful wrestling.
This was just the beginning of their championship wrestling matches--it just gets better from here. Their romping fills the house with the sound of rampaging buffalo herds., if buffaloes rampaged on staircases. Tuxie was annoyed when they'd run into him in their games of chase, and when he was on the move they would follow him like his personal paparazzi, and it's continued that way to this day, but he's gotten less hissy with them over time and I think he likes being the cranky older brother, except when Shuri pushes into his food bowl. By the first or second day of the year, Shuri began grooming Purry and later Purry started grooming her back, and wrestling matches began between them morphing back and forth into grooming and more wrestling. First love, then glorious violence!!! They look like they are having so much fun together. There are many wrestling pics in your viewing future.
Purry is still skittish, but she has come to relax around me way faster than I thought she would, and so much faster than she would have without Shuri. But just as Shuri has brought joy to Purry and showed her the fun of human ownership that is harder for meezers to resist than other cat breeds , I think Purry''s influenced Shuri to be a little more cautious and fearful of door openings and the sound of unknown humans and she's got a bit of a skittish side herself.
Now you know the story of how Purrsimmon Putchamin Galadrim and Shuri Iskierka Took came to be with me and how they became a bonded pair, and company to Tuxie who they adore.
I am so glad that I did not wait longer to get cats and missed these two, and missed having the best pandemic stay-at-home companions anyone could have. No matter how angry, depressed, bereft, sad, or grim I might feel any day, there hasn't been a day they haven't made me laugh and smile.
So now I have 4 months of pics to catch you up on, with little factoids I've learned about these 2 adorable meezers as I've watched them growing up. I leave you with a Purrsimmon ball . . .
And Shuri hugging her catnip llama:
And just when yo think it can't get any cuter . . .
Shuri stretches, pushes her feet into the llama and folds her front paws over her face. I put up with scenes like this everyday . . .
Though Shuri did not have such a storied background as Purrsimmon, and thank goodness for that, here is what I do know about her history. Her mother Silverbell was found or surrendered to a shelter in Rowan County, NC between Winston Salem and Charlotte--central piedmont area of the state. I had driven just north of that county many times when I lived in Carrboro and Chapel Hill in the 80's. That shelter needed to make room for coastal shelter refugees from the effects of Hurricane Dorian in September, so a foster in Harford County, MD took in the pregnant Silverbell and there she gave birth to a litter of 7, on September 20th, Shuri among them. Here are pics of Silverbell I saw on petfinder:
Her fluffy coat is nothing like Shuri's short one or in color except for the cute little snowshoes. I can see a resemblance in face shape.
Shuri shares Silverbell's eye color, though much less crossed.
I hope her daughter is as snuggly one day.
Her daughter shares the same expression when face stroked. Silverbell's entry was taken off petfinder later in January, so I assume she found a forever home then, and I hope a great one. She was described as friendly and loving and sounded like a well-adjusted kitty, so hopefully she experienced little unkindness, and I expect Shuri and her siblings had no distress, but probably learned early to compete if they were to get nipple space to feed. You can see here the heroic attitude that allowed Shuri to push her way through
Back to cat wrangling: I know I started out the day New Year's Eve feeling pretty worn out, but by afternoon, I opened the bedroom door, where I was keeping Shuri and gave her the run of the house.
She looked around but didn't do much climbing or jumping, keeping mainly to floor level, and focused most attention on any cat toys laying about.
I kept close to make sure she didn't run into any trouble, like finding some spot to disappear into that I couldn't get her out of, or get attacked by Tuxie or Purrsimmon. Purry watched her with interest, but she wasn't so sure about this little beastie yet, playing with HER toys.
Shuri wandered around, but did not take long before focusing her interest on the downstairs bathroom that was Purry's main hang out still and filled with her toys.
Purrsimmon kept a watch on what Shuri was doing with her toys.
With a little help from me dangling string and rolling balls and tossing toy mice between them, it wasn't long before Purry was hesitantly playing with Shuri, who had no hesitation about playing with Purry.
In fact, Shuri had never met a personal boundary she wouldn't cross. Case in point:
"Why there's a tempting plot device!"
"There's a reason why 'Danger' is my middle name . . . "
"If only it would stay still just for a moment . . . "
"Come to me little corn snake!"
"Excuse me, but that tail happens to be MINE!"
"Oh, um, I wasn't doing anything. I wasn't even looking at your tail, or even knew you were there."
It was not long before the Purry Express came zooming through the living room with an added second car, zooming around into the kitchen/dining room and back through the living room again. I have to tell you I was over the moon cheering to see this. Tuxie sat on the couch and watched the two car train with what looked more like excitement than annoyance or alarm, but it might have been a mix--it's hard to tell with him.
Maybe Purrsimmon had needed the 2 bad starts to get used to Shuri before accepting her, but I later realized I might have made a mistake in introducing them in Purry's safe room with the door closed so they could interact without Shuri wandering off to explore, because for Purry it might have felt like an invasion, especially with Shuri playing with HER toys, that she had neatly piled in the shower stall. But I'm not sure what would have worked better. Still, the important thing was that it was working now. Shuri and her high spirits had won Purry over.
And then came the Purry Parades with Purry marching and singing with her head high as she dragged her string in her mouth, followed by an eager kitten! Best. Parades. Ever!!!
Team Purry & Shuri began. Watching Purrsimmon and Shuri bond was just the happiest New Year's Eve I ever had. I could put away all worries about having to take Shuri back. And frankly, I don't think I would have been able to. I think I would have wound up getting another kitten or young cat from somewhere as a playmate for Shuri, hoping Purry would take to this 4th kitty as well, or just remain a skittish, aloof cat with issues. But thank goodness, that was not to be her fate.
So they played all evening and conked out in separate cat beds in the living room when I went to bed.
Tuxie stayed downstairs in his bed to keep an eye on them. But when I woke up in the morning I found a tiny kitten curled up against my ankles--bliss! It was the cutest start to the first day of the new decade I could have.
All New Year's Day was full of a romping, happy pair of kitties with their cheering human audience that they liked to play to. These two had bonded like sisters. Shuri is absolutely the cute, rambunctious, inquisitive little sister Anna to Purry's elegant, troubled, smart big sister Elsa. I was delaying posting this because I so wanted to share this with
febobe, the biggest "Frozen" fan of my friends, hoping she would come home, but it was not to be. I thought she would have gotten such a kick out of this. Here is Anna Shuri kissing her big sister Elsa Purry:I love how unexpectedly blissed out Purrsimmon looks to be so loved on by this kitten grooming her. I wasn't sure how Purry would take to a kitten as a companion, having raised kittens a few months ago--they would be 2 months older than Shuri. However, Purry's kittens were re-homed just before they got to Shuri's age. Just when they got to the age when they could have begun to be real playmates and friends to her, or not, they were gone. And I wonder if Purry had any companions to play with--she still had, and has plenty of kitten in her, so she and Shuri are perfect companions. Elsa and Anna, except for the ongoing viciously joyful wrestling.
This was just the beginning of their championship wrestling matches--it just gets better from here. Their romping fills the house with the sound of rampaging buffalo herds., if buffaloes rampaged on staircases. Tuxie was annoyed when they'd run into him in their games of chase, and when he was on the move they would follow him like his personal paparazzi, and it's continued that way to this day, but he's gotten less hissy with them over time and I think he likes being the cranky older brother, except when Shuri pushes into his food bowl. By the first or second day of the year, Shuri began grooming Purry and later Purry started grooming her back, and wrestling matches began between them morphing back and forth into grooming and more wrestling. First love, then glorious violence!!! They look like they are having so much fun together. There are many wrestling pics in your viewing future.
Purry is still skittish, but she has come to relax around me way faster than I thought she would, and so much faster than she would have without Shuri. But just as Shuri has brought joy to Purry and showed her the fun of human ownership that is harder for meezers to resist than other cat breeds , I think Purry''s influenced Shuri to be a little more cautious and fearful of door openings and the sound of unknown humans and she's got a bit of a skittish side herself.
Now you know the story of how Purrsimmon Putchamin Galadrim and Shuri Iskierka Took came to be with me and how they became a bonded pair, and company to Tuxie who they adore.
I am so glad that I did not wait longer to get cats and missed these two, and missed having the best pandemic stay-at-home companions anyone could have. No matter how angry, depressed, bereft, sad, or grim I might feel any day, there hasn't been a day they haven't made me laugh and smile.
So now I have 4 months of pics to catch you up on, with little factoids I've learned about these 2 adorable meezers as I've watched them growing up. I leave you with a Purrsimmon ball . . .
And Shuri hugging her catnip llama:
And just when yo think it can't get any cuter . . .
Shuri stretches, pushes her feet into the llama and folds her front paws over her face. I put up with scenes like this everyday . . .
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Thank you for sharing the ups and downs with us and I'm sure Kimbra is smiling.
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I think I might have mentioned they were like Anna and Elsa in a reply to Kimbra in her journal, but I haven't looked through them all yet and I can't remember for sure if I did, so it's top of the things I wanted to tell her about and then I forgot to mention it in the card I sent her, which she probably never saw. I will always think of her whenever it comes to mind they are like those sisters.
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As an aside, Silverbell sounds like a complete floofy love (with an excellent name!). I've been charmed again. I hope she has a fabulous forever home on par with the one her daughter got!
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I hope Silverbell has a home that is loving her up good. I love how short the fur on her legs is next to her flooffy body making her look like a tribble on legs. Her Shuri is thoroughly adored by cat and human alike. I think she is also winning over Tuxie on his easy going days.
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Hee! Love this whole story, but had to go back through to grab that one quotable quote!
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I read an article (now that it's too late) that this surgery isn't worth it. That has me really down. I feel like I'm worse off now than I was before. :(
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