wow. a very long entry about cats.
orpah celebrated his fourteenth birthday two weeks ago without a lot of fanfare, though my mom was here for a little while as she had a presentation in charlotte and stayed the night on our couch. we gave him half a can of tuna. jackson got some too, because he doesn't understand birthdays and the privileges that come with them.
i should say that jackson is the cat from the rescue center in powder springs, atlanta, that i mentioned in a previous entry. obviously we did adopt him. he is a flat-faced persian like orpah, though his face is much flatter. the truth is -- and jackson please stop reading now -- he should never have been bred. apparently the breeder went crazy and there were cats everywhere and jackson is a runt with a lot of breathing problems. i, myself an avid mouth breather, can certainly empathize, though his problems seem to be more severe than mine, as my nose doesn't run constantly and the rim of my bowl isn't encrusted with dried food particles. he's exhausted his supply of antibiotics, which only moderately helped anyway.
on the day we adopted him, he had a few1 hairless patches which the rescue center told us were ringworm and for which they had given us cream. we applied it before going to see a golf tournament2 with my dad and his friend. when we returned, jackson was in the same place, underneath the bed, and was obviously not feeling well. we called some vets who didn't understand why we had used that cream, which, it turns out, is almost exclusively used to treat ear mites in dogs. anyway, i guess it was suffocating him in a way, so we washed it off and made an appointment to see my mom's vet (actually, my sister's pet's vet. my mom sees a doctor that specializes on humans, you see.)
at the vet's office jackson sneezed. amanda and i playfully rebuked him for getting tiny droplets of snot on our arms, then we looked at my mother, specifically her sweater, which held in its weave a glob of snot the size of a sand dollar. the vet took samples of jackson's hair to test for ringworm and gave us some shampoo to use.
the results were negative for ringworm and thus jackson's quarantine from orpah could cease. we still have yet to definitively determine the cause of his hairless. it's gone from ringworm to allergy to the antibiotic (after all, i'm allergic to penicillin) to flea dermatitis to, for a second, ear mites.
at first, orpah would meow like the initial notes of a siren whenever jackson approached. jackson, having lived his whole life among other cats, was nonplussed and continued to follow orpah who after a week or so relented. now they chase each other around the house, sneak up on each other, tackle each other, and fall asleep on the bed near each other.
i provide you with the following notes to help you differentiate the pair in the event that they take their show on the road:
jackson facts: he is a bi-color black and white persian of about two and half years. he never sleeps on the floor -- it's always the bed or couch. he plays with a pink mouse that came with him from the animal rescue place. it has a little bell on its tail. he plays with it until he loses it under something or if it goes too far into the bathroom or downstairs. recently i looked for it for a week, without finding it, then it appeared at the bottom of the stairs. when i got home from taking amanda to work this morning, a piece of its pink foot was on his chin. now the mouse has disappeared again. jackson can slide under things with a very low clearance. first it was our bed, which wasn't that impressive, but isn't something orpah can easily do, but now i've seen him crawl under the couch and the dresser, both of which give him only 2-3 inches of room. when he is going under it he looks like a soldier crawling under barbed wire. he lies on his back or side and scratches (with his front paws) his belly or side. he hates to be picked up and will flail and scratch, but he loves to be cuddled and sleep in the crevices created by our bodies. he follows us and only settles down when we have also stopped moving. his meow is always plaintive, as if his destination is eternally blocked with obstacles that he is unable to move.
orpah facts: he is dark brown, though his head and feet appear black and caused amanda's friend josiah to ask if we had dyed his fur. he seems to prefer sleeping on the floor and every couple of weeks there is a new place to which he gravitates: first under the living room table, then behind the bed, then curled up on a coil of jeans or a pile of books. he often falls on the floor like he is over-acting the final scene of a movie where the hero is shot and, from his back, reaches out towards a loved one: here, i mean, his spider puppet or newly-acquired pirate captain. he gets excited when we say, 'where's orpie? where is he?' (he usually comes running), and if we also pat our chest or lap he will lay there to be petted. he leaves soon after we stop petting, or if we aren't doing it correctly he bites us and leaves. he likes tuna more than anything, besides, possibly, catnip, which we tunnel into the arms of his spider. he also likes cheez-its very much and will come running if he hears the box being opened. he likes other foods too (salt and vinegar potato chips, fortune cookies,....), and i let him at least smell most things i am eating. he has an odd voice and makes many different types of meows. when we first moved here he would meow constantly to listen to the sounds reverberate off the wood floors. sometimes i let him go outside to smell the dirt. there is always a point when he runs back to the house. once i let him out of the back door and he ran to the front door through the house and out the back door again. similarly, when we are returning from my parents' house, he sits calmly in our laps until we turn on the street before our street. at that point he perks up and wants to look out the window. when we get home, we only have to open the car door and he runs to the front door. each morning he comes into the bathroom when we are brushing our teeth and jumps onto the toilet hoping to be brushed. he also likes to drink water from the bathroom faucet. when he finishes he always stares up at the lights above the mirror. he usually sneezes soon after jumping off the sink. he walks like a small wild animal, like a scurrying raccoon, that hop kind of walk. he will go to his food bowl whenever it is refilled, even if he has just eaten. he enjoys being picked up, but mostly likes being left alone, to come to you only when he wants to. he loves sitting in the window sill or looking out the screen door.
a few days after his birthday, orpah killed a mouse and left it on the kitchen floor. this is the fifth mouse he has killed while we've been living here, two in may, two in july or august, one now. we're waiting for the other shoe to drop. i'm pretty sure jackson is afraid of mice that don't have bells on their tails.
in much sadder news, the spider that has resided in our front awning since july has left for the great cobweb in the sky. one night recently amanda noticed that it wasn't itself. that was the last time we saw it. and to think that spider saved us from being butchered by weaving the simple phrase some human into its web. we owe it a lot and intend to care for its young as if they were our own.
1i use the term few as a compromise here. apparently, in the world of animal rescue, what they refer to as one in email correspondence can more accurately be described as pervasive.
2brent geiberger took home $828,000 for winning this year's chrysler classic of greensboro.
i should say that jackson is the cat from the rescue center in powder springs, atlanta, that i mentioned in a previous entry. obviously we did adopt him. he is a flat-faced persian like orpah, though his face is much flatter. the truth is -- and jackson please stop reading now -- he should never have been bred. apparently the breeder went crazy and there were cats everywhere and jackson is a runt with a lot of breathing problems. i, myself an avid mouth breather, can certainly empathize, though his problems seem to be more severe than mine, as my nose doesn't run constantly and the rim of my bowl isn't encrusted with dried food particles. he's exhausted his supply of antibiotics, which only moderately helped anyway.
on the day we adopted him, he had a few1 hairless patches which the rescue center told us were ringworm and for which they had given us cream. we applied it before going to see a golf tournament2 with my dad and his friend. when we returned, jackson was in the same place, underneath the bed, and was obviously not feeling well. we called some vets who didn't understand why we had used that cream, which, it turns out, is almost exclusively used to treat ear mites in dogs. anyway, i guess it was suffocating him in a way, so we washed it off and made an appointment to see my mom's vet (actually, my sister's pet's vet. my mom sees a doctor that specializes on humans, you see.)
at the vet's office jackson sneezed. amanda and i playfully rebuked him for getting tiny droplets of snot on our arms, then we looked at my mother, specifically her sweater, which held in its weave a glob of snot the size of a sand dollar. the vet took samples of jackson's hair to test for ringworm and gave us some shampoo to use.
the results were negative for ringworm and thus jackson's quarantine from orpah could cease. we still have yet to definitively determine the cause of his hairless. it's gone from ringworm to allergy to the antibiotic (after all, i'm allergic to penicillin) to flea dermatitis to, for a second, ear mites.
at first, orpah would meow like the initial notes of a siren whenever jackson approached. jackson, having lived his whole life among other cats, was nonplussed and continued to follow orpah who after a week or so relented. now they chase each other around the house, sneak up on each other, tackle each other, and fall asleep on the bed near each other.
i provide you with the following notes to help you differentiate the pair in the event that they take their show on the road:
jackson facts: he is a bi-color black and white persian of about two and half years. he never sleeps on the floor -- it's always the bed or couch. he plays with a pink mouse that came with him from the animal rescue place. it has a little bell on its tail. he plays with it until he loses it under something or if it goes too far into the bathroom or downstairs. recently i looked for it for a week, without finding it, then it appeared at the bottom of the stairs. when i got home from taking amanda to work this morning, a piece of its pink foot was on his chin. now the mouse has disappeared again. jackson can slide under things with a very low clearance. first it was our bed, which wasn't that impressive, but isn't something orpah can easily do, but now i've seen him crawl under the couch and the dresser, both of which give him only 2-3 inches of room. when he is going under it he looks like a soldier crawling under barbed wire. he lies on his back or side and scratches (with his front paws) his belly or side. he hates to be picked up and will flail and scratch, but he loves to be cuddled and sleep in the crevices created by our bodies. he follows us and only settles down when we have also stopped moving. his meow is always plaintive, as if his destination is eternally blocked with obstacles that he is unable to move.
orpah facts: he is dark brown, though his head and feet appear black and caused amanda's friend josiah to ask if we had dyed his fur. he seems to prefer sleeping on the floor and every couple of weeks there is a new place to which he gravitates: first under the living room table, then behind the bed, then curled up on a coil of jeans or a pile of books. he often falls on the floor like he is over-acting the final scene of a movie where the hero is shot and, from his back, reaches out towards a loved one: here, i mean, his spider puppet or newly-acquired pirate captain. he gets excited when we say, 'where's orpie? where is he?' (he usually comes running), and if we also pat our chest or lap he will lay there to be petted. he leaves soon after we stop petting, or if we aren't doing it correctly he bites us and leaves. he likes tuna more than anything, besides, possibly, catnip, which we tunnel into the arms of his spider. he also likes cheez-its very much and will come running if he hears the box being opened. he likes other foods too (salt and vinegar potato chips, fortune cookies,....), and i let him at least smell most things i am eating. he has an odd voice and makes many different types of meows. when we first moved here he would meow constantly to listen to the sounds reverberate off the wood floors. sometimes i let him go outside to smell the dirt. there is always a point when he runs back to the house. once i let him out of the back door and he ran to the front door through the house and out the back door again. similarly, when we are returning from my parents' house, he sits calmly in our laps until we turn on the street before our street. at that point he perks up and wants to look out the window. when we get home, we only have to open the car door and he runs to the front door. each morning he comes into the bathroom when we are brushing our teeth and jumps onto the toilet hoping to be brushed. he also likes to drink water from the bathroom faucet. when he finishes he always stares up at the lights above the mirror. he usually sneezes soon after jumping off the sink. he walks like a small wild animal, like a scurrying raccoon, that hop kind of walk. he will go to his food bowl whenever it is refilled, even if he has just eaten. he enjoys being picked up, but mostly likes being left alone, to come to you only when he wants to. he loves sitting in the window sill or looking out the screen door.
a few days after his birthday, orpah killed a mouse and left it on the kitchen floor. this is the fifth mouse he has killed while we've been living here, two in may, two in july or august, one now. we're waiting for the other shoe to drop. i'm pretty sure jackson is afraid of mice that don't have bells on their tails.
in much sadder news, the spider that has resided in our front awning since july has left for the great cobweb in the sky. one night recently amanda noticed that it wasn't itself. that was the last time we saw it. and to think that spider saved us from being butchered by weaving the simple phrase some human into its web. we owe it a lot and intend to care for its young as if they were our own.
1i use the term few as a compromise here. apparently, in the world of animal rescue, what they refer to as one in email correspondence can more accurately be described as pervasive.
2brent geiberger took home $828,000 for winning this year's chrysler classic of greensboro.