Monday, August 31, 2015

Introducing Joni

Joni: Hi I'm the newest addition to the cat family.  I'm feral and 10 years old.  For the last several years a very nice old man was taking care of me and my buddy.  He fed and watered us and let us in the house in bad weather.  We had a cat door to come and go as we pleased, but we mostly stayed outdoors.  One day there was no food or water and the cat door was locked.  We were very sad.

Karen Jo: The nice old man went to Heaven.

Joni:  The next day or so we found food in cages.  We were so hungry that we went in and were caught.  My buddy tested negative, but I tested positive, so we were separated.  I was due to be packed off the the Rainbow Bridge because of my age and distrust of people, but Felines & Friends rescued me.  There is a place in Utah for cats like me.  A refuge for feral FeLV+ cats where we can run around outside all we want and F&F wants to send me there.  The problem is that they are at capacity now and I have to wait.  The only place F&F had for me was a cage, so Karen Jo got called in to help.

Now I have my very own room and lots of food and water and toys and a window to look out of.  Karen Jo leaves me alone and doesn't come looking for me.  She just comes in and leaves the food and water and goes away, closing the door behind her.  I like it here in this room and have no desire to ever leave it.  I miss my buddy, but Bambino and sometimes other cats come in to visit.  Sometimes Bambino even spends the night with me.  It's too scary outside my room.  Do  you know what's out there?  I'll show you:
 Spyro:  Come on out.  I love other kitties.  I have come in to see you and I like you.
 Oja:  You can come out if you want.  Just remember that I am the boss around here.
 Rocio:  Stay in your room.  If you come out I will hiss at you.

Karen Jo:  Rocio, you have been in to visit Joni and you didn't hiss at her then.

Rocio:  That was in her room, her territory.  If she comes out here, I will hiss at her.
 Bambino:  Please come out.  I want to play with you so much.
 Horus:  Stay in your room.  I don't like new kitties and I will hiss at you.
 Julius:  Please come out.  I love new kitties and I want to play with you.  I would come visit, but I'm too scared of the Mom to go in when she opens the door.
 Tabitha: Come on out.  I like all kitties and want to make friends.
Bentley:  Come out.  That room belongs to me and the Mom had no right to give it to you.  I want it back.

Karen Jo:  Bentley, that's not nice.  Each kitty in turn has had that room to themselves for a while.  It's Joni's turn.

Karen Jo:  I haven't found my camera yet.  If I don't find it soon, I guess I'll use my phone.  I forgot to say yesterday that one reason Bentley was so grumpy when he arrived was that he had four rotten teeth and was in pain.  Once we got him all fixed up, he mellowed tremendously.

Saturday, August 29, 2015

Meet Bentley

Hi, it's been so long since I've blogged that you've all probably forgotten about me.  Losing Brody and Cissy really knocked the stuffing out of me.  I had faithfully promised the vet lady who had found them and hand-raised them (they were abandoned by their mother at birth) that I would take good care of them for the rest of their lives.  When that turned out to be only a matter of months I felt awful and guilty, though there was nothing more I could have done.  I lost my heart for blogging and went back to playing games and one thing followed another and I just didn't blog.  I feel better about the whole thing now and will try to blog fairly regularly, though my life is rather hectic right now and I don't know how often I will do it.  It's been so long that I can't find my camera.  I had my bedroom windows replaced with more efficient ones and everything got packed up.  I will make a concerted effort to find it.  There have been two more additions to my cat family and I'm going to start with Bentley.


Bentley: Hi, I came to live here several months ago.  I had a pretty good life for most of my life, despite being front declawed.  I'm 13 years old and shortly before I came here some mean people got hold of me and turned me into an outside cat.  That's how I got FeLV.  I lost all trust in people and started to dislike everyone and everything.  Some other people came and put me in a cage and took me to the vet, which I hated.  I hissed and snarled at them all.  I was diagnosed and it was suggested that because of my age and my nasty disposition that I be packed off to the Rainbow Bridge.  Luckily for me the Humane Society stepped in and they rescued me.  They contacted Felines & Friends of Santa Fe and they contacted Karen Jo.  She took me in, but I didn't like her either.

Timed passed and Karen Jo kept petting me through the hisses and snarls and I finally decided that not only was she ok, she was great.  I call her Mom now.  At first I stayed in my room, but that got boring after a couple of days, so I came out and started hissing and snarling at all the other kitties who live here.  Eventually I settled down and stopped hissing and growling at the other kitties, except Oja.  I don't like her at all.

Oja: That's because I let you know right away who's the boss around here.

Bentley: Oh, go ahead.  Rub it in.  I'm the oldest, so I should be boss.

Oja:  I was boss before you came and I am going to stay the boss.  Just get used to it.

Bentley:  Anyway, things were going great until Mom got mean and gave my room to another cat.  I stayed mad about that for a couple of weeks.  I got used to it, though, and things are back to normal.  I spend most of my time just lying around, but I do love to get attention from Mom.  I also love large catnip toys.  I rub my face all over them and drool on them.

Spyro:  Much to the disgust of us other catnip toy lovers.  Bentley drool is a bit off-putting when I want to rub my face all over a catnip toy.

Bentley:  Big deal.  It dries in just a little while and there are plenty of toys to go around.  I don't indulge in kitty wrestling, which is a big sport around here.  I snarl at any kitty who tries it with me.

Bambino:  I'm the only one who tried it and you smacked me in the head.  I won't try it again, I promise.

Tabitha: Bentley smacked me in the head, too, and I was only trying to be friendly.  I rubbed up against him and he hit me.

Bentley: I am sorry about that one. I wasn't used to you yet.  I won't smack you again unless you pounce me like Bambino did.  I still miss my room and go in sometimes when the door is open, which isn't often.  There's a weird kitty in there who hides all the time.

Karen Jo: That's Joni.  We'll talk about her next time.