Average Jane

Average Jane's Caturday Feature: Trillian

We've come to the last caturday of NaBloPoMo and the final cat in our household, Trillian. We've had her for just over a year and it's hard to imagine now what our lives were like without her.

If you're wondering why she's missing the tip of one ear, it's because she was originally a feral kitten, but a rescue group decided to adopt her out rather than returning her to the streets after she was spayed. Feral cats are routinely "ear-tipped" to indicate that they've already been spayed or neutered.

Trillian lives in my husband's recording studio/my office because Xena was so jealous of her that we feared for her safety. She's much bigger now, but Xena is still a behemoth in comparison and it seems best to let her stay where she's comfortable and happy.

She really does love the studio. Every mixing console has a cover over it because she is way too interested in playing with the faders, particularly when they move automatically. She's not afraid of loud noises; in fact, she'll often lie on the control desk during a recording session or band practice. If she gets too intrusive, my husband will shut her in my office (where her food, water and cat box are) until he's finished working.

The office and studio are filled with exciting cat experiences. If I'm ever wondering where Trillian is, all I have to do is insert or eject a CD into a computer or print something and she'll come running to watch.

Trillian is not quite two years old, so she's still very playful. Her favorite toy is a black shoelace or drawstring that she found somewhere in the studio. We call it her string and she loves to bat at it or chase it and bring it back. Toy mousies are also a popular choice, but she seems to lose them often.

She has the odd, raccoon-like habit of placing her toys in her water bowl. We've never figured out why she does this, but lately I've been rescuing her drowned string several times a week.

One of the nice things about Trillian is that she's pretty much up for anything. We took her on a road trip to Nashville last spring and I could see us traveling with her again. 

Our only concern about having Trillian live in a separate part of the house from the other cats is that she might be lonely without another cat to play with. If we ever end up with another kitten, it will be to keep her company. She seems okay as long as we make a point of spending time with her as often as we can, though.

I'd write more, but Trillian just jumped up on the desk for a cuddle and how can I deny her?

Average Jane's Caturday Feature: Velvet

Velvet doesn't have a cool name like the rest of our cats because we foolishly thought she might be accustomed to her shelter name when we got her. I think she knows it now, but we missed our chance to change it when we brought her home a couple of years ago.

She's our "middle cat" downstairs - the buffer between young Xena and elderly Velcro. Our vet thinks she's about 8 or 9 years old and she's obviously had a hard life, but she seems to be enjoying living with us.

When we adopted her, we were told that she had belonged to a family that decided they didn't want a cat anymore once they got a dog. So they just stopped letting her into their house and she wandered the neighborhood forlornly, scavenging food wherever she could and picking up a host of parasites and scars. Finally a sympathetic neighbor took her to the shelter, where she remained for more than seven months before we came along.

Now she lives a life of leisure and pampering like the rest of our cats. She and Xena have a blast chasing each other all over the house and although they never cuddle, I've seen them nuzzle from time to time.

When Velvet first came home with us, she was not a fan of being picked up or held for any length of time, but she's gotten more amenable to all kinds of attention since then. Now she'll regularly sit on my lap or follow me around asking for attention.

The negative attention she gets comes from her dogged attempts to steal Velcro's canned food. I have to guard Velcro whenever she's eating lest Velvet sneak in and push her aside. Given Velvet's background, I don't blame her for wanting to make sure she gets whatever food she can, but it's a little annoying to have to be the cat food police twice a day.

She only has one nickname, "Velveeta," but we use her actual name most of the time. It's already confusing enough to have two cats whose names begin with "Vel-".

Velvet is a sweet girl and I'm so glad we're able to give her life's story a happily ever after.

Average Jane's Caturday Feature: Xena

I'm listing the cats in the order in which they came to live with us, not by age, so next on the roster is Xena. We originally got her from my sister. Here's that story.

Xena and I have a complicated relationship because she is passionately in love with my husband and would be perfectly happy to have him all to herself. I'll admit that I could be more respectful of my kitteh co-wife. It's probably not nice of me to constantly refer to her as "wide load."

But she's a big girl. Big and glossy and squishy. She is evidently incapable of walking past the food bowl without stopping to eat, even if she happens to walk by a hundred times a day. We free-feed all the cats, so switching to light food just made the skinny ones skinnier and she still looks like ten pounds of mud in a five-pound bag.

 She can be very sweet, though, even to me. She loves to leap into my husband's arms and have him carry her around. If he's not available, she'll occasionally launch herself at me instead. It's very important to pay careful attention to her body language at all times because it's not a good surprise when sixteen pounds of cat comes flying through the air at you if you're not prepared.

Xena has a strong personality. When we had her spayed, she had to wear the Elizabethan collar for an entire month because she was so incredibly determined to chew at her stitches. I didn't go along on the vet visit when she had the stitches removed, but my husband reported that the procedure was a Herculean task and that the vet said that Xena was the worst patient he'd ever dealt with in his entire career.

 Her jealousy isn't limited just to me. She gets along okay with our older cats, Velcro and Velvet, but when I brought a fourth cat into the household, that was where she drew the line. I tried for months to incorporate Trillian into our cat population, but Xena wasn't having it. She harassed the poor kitten mercilessly until we finally had to give up and let Trillian live in the recording studio by herself.

One last little factoid: we almost never call her Xena. Thanks to too much "Name Game" early in her life ("Xena, Xena, bo-beena..."), we now mostly refer to her as "Beans" or "Beanza." So she doesn't even get to own her cool, warrior princess name. No wonder she can be so cranky.

Average Jane's Caturday Feature: Velcro

Since there are four caturdays this month and I have four cats, naturally I decided to feature one per week during NaBloPoMo.

Today we'll talk about the grande dame of the household, Velcro.

She came into my family in the early 1990s when my mom's boyfriend found her tied into a pillowcase and left in a Salvation Army donation bin. She was just a kitten then, but she quickly became my mother's favorite cat. In fact, when my mom was hospitalized after being diagnosed with lung cancer, her boyfriend smuggled Velcro into the room to visit at least once that I know of.

Velcro was a very feisty young cat who HATED children. My cousin Travis referred to her as "the velociraptor" because of the way she'd stalk and attack him every time he came over. (Travis just turned 25, which gives you an idea of how old Velcro is now.)

When my mom died in 1998, Velcro came to live with me and my husband and the two cats we had at the time, Kato and Friday.

For years, Velcro was very bite-y. She was one of those cats who loved attention (hence the name), but she would only accept being petted for so long before suddenly nipping at you. Her teeth are really sharp and it hurt, but she never broke the skin.

Her dislike of children lasted through the first few years of my niece's life, but she's mellowed considerably and has rarely nipped at my nephew at all. She's also stopped biting us, which is nice.

Velcro had a mastectomy several years ago, but bounced back nicely. In the past year or so she's gone deaf and now she's getting awfully skinny and her coat is pretty ratty. Still, she can vault onto a countertop with ease and she never lets me forget that she gets canned food twice a day, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Because she can't hear, her reminders have gotten extremely loud.

After all this time, her name still fits her very well. She loves to sit on my lap, shed copious quantities of white hair all over my black clothes and purr contentedly. I don't know how much longer we'll have her around, but I'm doing all I can to make sure she enjoys her life with us.

Average Jane Is Contrary

Urlesque.com has declared today A Day Without Cats on the 'net. You know I can't let that stand.

You can see all of my many cat photos within the Jean Teasdale Collection on my Flickr account. You're welcome, cat fans.

The Green-Eyed Monster at Average Jane's House

I'm happy to report that our new kitten, Trillian, is assimilating into the household quite nicely. I've seen her playing with Velvet and my husband has watched Xena initiating play with her.

It's great that Xena likes to play with Trillian, but there's one plaything that she simply will not share: my husband.

Thanks to Laurie Ruettimann, I have the perfect term to describe Xena's relationship with my husband: she's his kitteh wife.

This means that Xena feels compelled to (literally) fling herself into my husband's arms at every opportunity so he can carry her around and treat her like the queen she knows herself to be.

Today my husband reported that Trillian had climbed into his arms for a little attention. While he was petting her, Xena came into the room, shot hate-filled looks in the kitten's direction, very deliberately climbed up on the ottoman by my husband's feet and turned her back on them.

My husband eventually put Trillian down and tried to pet Xena, which earned him a bite on the hand. Xena then jumped down, chased the kitten into the basement, cornered her and started hassling her until she squalled for help.

So basically we're hosting the feline version of Rock of Love in our house right now, except that at least the cats stay out of our liquor cabinet. Do you think Sharon Osbourne is available to referee?

New Caturday at Average Jane's House

Please join me in welcoming Trillian to our household. Like the instant messaging software, she's named after a character in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series.

 
I adopted her from The Animal Rescue Alliance where I sometimes volunteer. I originally met her a couple of months ago and liked her very much. Every time I worked a pet adoption event that included her, I would carry her around in my arms so people could pet her, hoping to find her a great family. The last time around, I came to the conclusion that mine was the great family she was destined to find.

You might notice from the photo that her left ear tip is missing. That's because she was rounded up with a group of feral cats that were going to be spayed and neutered and then returned to their neighborhood after recovering from surgery. They "ear tip" the cats to mark that they've been fixed to save future animal welfare workers the hassle of catching them again later.

In this girl's case, she was tame and friendly enough that the group decided to adopt her out rather than return her to the streets. Thus, she has the lean physique of an alley cat with the mellow personality of a lap cat.

Our other cats are very interested in her, but not as hostile as you might expect. She was frightened of them at first, but it seems as though the transition is going to be pretty smooth.

Right now she's about seven months old and very petite. The perspective in the photo above is misleading: she's about two-thirds the size of Velcro (the calico on the bed) and maybe half the size of Xena (the cat on the floor).

I know I've always said that three cats is more than enough. My sister is already mocking me for my crazy cat lady ways. Still, Trillian is such a sweet, cuddly little thing that I didn't want to pass up the chance to include her in our lives. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go downstairs and snuggle with her some more.

Every Day is Caturday at Average Jane's House

This morning I gathered up all the cat toys I could find and put them back in their basket. It's possible that our cats might be a little spoiled.

Velvet quickly removes the sachet of catnip so she can have it all to herself.

 

Velcro isn't really interested in toys anymore, but she sure would like it if I'd put down the stupid camera and pick her up instead.

Xena stops by to select a ping-pong ball. When it rolls across the floor, both black cats will simply sit and watch it without moving a muscle to chase after it. I blame the 'nip.

The cat (and dog) fun continues today as I'm volunteering at a low-cost vaccination clinic and a pet adoption event.

Average Jane's Friday Catblogging

Xena, a.k.a. 15 pounds of wet cement in a trash bag. Not that I have any room to talk, obviously.

Average Jane's Latest Tech Purchase

I'll never forget my first automated cat box. It was a LitterMaid, of course, and it did a pretty darned good job of cleaning up after the cats and reducing to a bare minimum my handling of their waste. I had two of them for four cats and they did an amazing job of making my house smell like a non cat owner's house.

Eventually one of them broke and the company promptly sent a replacement. I had one of the original boxes and the replacement one for a number of years, but they finally wore out. Then began the struggle.

The new generation of LitterMaid boxes was awful. Some never worked at all, others stopped working within a month or so, and one managed to break its own mechanism to pieces. The company's customer service declined with the technology and it was more trouble than it was worth to try to return or exhange them. Considering that they cost more than $100 each, this was upsetting in myriad ways.

I went back to regular litter boxes and clay litter while I sought an alternative. Despite my careful stewardship of the boxes, the house started to develop a cat funk that crept up the basement stairs and assaulted the nose.

I started seeing articles about the Litter Robot. It had almost 200 reviews on Amazon, most of which were very positive. The only drawback was the price, but considering how much I'd spent on faulty LitterMaids, it would be worth it if it worked as advertised.

Once I got my tax refund, I bit the bullet and ordered one. IT. IS. AWESOME!

As recommended, I eased the cats into it by removing one regular cat box at a time and letting the remaining ones get icky so that cats wouldn't want to use them. Last weekend I took the regular boxes away and left the Litter Robot as the only option. The cats made the transition without a hitch, and now my house is back to smelling completely cat-free.

It sifts everything into a large drawer that you can line with pretty much any kind of plastic bag. Even when our A/C stopped working this week and we had the windows open and the attic fan on, no odor escaped the Litter Robot.

My only minor complaint - and this was mentioned by the Amazon reviewers as well - is that the cats manage to track a lot of litter out of it. It's not that big of a deal for me because I keep mine in our circa 1970 ultra-modern finished basement (as seen in the photo). However, if you had it in the main part of your house, you'd probably want to put a mat in front of it to trap the litter.

So there's my expensive product recommendation for the week. So far it seems to be able to handle all three cats, but I'd buy a second one in a heartbeat if I thought I needed it.