Catscapades

I love furry-fluffy cats. For me it’s “what’s the point of a cat if it doesn’t have a lot of luxurious fur?” As those of you with cats know, with fur comes challenges and most of them have to do with physical labor—dusting, sweeping, vacuuming, swiffering, mopping, rolling, brushing, sponging… You know the drill.

There are also lifestyle changes. Over the years I’ve relinquished most of my dark-colored clothes because I had light-colored cats. What was I thinking when I adopted a long-haired calico??? Now we’re dealing with black fur and white fur. Now everything in my closet shows fur.

I brush and I comb, still my new portable vacuum picks up astounding amounts of fur (and litter). I have checked that machine over to see if there’s any way it could be manufacturing fur and litter inside the mechanism. I run it over what I perceive to be only slightly dusty floors and ultimately empty a full container of FUR. Unbelievable.

Then there are the mats. Some cats are prone to matting. Sophie dodged that bullet having been born with very short fur. And she’s the one who loves being combed and brushed. LOVES it. Then came Olivia. Her black and red fur is lovely—satiny, soft and manageable. But the white on her very touchy tummy is baby fine and it mats. Bummer. Too late to return Olivia as being defective (and adverse to brushing and combing and mat-picking). So we deal with tangles when we can without getting slashed with claws and teeth. It’s called a sneak attack when the enemy is off guard.

Yeah, I wait until she’s super relaxed in my lap, then I intermingle petting and cheek-and-neck scratching with a little mat-picking. So far we have no large problems, which is the point of frequent checks on the trouble spots and working with them as long as Olivia tolerates it. I tell her, “Sweetie, you’re a star. Where’s your sense of body-pride?”

Her response—at least in body language is “My floofy tummy, my mats. Leave me alone.”

Even though a cat is a cat, their purr-sonality and body type can vary rather dramatically. There’s more when it comes to cat differences than the color and length of the cat’s fur and the shape of her face.

I happen to like my cats with medium length-fluffy fur and cobby bodies. When you adopt a kitten, though, you sometimes don’t know what you’ll get. It turns out that Olivia grew up to fit my ideal, plus she has an exquisite tail and the glorious calico markings. Well, we knew about her coloring when we adopted her. But the rest was up for grabs and we adore what she has become—except maybe for the sassiness. Well, we picked a calico and that’s what you usually get with a calico. They’re one of the sweetest and sassiest cats in catdom, even though calico is not a breed. Maybe it’s the red (orange/butterscotch, ginger) color. I think we’ve all known orange tabbies with ornery-quirky purr-sonalities. Oh they can be lazy sweethearts, but there’s that occasional really difficult ginger cat. One lived next door to us for a while. Boy, were we glad to see him move. He would rub up against you and beg for petting, then bite or

claw you quite aggressively. He broke into a neighbor’s house and attacked her elderly Abyssinian as she slept.

They say that redheaded people can be fiery. So maybe there is something to the color that makes calicos sassy.

Various body styles of cats are generally related to certain breeds. The cobby body typically belongs to the British shorthair and Persian. Larger cats are often from a Maine coon or Ragdoll background. We think of the sinewy body as being more Siamese-like.

Believe it or not, the brands they put on the body types are oriental, foreign, semi-foreign, cobby and semi cobby.

Here’s the rundown https://pictures-of-cats.org/cat-body-types.html

Can’t afford to do a DNA test on your cat—curious about her background? This site might help you identify her heritage.

I think you know what I mean…we accidentally step on the cat’s tail or paw when she’s underfoot. Breaks my heart! Your cat tumbles off a table and looks at you like it was all your fault. She won’t even let you comfort her. She hides from you and runs from you when you try. She acts like she hates you when you attempt to trim her claws or cut out a mat or untangle her from a fix she’s gotten herself into.

Last week I became panicky when I couldn’t find Olivia. Well, it happens, hence the title of her latest book, “Where’s Olivia?” But truly, I got up in the morning and Olivia was not on the bed with me. She did not come to greet me. She was not in any of her usual places. Where was Olivia? I searched the same places twice, thought of new places where she might be and searched those. Finally, I resorted to closed closets and cupboards. When I opened the hall closet, a ball of calico fur shot out of there like a canon. Oooooohhhhh the pain. Poor Olivia. I felt awful!!!! You know what it’s like. Of course it appeared she blamed me. And yes, I am the one who closed her in there, but I sure didn’t know it until…. Well, until she came bursting out—8 hours later.

I apologized profusely. I attempted to comfort her. She would not let me near her. I got the evil eye. It wasn’t until late in the day that she would even come near me.

Can you relate? What awful thing have you done to your cats that still give you pangs of guilt, even though it wasn’t intentional? Cats blame us for everything, you know. Twice when I moved to new homes, my inside-only Himalayan, Katy, got out and spent the night outside. The first time, I didn’t have a clue. Evidently she found a loose screen and either jumped or fell out of the window. THANKFULLY, the next morning I heard a cat meowing at the front door, opened it, and found Katy on the porch wanting back in. Bless her. That could have ended horribly.

The second time I knew she’d skittered out while we were moving stuff in and I saw her go under the house. No amount of calling would get her to come out. It was getting dark. I was advised (by a man, of course) to close up the opening and leave her. He said she’d come out in the morning. She did, but I had an awful night thinking of my beautiful, refined, well-bred Himalayan having to spend an entire night under the house with spiders and who knows what else.

Oh the hazards of loving a cat.

Some cats, in particular the Siamese breed, have crossed eyes. But what’s up with the crossed paws. Olivia almost always crosses her paws when she lies down. It’s rather charming, don’t you think so? I’ve heard from others with calicos who also do the crossy-paws thing. But this is the first cat (and I’ve had calicos before) that crosses her paws almost every time she lays down.

I did a little research and learned that the breeds most prone to doing this are Maine coon cats and Ragdolls. Olivia has both in her heritage (according to a DNA test).

This is interesting, dogs sometimes will lay with crossed paws. Some speculate that dogs do this to show they are not aggressive, but cats do it purely for comfort. I wonder if it’s because of an unusual formation of the cat’s body. Olivia’s “elbows” stick out when she lays in certain positions. Are some cats just put together differently?

Here’s a site you might enjoy on cat posture. This might answer one of your burning questions, “Why does my cat do that?” https://www.ourfriends4ever.com/cat-behavior-explained-6-common-cat-postures/

Does your cat have an animal friend? Some cats seem to have invisible friends. Have you ever watched your cat play, dart, dodge, leap and swat at something unseen? I’ve often wondered if Olivia has an invisible friend. She has Sophie, our 16 year old cat, and the two of them have developed a nice friendship. Over the years, we’ve had multiple cats. Some made friends with each other, some tolerated each other, and some avoided each other. You never know what a cat’s reaction to another animal will be.

In my Klepto Cat and Calico Cat Mysteries Rags and Olivia both have friends of other species. Well, these cats are adaptable and friendly because that’s the way I want them to be. In my stories, I’m in charge. One of Rags’s best friends is a horse. And this is not unusual. Where there are horses there are usually cats. They’re known as barn cats and they often find refuge or camaraderie among the horses, cows, chickens, goats. It’s a beautiful thing to see a cat involved in a lovely friendship with another animal and most interesting especially when the animal is from another species.

Here’s a site you might enjoy where you’ll see videos of cats making friends with a variety of other animals—ducks, owls, pigs and even a capybara. Enjoy!

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=cat+friends+other+animals&qpvt=cat+friends+other+animals&FORM=VDRE