Two Month Anniversary!

March 24^th was the second month anniversary of bringing the kids home. Who can remember all the issues we had with Sadie? Well the scars on my wrist will remind me, of how far we have come.

 

As the rest of the country had snow, rain or low temperatures, Seattle had nearly 60 degree sunny weather. Taking advantage of the weather we put Oliver in Sadie’s harness and leash. Why Sadie’s?

Thinking Oliver, being a male, would be larger I purchased him a small dog harness. Plus, a small dog harness is easier to put on then a cat harness. Really, whoever thought a design where you had to put something over your cats head was a great idea? Sadie has outpaced Oliver in the height, weight and girth categories. I did try to put Oliver in the harness but it was so thick it was hard for him to walk.

Putting him in Sadie’s harness was tough getting it over his head but when it was on he was fine walking around.  We took him out to the patio. He was scared but he also was adventurous. He started exploring the grass, the fence and the plants.

In the meantime, Sadie came to the patio door. She watched Oliver and was making her little noises, like ‘HEY WHAT ABOUT ME!”. I went in and got Oliver’s harness. I had tried it on her before, with a horrible outcome. I knew this time to loosen it up. She let me put it on her and when I open the door she just stood at the door. We picked her up and carried her to the grass. She didn’t care for that.

She did come back to me and I put her on my lap and she was happy as all that to sit on my lap and watch Oliver explore. As Olive explored more, Sadie became more confident. Seeing that nothing bad happened to Oliver she felt it was safe enough to explore the paved area of the patio.

We’ve taken them out since them, but Sadie is growing so fast, the small dog harness is almost to small! There is a winery north of Seattle that has a car show over Memorial Day that we are looking to taking Oliver and maybe Sadie up there for a picnic. Hopefully we can work with them enough that they will be comfortable being outside on a lead in a strange place with lots of people. If they don’t, that is fine we will still harness them and have them sit with us on the patio. Hey, they don’t call Seattle the emerald city for nothing. Summer here is amazing and most dinners are taken on the patio.

 

  

We so much enjoy watching the kids grow up, expand, explore and show their personalities. Sadie is a little love bug. Not as adventurous as Oliver but she is owns the house. Oliver knows for sure the world is here just to play with him. We’ve nicknamed him TURNUP, why? Start petting Sadie, sit down with a book, he all of the sudden “turns up” out of nowhere. 

Sadie is nicknamed, FLOP. You have no idea when or where that she is going to lay down. It is one movement, almost like her legs gave out. She will flop down right in front of you to pet her or dare is say, pick her up?  Perhaps near enough a toy suggesting that she wants to play. At night she’ll walk up to my neck and flop over so I can pet her. We are so happy to have these kids and were happy to have both of them (maybe a little less happy when I clean the 3 litter boxes, everyday!).  Who would think that so much comes out of such little bodies.

And they are just shy of 6-months and they can get some major air time!  They love playing and with all the exercise they get, those muscles are getting stronger and stronger.

What was that? It was a U.F.O.!!!

Yes, we are now believers of U.F.O.'s.  Seriously!  They do exist!! And I have proof!! This Unidentified FURRY Objects that we have in the house are so fast and quick that it is hard to identify who it is!!

The human family will be doing our thing; eating, reading or some computing.  Sometimes we are laying there in bed.  Then we hear a distant tinkling of a bell and a flash of fur passing us. This little ball of fur is being chased by another.  These U.F.O.'s seem to travel in two's.  But we have no idea if it is Oliver or Sadie leading the way.

Oh, sometimes they will appear without warning and flash by.  One may see for a split second a long or short tail.  If that is the case, then we can identify who it is. 

I say that they travel in two's because sometimes, the short tail U.F.O. is being chased by a long tail U.F.O..  Then in the opposite direction in a matter of seconds, it is the short tail chasing the long tail.

I will have to say too that sitting there on the couch watching TV, there is such a noise that we can hear through the floor and coming downstairs.  How can such a little kitten make so much noise?  You would expect a larger animal and not a little 5lb furry creature.  Let alone 2 of them running about!

The early mornings are sometimes play time.  And Oliver the last few days has taken up playing with his mouse in bed!  Yes, he not only will carry it around in his mouth during play period during the day time.  But has now jumped up onto the bed with it and proceed to play with it on our legs.

I joked with my wife when we were contemplating getting these guys how we would tell them apart.  Especially at night.  We certainly need to see the tail of whom ever it is to know who it is we should address.

Oh, and it is "shower" time for them in the middle of the night.  Sometime between 12 midnight and 3, they will proceed to wash each other.  This typically turns into biting and pawing and then play.  But they also will wash themselves.  I kid you not, this morning, Oliver washed himself for a good 35-minutes.  He even licked my finger and nudged to wash his face and ears.  Feeling used!

Ah, and they are beginning to shed.  Past Sunday I put on a freshly dry cleaned suit for Sunday worship.  There were 3 or 4 tiny hairs.  This morning on my hat, I found about 8 hairs.  On my hat!  Our last cat we had, it was amazing where her hair would turn up but was not that much.  We now have 2 kitties that are starting to place their fur all over.  We may need to buy extra sticky rollers.

It really is nice to see the kids becoming more and more used to there forever home.  I recall that it was tough with Sadie not wanting to show herself and hiding under our bed.  And now she is out and about, always playing with either Oliver or a rolled up piece of paper.  Sadie has such a precious face.  Oliver has an inquisitive face to him and it fits him as he is always getting into things.

Welcome to the family Sadie Lady

It is wonderful, it is marvelous, it is fabulous!  I have no idea what we did, but I’m glad we did it! 

In the previous posts it was noted that Sadie was making progress to adapting to her “forever home”. She would make progress. Last weekend her progress grew by leaps and bounds. Don’t get me wrong,  I am not complaining.  I’m doing the happy dance, irritating my co-workers, dancing on the ‘moon’, you get the point.

Friday night I woke up half way to a kitten sitting on my chest. Sadie had never taken the initiative to come to me at night. It was always me waking up, petting her and her walking up to me when I laid back down. It’s the middle of the night and I’m half awake, so I said “Oh! There is my little love bug Olie!”. As if on que, Sadie stands up and looks at me. OMG, its Sadie! She came to me! That woke me up.

What was funny, thinking it was Olie, I was more ‘rough’ in my petting, and I never used nails with Sadie. Only my fingertips. I even patted her on her backside and she didn’t run away. Epiphany, we had been treating Sadie differently because she is different, but maybe that was affecting the family.

She stayed on my chest all night, I didn’t mind not getting a lot of sleep, her purring was comforting. In the morning she was a different cat. She didn’t scurry under the bed. She acted like she owned the house. If she didn’t want you to pet her, she just moved a little faster than your hand.

That morning we had family play time for half an hour, maybe Sadie didn’t see us a fun before? We always had playtime but she would run away if something got to close to her when thrown toward her.

But now, this was not the case. She will jump and she will attack with greater power. She was so different. I was concerned that maybe this was a one day thing. But Saturday night she again climbed up on my chest and slept. This really seems to annoy Oliver. He never slept with us. Now he will try to sleep with her or bite my finger to get my attention. By Sunday night I was the new Kitty Bed, Oliver on my leg and Sadie on my chest.

Depending on the night, even the time of the night the cats are everywhere, Oliver on my arm, Sadie on my shoulder.   It is Wednesday at the writing of this blog post and I’m tired! These kids wake up so often. Tuesday I started trying to train Sadie to sleep on the bed beside me. Well actually Monday night it started. I was in satin PJ’s and she rolled over and slid right off onto the bed between my husband and myself. Last night she got it. She curled up in the crook of my arm. She really likes to be tightly held when she sleeps. It’s an amazing feeling to get her to sleep and know she’s sleeping and she feels safe. Not as amazing as doing that for a human child, but we don’t have any of those around, so I feel great to do that with Sadie.

Oliver is changing also. He was a little love bug when we got him, now all he wants to do is play. Except at night he does want to sleep with Sadie and the family, he is just too cute!

We are just so in love with our new family. Sadie has her personality and Oliver has his and they love each other. I am so happy we bought a new camera and have taken all kinds of pictures, they are growing so fast. Last month they added one pound to their weight and inches to length and height.

We are noticing the ‘typical’ pixie bob behavior. They rarely ‘meow’. Sadie will when she wants me to come and get her.  Yes she has trained me. She will be upstairs in the master bedroom and she will ‘yell’ so I go up and talk with her she then follows me downstairs. She will even follow me downstairs in the middle of the night when I leave the bed for water. Other than that, the only noises they make are ‘grunts’ and ‘cherps’. Also, most sites have said the Pixie Bobs want to be with the family and that is true. One day, after getting home from work, my husband went to get the mail. Oliver saw him going downstairs and heard the door open. He went running down the stairs meowing. It startled me, so I followed. Oliver had gone tearing down the stairs and running to the window and jump up into the window sill. That behavior was so dog like. The other dog like behavior, Oliver fetches. We didn’t teach him that. That is just him.

The one thing not so typical I guess, Oliver will wear his harness. Just don’t take him outside. The weather in Seattle has been great and we want to train Oliver to the harness (Sadie, maybe later). I had put the harness on him and he walked around the house just fine. I put the leash on and carried him to the back deck. He didn’t like the idea. He grunted when I walked outside. I put him on the stoop; he was having none of this. He looked around and then looked at me and his little back legs were shaking. Poor little guy, we went inside immediately. Interestingly enough, it was Sadie that was more interested in the outside when the patio door was open. Just not sure how to get a harness on her and having her reverting back to the old Sadie. She is ok getting picked up but it is still not her favorite thing. But each night I pick her up and cuttle with her just like to do with Oliver. He will purr she puts up with it.

The harness will take a little more thought, no one can go out on the patio without a harness and leash.  The looking forward to walks!

Welcome to the family Sadie!

Sadie – The unexplained

As you’ve read in the earlier posts, Oliver is just a love bug. He is so inquisitive. He would rather find out what is going on then play. 

Sadie, on the other hand, has been a handful. It wasn’t until we took her to the vet for “pink eye” that we were able to hold her and not have the skin on our wrists shredded like cabbage for cole slaw.

We didn’t try to pick her up again until the fourth trip to the vet. That night we had to get the kids to the vet and I was worried getting her into the carrier. Each time we put her into the carrier I ended up needing at least one Band-Aid. That night was different. I simply bent down put my right hand under her breast and my left hand under her butt and grasped her back legs. Into the bag she went without issue. Oddly, Oliver was having none of getting into the carrier.

Oliver was particularly upset with this trip and expressed himself in his usual Pixie-Bob way. He doesn’t technically meow. He makes noises that sound closer to a bird, chirps. Sadie meows like you would expect.

This vet trip, they are diagnosed with kitty colds with symptoms of little coughs, sneezes, watery eyes and runny noses. What we did notice is within the 6 weeks we’ve had them, they have outgrown the carrier, already!

This diagnosis meant, twice a day we had to become the evil, bad parents and give them eye drops and Clavamox.

In the meantime, the next day when we got home from work, I decided to test my luck and skin and pick Sadie up just like I did the night before. She allowed it. I held her for a few seconds then put her back down. The next day I did the same thing, except this time I held her longer. This continued each day with more and more success to the point I can carry her around the house. She is relaxed just laying in my arms. So amazed. So wonderful.

Sadie sleeps at the foot of bed on my favorite throw. If by chance I wake up in the middle of the night I will pet her and she is fine with the attention. In fact her behavior indicates she really loves it. In the morning, the alarm goes off and she is off the thrown and under the bed. You can call her name and her tail goes up and she will even flop on the floor and expose her belly, but don’t walk towards her to pet her, off she goes.

Two nights ago, I woke up about 1am. She was asleep at my feet, so I reached down and started to pet her. She loved it. She got up and walked under my chin, tried to mark my face and flopped over on my hand to have her face scratched. I loved this but having to get to up for work in 4 hours I decided I better try to get more sleep so I laid back down. Sadie immediate stood up and came walking up to my face and flopped over on my chest. At this point I knew she had really grown. When she stretched out, she was shoulder to shoulder length. We kept our bonding until I fell asleep.

I was so hopeful that we had our little girl, sadly that was not the case. The following morning she was back to “crazy”Sadie. She would run if you tried to pet her. If you called her she acted like she wanted you to come and pay attention to her but nope off like a flash if you tried to reach out for her.

While all this has been going on, Sadie has refusing to become friends with Tim.

 Each day is a gift, you never know what you’re going to get from her.

Really, I think she is much more a teenage girl than anything else. She has all these things running through her mind and she just doesn’t know what to do.
 

Oliver is the total opposite.  He has taken to greeting us when we get home from work or other outings.  

That is it for this blog post to update you readers with the last week and a half.