… Continuing (from yesterday morning) the Kat-Saga of commentor JustPeachyandYou: This is the beautifully marked Daneel. His owners gave him up when they couldn’t afford the vet bills for a spider bite and subsequent abscess (which they unwisely treated with human steroid cream, causing it to swell like a balloon). He has a wide vocabulary …
Early Morning Open Thread: Neverending Pets, pt. IIPost + Comments (23)
This is Henry, the snuggliest cat we’ve ever known. His owners gave him up when they couldn’t afford the vet bill for a broken jaw and told our vet to put him down. As the jaw was fixable and the cat only 3 years old, our vet refused and talked them into signing him over to the hospital instead. (The story behind the injury changed several times, so we all suspect it was abuse, not the improbable accident they first described.) When Henry was finally free of the Frankenstein-like apparatus that held his jaw together and was ready for adoption, our vet asked if Mr. JustPeachy wanted to meet him. (If you see a pattern here with our vet, don’t think we haven’t noticed, but our vet is so good we overlook it.) Mr. JustPeachy was reluctant, as he still mourned the death of his BFF cat, Bigfoot, but agreed because our crafty vet said Henry was lonely. Mr. JustPeachy’s heart was completely lost when Henry jumped up on the lobby couch beside him, purring loudly, and rolled over to expose his belly for a good rub. Henry still snuggles with either of us whenever he can.
These are the Terrible Tonks, Niobe (top, smaller, with sea-green eyes) and Kazara Khan (bottom, lighter colored, crossed blue eyes). Niobe was rescued by a local group from a hoarder in Wyoming, where she was one of 21 cats in a single-wide mobile home (the smell alone should have been a clue to her neighbors). Mr. JustPeachy saw her in an “adopt a cat” cage at PetsMart, and, knowing that I love the Oriental breeds, called me while I was on my way home from a business trip. I went straight to the store, fell in love at first sight, and adopted her then and there. She is extraordinary. She’s a purebred Tonkinese (platinum mink, for you Tonk aficionados), less than 7 pounds, and is the Empress of the Entire Universe(TM). We thought we’d have to protect her from the other cats, especially the greys, but instead, we had to protect them from her. Poor Dr. Doom hid in the basement for a week. She *demands* love and admiration from all people (especially the furnace repair guy, for some reason) and all cats, and has a particular fondness for the affable Retief. She is now 17 years old (!), but no one told her — she still zips around the house like a mad cat, plays with toys, stands on her head, and plays with whoever she can strongarm into it. She only has 3 teeth left. Some idiot veterinarian who donates services to the rescue group diagnosed bad teeth, so said idiot simply broke the rotting teeth off at the gum line and sewed her up. It took our vet three rounds of increasingly wide-ranging blood tests and X-rays to discover and fix the source of her persistent low-lying infection.
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Kaz, the other Terrible Tonk, is my one indulgence, bought from a breeder and smuggled in carry-on luggage from Kansas to Colorado. She’s a platinum point and is “pet quality” because of her charmingly crossed eyes. She’s 1-1/2 years old, and still runs instead of walks, and demands grooming from time to time by the other cats. When Kaz and Niobe engage in Tonk Races (warp-speed chase) and Tonk Wars (mock epic battles), the wise human or feline just stays out of their way.