Kitty Fix

It had to happen sooner or later, although I was hoping to avoid it completely. Alas, my little cat, Rafik, went into heat a couple weeks back and what an experience that was! You haven't lived until you've experienced a cat in heat. I had hoped to avoid this by having her fixed before she reached this point of maturity, as I had our first cat. Looks like I waited just a bit too long this time. Should have stuck with January like I originally intended.

Now Rafik is normally quite an affectionate kitty, but she was tarting herself out like nobody's business! She was rolling around on the floor in a come-hither fashion, making 'sexy-cat' sounds for our older cat(also female) and for us. She purred and meowed and carried on, crying pathetically at night. I actually felt somewhat sorry for her as she seemed confused by her own behavior. She just knew that she really needed something from someone around here and she couldn't figure out what 'it' was or understand why we were all avoiding her. It was pathetic, really! Thankfully the weather was quite cold at the time so she wasn't able to spend time out on the balcony. I don't even want to think about how much worse this would have been if male cats had started prowling around. She was quite good with her seductive maneuvering and I'm sure no male cat could have refused her charms!

As soon as I realized what her crying in the night and super-friendly behavior were all about (it may have taken ten minutes), I called the vet and made an appointment to have her girly parts removed. They quoted me an exorbitant price, told me her current condition could last up to 3 weeks, and then set an appointment for a couple of weeks out. I knew I couldn't stand her randy behavior that long so I called around and discovered Animal Aid, a local shelter that will provide the procedure for a lot less money and, equally important, could take her in a couple of days.

We got up on the appointed morning and she went happily into the carrier, apparently not remembering any previous trip in it. Once we got in the car and started driving she was less happy, and when we arrived at the vet she became most anxious, due to several dogs in the waiting room. Poor baby. When I went to pick her up later that day she looked like hell! Still drugged and horrified (her - not me), we made our way home where she crept out of the crate and under the bed. It took some time and coaxing to get her to come out, but eventually she did.

By the next day you would never have guessed anything bad had occurred. She was jumping up on the furniture and wandering around seemingly pain free. Even better, she hasn't chewed or bothered with her stitched area at all. Wouldn't it be nice to bounce back like that after surgery? She will go back next week for stitch removal and in the mean time she is back to her affectionate (but not randy)self!

Glaring Cats of Evil

Sure, they can seem like wonderful companions, purring sweetly and curling up next to you. But then you get this...the glowing eyes of doom! I suppose you might think that Finko is ticked off at having to wear a dickey. But you would be wrong. she actually enjoys wearing a dickey. She wears it rather well,don't you think? What she doesn't enjoy is being the subject of endless photography.
Rafik got a bit tired of the photo shoot as well and escaped onto my desk. Don't go blaming me, however. My eldest is the one who drove them mad. She took about 40 pictures of the cats - some with her in them, making various faces. You never know what will amuse a 16 year old. It's a wonder she didn't suffer any injuries before the shoot was done. No cats were harmed in the taking of these photos - mildly annoyed, yes, but not harmed.

Cat Smackage

I'd like to tell you about what happened in my bed this morning. What? Too much information? Trust me, it wasn't THAT exciting. Not really exciting at all. Just warm and fuzzy. Literally. About 4 or 5 every morning Rafik jumps up on the bed and snuggles up by my shoulder. If I move she will usually go to the foot of the bed. This morning she wasn't content with just curling up, she forcibly wedged herself under my arm and curled up into a purring ball of fuzz. A short time later I rolled to my other side and apparently that didn't suit her, so she climbed over me and forced her way under my arm to regain her sleep position. Do I need to tell you how hard it is to get up when a warm, fur-baby is snuggled up to you? A warm, purring fur-baby?? I'm in bad trouble when the mornings get colder....

I suppose this story isn't particularly amazing except that I've never had a pet forcibly snuggle like that. Finko (the older cat) just sleeps at the foot of the bed if she jumps up there at all. There's a perfectly good reason that Finko doesn't bother me much when I'm sleeping. It has to do with when she was about 6 months old. Once,in the wee hours of the night, she decided to attack my leg. Once. I sat straight up from a deep sleep, arms flailing madly to stop the attack. My arm movements resulted in the involuntary flight of the cat through the air.... Now, I am not normally cruel to animals, but basic instinct says that when razors are slashing you, you should put a stop to it immediately. Hence the cat smack. When I recovered from my wee-hour-slashing-shock I felt bad and went after Finko to be sure she wasn't hurt. No harm done and I'm happy to say we remain on friendly terms to this day.

If you're wondering what this story has to do with the boob word of the day, wookies, the answer is: nothing. I don't even know why someone would call breasts wookies...I mean, a wookie is a large, furry Star Wars character. I've never seen large, furry breasts (well, man-boobs maybe...) so I guess whoever made up that name has some 'splainin' to do.