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For the first time, I am sitting on the sofa with Tuxie in the cat bed to the left of me, and Purrsimmon in the cat bed to the right of me, and Shuri slithered in between Purrsimmon and me, and is snuggled against me. All 4 of us are on the sofa together! Shuri and Purrsimmon look so cutely intertwined.
The girls don’t sleep together too much, because it’s hard for one of them to not start licking and then wrestling the other, so they usually sleep separate. But they’re managing it for now. They would love to be cuddling with Tuxie, too, but he still would not allow that. If he lives long enough, that may change one day. I am a happy human with my fuzzy kids around me.
In 4 days, Shuri will be a year old! She is the first of my kitties whose birthday I know since her mother gave birth to her litter in a foster home. For her birthday present Sunday, I am going to move the refrigerator, and sweep out the dozens of toys she has shoved under it for safe-keeping. It will be like being in a cat toy shop! There are times I have tried to stop her, but she is too quick, and so off her toy went where it would be stored and safe. That she wouldn’t have it to play with, is one causal chain link too far for her little brain, excellent cat brain as it is. Cats are really great at causal reasoning for one step, but one step only. Still better than a lot of people.
Shuri is bigger than Purrsimmon, though not quite as long-limbed as Tuxie. Purrsimmon seems to still win most of their wrestling matches. Actually, Purrsimmon did not appear to win their matches until Shuri was 6 months old and as big as Purrsimmon. Like a very good big sister, Purrsimmon had been holding back, unbeknownst to me. But not anymore! And I was fearing that Shuri might beat her up when she got bigger for nothing.
They both still adore Tuxie, mostly, and any time he gets up, which isn’t that often, they look like they are on little walkie-talkies and are on the run to follow him. There are times when he is annoyed with them and hisses or whines at them, but how he feels about them at other times is anyone’s guess because he is a low affect kind of guy. Purrsimmon will stand watching him looking like a stage actor saying, Hark, he goes hither and I must follow!”--just that kind of one arm forward motion on tippy toe as she turns to the audience to give her short soliloquy. She still looks like a girl with a crush, as she follows him, and will come up behind him when he’s eating and lick his back or butt. But he hits her sometimes if she’s in front of him as he goes in circles, waiting for his meal to be served, and I’m pretty sure he enjoys that, as he’s always enjoyed hitting Moo or Saki before his meal. She now does her best to back off before he can hit her and, oh, the scrowl she gives him, like he is the scum beneath her peets, as he deserves. No more starry eyed maiden, this one. But as soon as he is past, she gets up, “Hark!” and follows.
Shuri, on the other hand, runs up to him and away quickly, and will swat his tail whenever she can, but mostly she runs up to touch noses or to kiss his cheek and just whines loudly in his face, in a demanding way, like she is demanding to be acknowledged as a daughter or little sister. It’s all so cute. Sometimes he swats her and whines with annoyance, but other times, I can’t tell--he watches her and I can’t help thinking sometimes he is charmed by her. One time she jumped off a chair onto his back and rode him for a beat before sliding off, and all of us stood still a beat in shock afterwards, even Shuri, before going about our business like nothing happened. Another time she ran up to his side and ran over him like he was a hill. Almost all these things are pre-meal activities. If Tuxie decides to just stand by his dish and not walk in circles around the house, Shuri will look at him and then run off and do the circles by herself. She looks like she is determined to be taught something by him, no matter how daft, she’s going to carry on the tradition, by gum! He’s the only adult cat she knows, and it matters! So fascinating to watch.
I have thought of getting one more cat, an older cat for the girls, but Shuri is probably past the stage of wanting an adult to learn off of, and though I think they might really like a gentle boy cat to acknowledge them better than Tuxie, I fear it would be too much for Tuxie and send him to an early grave. So we’ll keep our little family as it is for now. Since Shuri grew up soooo quickly, I have had kitten fever. I joined a wonderful FB group for Flame Point Siameses (Purrsimmon’s people) and they taunt me with pics of baby flame points--I never got to see Purrsimmon as a kitten, so it’s haaaaard, and I get tempted by kittens not too far away on Petfinder. But I don’t want to ruin the good thing we got, and tempt the vet bill gods to throw their arrows.
Except for when she gets her zoomies on for maximum zaniness, Purrsimmon is often a hesitant little person. This includes eating, which make her the subordinate eater next to the gobblers Tuxie and Shuri. Shuri is the champion chow master. She gobbles her food down and if I do not keep an eye on her, she runs over to Tuxie’s food area and pushes him out of his bowl, except if it’s his midday lunch which consists of people grade chicken or fish, then I notice she never manages to push him out. In any event he could push or swat her off from his bowl, but if she just lightly touches him, he walks away from his usual food and lets her gobble it. He will then walk over to Purrsimmon and push her out of her bowl as she nibbles slowly, the last to finish, by filling it with his face. So, usually I manage to keep an eye on Shuri, and as soon as she finishes, I play fetch with her, or swing her light up mouse cat teaser, or a feather teaser to keep her busy, until Tuxie finishes. Shuri loves to play almost more than stolen food, and is so adorably exuberant about it. Then I give Tuxie and Shuri their second portions while Purrsimmon is still nibbling away, and quickly take and refill hers before I give them all their bowls back for seconds.
Purrsimmon has come such a long way from the terrified little girl blinking furiously and shrinking away, in the little drawer in the bathroom vanity, burying her pitiful little face in the corner. She’s got her lil chosen sister to love on and chase around and wrestle and bite. They touch noses whenever they get up and join each other. But it was in late July when Purrsimmon discovered that a good back rub and pat down from a human was just wonderful and kept coming over to me for more, and spent weeks sleeping at night in the heated kitty bed on the chair next to the bed staying close to me at night. Though still skittish at times, she went through a month of being absolutely in love with me. Then the last couple of days she’s taken to sitting next to me on the couch. She still goes through skittish periods, but tis getting better. She’s got the most expressive face and not all she has to express is pleasant, and she can really screw up her little nose and eyes if I deign to pet her when she desires it not, peasant! or if I don’t get up to feed her when she demands service. But when she’s fond of me, she has the sunniest smile in her puffed cheeks and slow blinking eyes.
All three kitties have lovely high meows. But Shuri has the most to say, though much of it is in R2D2 beeps, often 2 or 3 together. If I lean down and say, “Hi Shuri!” she will almost always give me at least a distracted beep. She will run around trilling as she goes. Purrsimmon almost always does a throaty hum when she jumps up onto something or down. And she sings plaintive meows when she is carrying her mousie in her mouth. She must not have had a human to play with her when she was a few months old and looking to fetch because it doesn’t come naturally to her, but she would watch Shuri and I play. Then one day she brought me her mousie and I threw it for her, but she didn’t bring it back. She would toss it in the air and hop up in the air to catch it over and over in an exuberant game of catch by herself. She just wants me to throw out the first toss, and off she would go.
So then we had an interesting morning back in August when Purrsimmon, Shuri, and I were looking out the downstairs bathroom window before dawn and there was a young fox nosing about. And this fox had a dead rodent--not sure if it was a mouse or a rat. And the fox took that mouse and tossed it into the air and would hop up after it over and over in an eccentric little dance--just like Purrsimmon with her mousie!!! I was so amazed and just laughed. I wonder if she learned this game from watching foxes when she was a stray out in the mountains of Garret County and then fused that game with our game of fetch? Both the girls looked back at me with looks that said, “Wow! Mom is really into this! More than we are! You want for us to get you a dead mouse, too, or something’?"
As I wrap this up, the girls have left a while ago--they couldn’t contain themselves, and started licking, biting, and wrestling and off they went. My faithful couch potato, Tuxie, though, is still beside me sleeping his 14 year old senior dreams. He is the same age as my brother’s pair of sister siameses. One of them, Bobo (Borealis) sadly died on Monday. She and her sister Auri (Aurora) did not get along well. Bobo was the dominant and pushed Auri around, so the silver lining is that hopefully having my brother and house to herself will allow her softer personality to bloom and give her some happier last years.
Tuxie did mourn his mom Moo, though not as obviously as he mourned Saki when she passed a few years ago. I think the girls intimidate him a bit, the way they move in unison (We are siamese, if you please . . .) swirling around each other, though he is bigger than them with much larger claws and teeth, but I can’t believe the way they obviously adore him and want him to be assimilated into the siamese Borg is invisible to him. I think they are puzzling to him, and a bit horrific to watch when they beat the crap out of each other, but they’ve never tried to do that to him (well, excepting Shuri’s jumps on his back . . .) and he’s been swatting them without repurrrrrrcussions. I think he may be growing fonder of them than he knows and he’s learning to accept that they are family and he is taking comfort in their presence a little more each day. We shall see.
I’m so grateful I got these clever, sweet, beautiful, fun little meezers the end of December. Along with Tuxie, they are the best pandemic buddies this old cat lady could have. I got to stay home and watch the youngest kitten I ever brought home grow into a cat. and watch her toast nicely as a warm brown has spread across her body and more tawny peach spread up her legs. And I’ve gotten to be around to help Purrsimmon grow comfortable with living with and loving a human. She’s only very lightly toasting with a little more of a honey glaze spreading along her shiny white back and a little more apricot blush on her cheeks. The fuzzy adventure continues . . . .
The girls don’t sleep together too much, because it’s hard for one of them to not start licking and then wrestling the other, so they usually sleep separate. But they’re managing it for now. They would love to be cuddling with Tuxie, too, but he still would not allow that. If he lives long enough, that may change one day. I am a happy human with my fuzzy kids around me.
In 4 days, Shuri will be a year old! She is the first of my kitties whose birthday I know since her mother gave birth to her litter in a foster home. For her birthday present Sunday, I am going to move the refrigerator, and sweep out the dozens of toys she has shoved under it for safe-keeping. It will be like being in a cat toy shop! There are times I have tried to stop her, but she is too quick, and so off her toy went where it would be stored and safe. That she wouldn’t have it to play with, is one causal chain link too far for her little brain, excellent cat brain as it is. Cats are really great at causal reasoning for one step, but one step only. Still better than a lot of people.
Shuri is bigger than Purrsimmon, though not quite as long-limbed as Tuxie. Purrsimmon seems to still win most of their wrestling matches. Actually, Purrsimmon did not appear to win their matches until Shuri was 6 months old and as big as Purrsimmon. Like a very good big sister, Purrsimmon had been holding back, unbeknownst to me. But not anymore! And I was fearing that Shuri might beat her up when she got bigger for nothing.
They both still adore Tuxie, mostly, and any time he gets up, which isn’t that often, they look like they are on little walkie-talkies and are on the run to follow him. There are times when he is annoyed with them and hisses or whines at them, but how he feels about them at other times is anyone’s guess because he is a low affect kind of guy. Purrsimmon will stand watching him looking like a stage actor saying, Hark, he goes hither and I must follow!”--just that kind of one arm forward motion on tippy toe as she turns to the audience to give her short soliloquy. She still looks like a girl with a crush, as she follows him, and will come up behind him when he’s eating and lick his back or butt. But he hits her sometimes if she’s in front of him as he goes in circles, waiting for his meal to be served, and I’m pretty sure he enjoys that, as he’s always enjoyed hitting Moo or Saki before his meal. She now does her best to back off before he can hit her and, oh, the scrowl she gives him, like he is the scum beneath her peets, as he deserves. No more starry eyed maiden, this one. But as soon as he is past, she gets up, “Hark!” and follows.
Shuri, on the other hand, runs up to him and away quickly, and will swat his tail whenever she can, but mostly she runs up to touch noses or to kiss his cheek and just whines loudly in his face, in a demanding way, like she is demanding to be acknowledged as a daughter or little sister. It’s all so cute. Sometimes he swats her and whines with annoyance, but other times, I can’t tell--he watches her and I can’t help thinking sometimes he is charmed by her. One time she jumped off a chair onto his back and rode him for a beat before sliding off, and all of us stood still a beat in shock afterwards, even Shuri, before going about our business like nothing happened. Another time she ran up to his side and ran over him like he was a hill. Almost all these things are pre-meal activities. If Tuxie decides to just stand by his dish and not walk in circles around the house, Shuri will look at him and then run off and do the circles by herself. She looks like she is determined to be taught something by him, no matter how daft, she’s going to carry on the tradition, by gum! He’s the only adult cat she knows, and it matters! So fascinating to watch.
I have thought of getting one more cat, an older cat for the girls, but Shuri is probably past the stage of wanting an adult to learn off of, and though I think they might really like a gentle boy cat to acknowledge them better than Tuxie, I fear it would be too much for Tuxie and send him to an early grave. So we’ll keep our little family as it is for now. Since Shuri grew up soooo quickly, I have had kitten fever. I joined a wonderful FB group for Flame Point Siameses (Purrsimmon’s people) and they taunt me with pics of baby flame points--I never got to see Purrsimmon as a kitten, so it’s haaaaard, and I get tempted by kittens not too far away on Petfinder. But I don’t want to ruin the good thing we got, and tempt the vet bill gods to throw their arrows.
Except for when she gets her zoomies on for maximum zaniness, Purrsimmon is often a hesitant little person. This includes eating, which make her the subordinate eater next to the gobblers Tuxie and Shuri. Shuri is the champion chow master. She gobbles her food down and if I do not keep an eye on her, she runs over to Tuxie’s food area and pushes him out of his bowl, except if it’s his midday lunch which consists of people grade chicken or fish, then I notice she never manages to push him out. In any event he could push or swat her off from his bowl, but if she just lightly touches him, he walks away from his usual food and lets her gobble it. He will then walk over to Purrsimmon and push her out of her bowl as she nibbles slowly, the last to finish, by filling it with his face. So, usually I manage to keep an eye on Shuri, and as soon as she finishes, I play fetch with her, or swing her light up mouse cat teaser, or a feather teaser to keep her busy, until Tuxie finishes. Shuri loves to play almost more than stolen food, and is so adorably exuberant about it. Then I give Tuxie and Shuri their second portions while Purrsimmon is still nibbling away, and quickly take and refill hers before I give them all their bowls back for seconds.
Purrsimmon has come such a long way from the terrified little girl blinking furiously and shrinking away, in the little drawer in the bathroom vanity, burying her pitiful little face in the corner. She’s got her lil chosen sister to love on and chase around and wrestle and bite. They touch noses whenever they get up and join each other. But it was in late July when Purrsimmon discovered that a good back rub and pat down from a human was just wonderful and kept coming over to me for more, and spent weeks sleeping at night in the heated kitty bed on the chair next to the bed staying close to me at night. Though still skittish at times, she went through a month of being absolutely in love with me. Then the last couple of days she’s taken to sitting next to me on the couch. She still goes through skittish periods, but tis getting better. She’s got the most expressive face and not all she has to express is pleasant, and she can really screw up her little nose and eyes if I deign to pet her when she desires it not, peasant! or if I don’t get up to feed her when she demands service. But when she’s fond of me, she has the sunniest smile in her puffed cheeks and slow blinking eyes.
All three kitties have lovely high meows. But Shuri has the most to say, though much of it is in R2D2 beeps, often 2 or 3 together. If I lean down and say, “Hi Shuri!” she will almost always give me at least a distracted beep. She will run around trilling as she goes. Purrsimmon almost always does a throaty hum when she jumps up onto something or down. And she sings plaintive meows when she is carrying her mousie in her mouth. She must not have had a human to play with her when she was a few months old and looking to fetch because it doesn’t come naturally to her, but she would watch Shuri and I play. Then one day she brought me her mousie and I threw it for her, but she didn’t bring it back. She would toss it in the air and hop up in the air to catch it over and over in an exuberant game of catch by herself. She just wants me to throw out the first toss, and off she would go.
So then we had an interesting morning back in August when Purrsimmon, Shuri, and I were looking out the downstairs bathroom window before dawn and there was a young fox nosing about. And this fox had a dead rodent--not sure if it was a mouse or a rat. And the fox took that mouse and tossed it into the air and would hop up after it over and over in an eccentric little dance--just like Purrsimmon with her mousie!!! I was so amazed and just laughed. I wonder if she learned this game from watching foxes when she was a stray out in the mountains of Garret County and then fused that game with our game of fetch? Both the girls looked back at me with looks that said, “Wow! Mom is really into this! More than we are! You want for us to get you a dead mouse, too, or something’?"
As I wrap this up, the girls have left a while ago--they couldn’t contain themselves, and started licking, biting, and wrestling and off they went. My faithful couch potato, Tuxie, though, is still beside me sleeping his 14 year old senior dreams. He is the same age as my brother’s pair of sister siameses. One of them, Bobo (Borealis) sadly died on Monday. She and her sister Auri (Aurora) did not get along well. Bobo was the dominant and pushed Auri around, so the silver lining is that hopefully having my brother and house to herself will allow her softer personality to bloom and give her some happier last years.
Tuxie did mourn his mom Moo, though not as obviously as he mourned Saki when she passed a few years ago. I think the girls intimidate him a bit, the way they move in unison (We are siamese, if you please . . .) swirling around each other, though he is bigger than them with much larger claws and teeth, but I can’t believe the way they obviously adore him and want him to be assimilated into the siamese Borg is invisible to him. I think they are puzzling to him, and a bit horrific to watch when they beat the crap out of each other, but they’ve never tried to do that to him (well, excepting Shuri’s jumps on his back . . .) and he’s been swatting them without repurrrrrrcussions. I think he may be growing fonder of them than he knows and he’s learning to accept that they are family and he is taking comfort in their presence a little more each day. We shall see.
I’m so grateful I got these clever, sweet, beautiful, fun little meezers the end of December. Along with Tuxie, they are the best pandemic buddies this old cat lady could have. I got to stay home and watch the youngest kitten I ever brought home grow into a cat. and watch her toast nicely as a warm brown has spread across her body and more tawny peach spread up her legs. And I’ve gotten to be around to help Purrsimmon grow comfortable with living with and loving a human. She’s only very lightly toasting with a little more of a honey glaze spreading along her shiny white back and a little more apricot blush on her cheeks. The fuzzy adventure continues . . . .
From:
no subject
I still hope that, wherever she is, Shuri's little dilute tortie sister is happy, healthy and loved. It's probably rather sad of me, but she yanked my heartstrings, and I was just hearing the story after the fact!
From:
no subject
I think about that little dilute tortie girl the same. And truly, I'm not completely sure they were sisters--there were a couple of litters mixed together there, so, from Shuri’s reactions I have no reason to think they were bonded. It’s just Shuri was the funnest thing around there, and the little tortie was following the big (to her)fun girl. And I do think she would have been in Shuri’s shadow if I had gotten to take her, too. I can’t imagine they would have been as balanced wrestling partners as Shuri and Purrsimmon. I hope she has all that you say, too, and also a home that lets her stretch her little wings. I didn’t mention that also following Shuri was a big tabby kitten, a sweet boy who had feline cerebellar hypoplasia who I also hope is well homed and loved. Shuri’s just a little super star.