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More calendar pics. From commentor Teemu (Turku, Finland):
These two Sphynx brothers, Bounty and Boss, belong to my wife. She first got the Bounty (the fat pink one) six years ago, when he was just a tiny little kitten. Boss (grey-pink) came a couple of years later, and me soon thereafter. I’ve always wanted a cat, but I’ve always been severely allergic to them. These, to my surprise, did not cause me any trouble.
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Bounty has been in love with my wife for all of his life, so it was only natural that Boss adopted me when I came along. Every evening, when I return from work, he’s waiting by the door to welcome me home, and rest of the evening he follows me around like a shadow, meowing and purring and jumping on my shoulder from shelftop or back of a chair (usually 5-10 times a day). When I cook, he’s often sitting on my shoulder like a parrot. What I sit down, he’s always curled on my lap and purring in under ten seconds.
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I found out a few months ago that Boss has a heart defect, and I’m waiting for heart attack or similar to come in a matter of few weeks, or few months max. So here’s my dream cat I’ve been asking for for 30 years, who loves me so much, and my heart is breaking every night when I’m giving him his meds. I can feel and hear his little heart racing when he’s on my shoulder, and there’s nothing I can do, except feeding him more fresh liver and pork’s heart and shrimps, and otherwise making sure he enjoys every last moment he has to the fullest.
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(I think Bounty is a bit more picturesque in most photos due to his excellent eating-related skillset… Also, feel free to correct any ridiculous grammar mistakes, I’m not an english speaker really.)
Johannes
How beautiful these kittehz are! Teemu, I fee for you. Enjoying your time with Boss as much as possible is all you can do, as you note, but know that you’re household is in our thoughts!
Hillary Rettig
Teemu, did the doctors actually say a few weeks or months? Because many companion animals, including my own, live for years with a heart condition, if kept medicated. My cherished little Orbit’s heart used to race but he made it to 16, and it wasn’t heart disease but cancer who took him.
Plus I think their hearts normally beat faster than ours.
It’s hard for you knowing Boss’s limited time, but he only knows he’s loved and happy.
dance around in your bones
So I wake up in the middle of the night (3am here) to get a glass of water, check what’s new on Balloon Juice, and read this. Now water is leaking all down my face…..
Teemu, your English is just fine. Just give your kitty big hugs and love him for the time you have left with him….don’t anticipate the end, because your kitty won’t, you know. They live in the now, which is something we all could learn from.
Thank you for such a sweet and sad story. Best of luck to you all, cats and people alike :)
JPL
The kitties need a coat! Boss is a beauty and it’s obvious from your story that he’s loved. Hopefully he is with you many, many months. Bounty is the showoff though and appears to want that pot belly rubbed.
harlana
a very sweet story (your english is perfect) with photogenic little babies! these pics are awesome, what character in those faces! best of luck with Boss, as Hillary noted, he may be with you longer than you think, just keep loving on him as you have and you’ll have no regrets.
harlana
also, that is one of the finer cat bellehs i haz seen!
Culture of Truth
I like the image of a cat sitting on a shoulder like a parrot.
Lee
My wife is a veterinarian. I checked with her and what Hillary wrote is correct. A heart defect is not a death sentence (especially for cats).
WereBear
Teemu, just enjoy what you have with Boss.
No one knows how long we have; not any of us.
numfar
Why did the first pic remind me of a stripper?
Also, I hope your cat friends are doing ok.
Josie
Sweet story and lovely kittehs. I love that fat tummy. Here’s hoping for a long life for both.
John Weiss
Baby kittie! Take care of him. You’re always going to lose them. Live in the moment!
AxelFoley
Ok, what’s up with all these cats mean-muggin’? And that one cat showing its crotch to us like it was doing a spread in Hustler?
LOL
Elizabelle
Great cats of Finland.
Teemu: do follow up and let us know on Boss’s potential lifespan.
Am thinking he might have more (maybe a lot more) time left than you think.
Although hate to do him out of liver and pork hearts …
Maeby
Squeeeeeee!
Teemu, your boys are beautiful. And you have painted a vivid picture of your life with them — it’s a pleasure to read.
Sphynx always sound like great companions. We are in northern Europe too (Netherlands): do Boss and Bounty need sweaters in the wintertime? Or does your central heating provide enough warmth for them?
I’m so sorry for for what you must be going through right now. We lost one of our beloved kittehs last year (a bad reaction to anesthesia). It was the first time I had lost an animal companion, and it was, unfortunately, much more painful than I expected. Sheesh, I don’t know what I expected….
Still: cultivating a bond with another living being can be one of life’s enduring joys — and one that warrants a few scars, imho. As much as Boss’ little life has enriched yours, it sounds like you have done the same for him. Well, that’s where I found my solace anyway. Here’s hoping that Boss will be skitching shoulder rides from you for years to come. And, when he can no longer, that you will find your solace too.
PS: Your English is excellent, by the way. I would never have known from this post that you are not a native anglophone.
Teemu
Thanks for your kind words, everyone. As you can see on the last photo, these boys have a little fur on their backside during wintertime. Maybe they’re not proper sphynxes, but I guess we all prefer it this way.
I’d like to take back that sentence about parrots. He’s more like the pet monkey of Captain Barbossa from
Monkey IslPirates of Caribbean@Lee: To be more precise, Boss has HCM, meaning that the muscle tissue of his heart gets thicker and thicker, until there’s very little volume in ventricles for blood. This causes all sorts of trouble, and ultimately death, but I probably have to put him to sleep before that. He’s now on beta blockers that relieve the stress and slow down heart growth, but I’d have to soon add more meds to cope with cumulative side effects.
Elizabelle
Also, the photos are excellent. Did you take them?
The reclining cat wants you to peel him a grape.
Teemu
@Maeby: As it can often be -30C (-20F) outside at wintertime, our houses are well heated and insulated, with constant 21C (70F) inside, so there’s no real difference between winter and summer from their point of view.
They love warmth, though: on summers they spend a lot of time sunbathing at balcony, and they love to take a bath in our sauna (“hot steam room” for you non-scandinavians) with me. And most of the time, when they are not sitting on our (warm) laps, they lay on DVR box, on top of dishwasher or other warm surface. I even bought an 12″ x 12″ electric pillow warmer for them. They seem to prefer human warmth, though.
Teemu
@Elizabelle: I took them. White sheet on bed, good camera (Canon EOS 5Dmk2) and couple of cheap studio flashes pointed at white ceiling.
ET
Beautiful kitties.
WereBear
@Teemu: I once wrote an article:
Why cats sleep in the sun
Because I’ve always wondered why they are so fond of warmth. This year, the 15 month old kitten, our only shorthaired one, is seeking forts in the bedclothes.
wonkie
Sweet, touchig sotry. Thank you Teemu.
My dog Blackie had congestive heart failure. He lived longer than I expected but I had that same experience with him, that expereince of lookig at him every day and thiking that soon I would not havehim any more. He died about two weeks ago.
Its bittersweet. I guess I was better prepared for his death than if he had died suddenly of an accident. And Ihave the comfort of kowing I really paid attetion to him, did’t take him for granted.
Agai thank you for your story.
Southern Beale
OH MY GOD that middle picture is HILARIOUS. Talk about a “fat cat”! Hysterical. Bounty needs to be turned into a poster with some hilarious LOL-cat slogan beneath it. He’ll be famous. What a great picture, thanks for sharing!
On the open thread front, I have learned from a commenter that heinous Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship is back with a new coal venture. Shouldn’t he be in jail?
RP
Someone should put Han Solo in Carbonite in the background of the second photo with photoshop.
RP
“Fat” and “pink” do not begin to do that cat justice.
Linda Featheringill
@wonkie:
@Maeby:
My sympathy to you both on your losses.
It does hurt to lose a friend. But the bond between you is very, very real. I look at the bonds between species as a psalm, a song of praise to life itself.
:-)
Linda Featheringill
@Teemu:
Lovely babies. Lovely English. Hugs to you all.
Mnemosyne
That’s how G and our late cat Natasha hooked up — she was unimpressed with him at first, and then realized that she could have her own personal monkey and not have to share with Boris, my other cat.
I still remember the day when she heard G letting himself into my apartment and ran to the door so she could flop over for a belly rub the instant he walked in. He was not a cat person when we met, but Tashi was his little pal.
With Boss’s heart condition, I’ll tell you what our vet told us when Tashi was diagnosed with cancer: as long as they’re still doing all of their bodily functions (eating/sleeping/peeing/pooping) and want to be around you, there’s no need to rush them to be put to sleep. If they stop doing any of those things, or start hiding, that’s when you may want to make the appointment. Here the in the States, you can have a vet come to your house to do the shot so everyone is more comfortable — you may want to ask your vet if they can do that.
debg
Teemu, your kitties are just gorgeous–I’m not usually drawn to sphinxes, but these guys have tons of personality.
I know it’s hard to wonder daily (hourly) how long a beloved anipal has left. My oldest kitty could go at any time, since she’s wasting away from a bad heart murmur. All we can do is love them and hold on to “now” without worrying about later. Easy to say, hard to do, because the loss is devastating.
debg
Also, Boss has boobs.
Devon
Oh my. I LOVE them!
Beeb
I’m sorry about Boss, Teemu. If it is any comfort, my elderly Siamese has been living with congestive heart failure since last May. He is on several medications, and he could go at any time, but he has already lived longer than his vet thought he would and he is still enjoying his life. So I am trying to practice the Zen of cat hospice and take it one day at a time.
And thank you for sharing Boss and Bounty with us.
You Don't Say
Teemu, I adopted a cat many years ago who had an enlarged heart. The first vet told me he wouldn’t live past 5 years old, the next vet, his cardiologist (yes, his cardiologist) said ignore that, such things are almost impossible to predict, especially with cats. He lived to be about 14 years old. So you never know. In the meantime, treating him so well is the best way to handle it. ;-) Good luck with him. They’re both gorgeous kitties.
Violet
I’m totally in love with your kitties. The fat, pink Bounty is utterly amazing. What a fantastic photo. Boss’s eyes are irresistible.
None of us know the time we have. We are being a good kitty parent by loving Boss and taking care of him as best as possible while he’s here. I hope the other more knowledgeable people are right and that the heart defect can be managed so you both can share many more happy years.
Anniecat45
Dear Teemu, you may have more time with Boss than you think. My first cat was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and the vet told me if we were lucky he might last a month.
He lived (with twice-daily pills) for 3 more years and died at age 14.
I do hope this is how things go for you and your Boss.
cckids
@RP:
One of my cats, Gryff, takes that posture regularly. The pic we sent of him for the calendar has the Lego Princess Leia beside him. The rectangular version of the metal bikini has to be seen to be believed.
Sweet, sweet kitties, Teemu. So many times, with professional pics, Sphinx kitties look aloof & a bit odd. Your boys’ personalities shine out bright.
Paul in KY
@WereBear: Cats (precursors to our modern domestic felines) developed in a very hot climate. To me, that is why they love warmth.
Dogs, on the other hand, developed in a very cold climate (that is why they have no sweat glands).
Paul in KY
Teemu, great looking cats! Your English is fine too. Please give them a treat for me.
daryljfontaine
Pic 2 is “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.”
Wonderful lovely kitties, obviously full of character. Hope that Boss defies his odds and lives a long and happy life with you.
D
PIGL
what a beautiful boy cat! Such an intent look, and such enormous blue eyes. I am sorry for you, and I too hope he beats the odds, and enjoys the very best shrimp and liver and pork parts for many years to come.