New Couch!

We got a new couch! My parents are moving and were generous enough to give us their luxurious leather sectional. It’s HUGE. However, the couch offers plenty of lounging space and Mau was more than ready to try it out for lap time (as you can see).

“It’s lap time!”

They spent quite a bit of time sniffing and exploring the couch, being concerned (especially Charlie), and being mildly discombobulated with the new changes and the lack of an ottoman.

“What have you done with my ottoman?”

We moved moved the cat tower from near the fireplace to the window, where the armchair used to be. Lots of change for the cats! The new position of the cat tower brought lots of interest too.

“Oh hello! Welcome to my new cat tower!”
Garrus kept giving me the snootiest looks. For him, the cat tree is the Tower of Sass.
“I found my spot! There are other spots but this one is MINE.”

Super Cozy

Mau is such a chill cat, especially in the evenings during regularly scheduled lap time. He loves to snuggle and can be found flipped on his back nestled between us. We can also tuck Mau into our throw blankets and he seems quite happy to snooze there.

He purred at me as I took photos.
Look at how handsome he is!

Happy Sunday everyone!

Toothless King of the House

It’s hard to believe that Mau has been with us for two months now. When we brought him home in late June, he was timid and certainly not feeling his best given the advanced state of her periodontal disease. In the Pflugerville Animal Shelter, prior to his transfer to Austin Pets Alive! and foster care, he was withdrawn, gaunt, not eating much, and spending most of his time in a plastic bin in his cat condo.

He just looked so sad, stressed out, and in need of serious TLC. Although volunteers regularly loved on him and brushed him, his coat was in a sorry state because he did not groom himself very well.

We breathed a huge sigh of relief when Mau started eating wet food and ate with relish! Because he was underweight, we gave him additional small meals. What does it say about our house that two out of three cats need to eat like Hobbits in order to get to a healthy weight?

When Aaron and I spent time with him, we were nevertheless struck by how sweet he was. With photos like this, it was quite apparent that we had a most handsome boy on our hands too.

One month later, he showed us how much he loved human company and that he was thoroughly down with snuggles. Lap time is an imperative!

After he had his long-awaited and much-needed dental surgery, he started to blossom. While sick, he demonstrated little interest in playing (understandable) but once he started feeling better, we caught him batting crinkle balls and springs around the house. He hopped into boxes and raced up the cat tree, unceremoniously unseating Charlie from his favorite platform.

Our evenings are MC’d by this lovey boy. Isn’t he cute? He greets us with an enthusiastic  and demanding “MEH!” and purrs when he receives the attention he wants. And he’s charmingly fluffy too!

Mau the Beautiful

Mau is doing well on his regimen of antibiotics and painkillers. His coat is getting healthier and he eats up to two cans of wet food a day despite his dental issues. We brush him frequently and there are far fewer mats as a result.

Much to our delight, he has started to show a more playful side by chasing after the red dot and batting the crinkle ball and spring around. Oddly though, he only plays with the latter toys when no one else is around! When he wants to explore, though, there’s no stopping him. He really wants to be friends with Charlie and especially Garrus. In a few ways, he does not act like a senior cat! Above all, Mau is a lovey-dovey lap cat who complains when he is left alone or denied access to said lap.

Aaron took two fantastic photos of Mau. Of course I immediately wanted to share them because they show how beautiful Mau really is.

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“Hello. I am Mau and I am incredibly gorgeous. You should pet me.”

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“Oooh! What’s over there? I wanna go on an adventure!” I love the expression on his face in this photo. Mau really is a darling cat and not just in terms of looks.

Monday with Mau

In an effort to try to make Mau more comfortable, the APA vet prescribed him a painkiller and an antibiotic. We were quite pleased that we were able to mix these liquid medications into his food, which he ate without a problem. Hopefully these help him.

This morning I was pleasantly surprised to find that Mau didn’t stink! I picked him up and he smelled like mostly normal cat. I didn’t sense an overwhelmingly fetid whiff of bad breath! Amazing! I hope that’s the antibiotic at work.

Mau does not like being sequestered, and I don’t blame him. While he spends a good chunk of the day sleeping like any other cat, he mews pitifully for attention when he’s awake. I decided to help him embark on a mini-adventure by picking him up and bringing him to my office. I shut the door so he couldn’t get out and the boys could not get in. This experiment had mixed results. He got to explore and briefly settled for lap time but did seem a bit overwhelmed after a while. He also started asking most persistently for food. Mau is a sweet old man of a kitty but has a low threshold for hunger!

Look at that curious, handsome face!

“Outside!” I’m not sure if Mau ever looks out the window in Aaron’s office.

Mau found a hiding spot under one of my bookshelves.

Mau thought I could not see his magnificent tail.

Update on Mau

On Sunday Aaron and I took Mau to his vet appointment. He walked right into the carrier but once he realized Aaron shut the door behind him, Mau was decidedly upset about it. He complained a bit when carried and in the car but became quiet in the waiting room.

One of the vets looked him over and diagnosed him with severe gingivitis and multiple abscessed teeth. It is likely that he will have most, if not all, of his teeth removed. Because his teeth are rotting, that is why his breath smells like death. We just have to wait for a slot to open up so Mau can have his surgery. Also, judging from the age and condition of his teeth, it looks like Mau is older than I initially thought. Rather than being 10, he’s 15 years old! He is a sweet old man and a good houseguest.

He hid and slept under the desk after we brought him back from the vet. Poor guy.

On the bright side, Mau is eating wet food well. Both he and Garrus eat about 1-1.5 cans a day! It appears that since Mau was surrendered to the shelter in May, he has gained about half a pound of weight. We spend time with him every day, brushing him frequently and providing comfy laps and scritches. He is most grateful for any and all types of attention and responds by being most affectionate.

I also recently learned that Mau and his housemates came from a hoarding situation, which shed light as to why all three had significant dental problems. The oldest of the three went into foster care and recently passed away in his sleep. The female, also older than Mau, has one eye, if I recall correctly, and chronic bronchitis. When I gave the shelter director an update on Mau, she thought that he was lucky to be in our house. Aaron and I genuinely hope that we can help him get healthy and find a loving home in which he can live out the rest of his life, preferably most of it in someone’s lap and purring.

We think that Mau may be a Himalayan or possibly a Balinese cat! Look at that sweet face!

Mau did not want me to read my book (pictured on the desk) and instead wanted me to devote all my attention to him. After all, he takes lap time most seriously, even more so than Boudicca did!

Greetings from Mau

Aaron and I visited Mau this morning as we brought him food and cleaned his litterbox. He was firmly camped out behind the desk in the corner but looked at us curiously as we sat on the floor. If he wanted to hide, that was OK with us. A bit later I came back into the red room and chilled on the chair, reading a book. I babbled at him and beckoned him to come over to my hand for rubs if he wanted any. He did not, apparently, but he made eye contact with me on several occasions.

I checked on him throughout the day and found him sleeping. I did not want to disturb him so I didn’t linger.

When Aaron came home, we visited our foster kitty. We were so happy when Mau came out of hiding! Very casually, he waltzed right into Aaron’s lap and started purring.

He came over to me too, showed me his floofy tail, and asked for pets. He’s a sweetheart.

We were quite happy when he ate up all the wet food we offered. At the shelter, he had refused to eat the wet food they presented. Maybe that was due to stress or a matter of preference. In any case, we’ll be going through a lot more cat food at this rate! It’s all good though. We’re just happy to help this sweet boy.

Visiting Mau

Our original goal of visiting the shelter on Sunday afternoon was to visit Mau. We had a lovely time with him. He doesn’t mind the kittens and apparently likes other cats, although one of his previous housemates, Virginia, did not like him. He enjoys being brushed and, when taken to the interaction room, evidently knows about lap time. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to snap a photo of him climbing into Aaron’s lap.

One of the volunteers suggested that he be renamed Frankie or Sinatra because of those beautiful blue eyes!

Compared to Garrus and Charlie, he has big paws! He’s also heavier than I expected, given that he is on the skinny side. On this visit, we were able to pick him up and hold him. He also purred! Cue warm fuzzies.

Evening Routine

We’re homebodies and like to just chill out at home in the evenings. In the past Aaron and I have watched a particular show together. We’ve watched several Star Trek shows (Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise), Friends, Downton Abbey, Futurama, Agents of SHIELD, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage. Lately we’ve been doing video games (well, Aaron has been playing video games while I watch). We started with Horizon Zero Dawn (excellent), Ori and the Blind Forest, Unravel, and now The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and its extension packs, Heart of Stone and Blood and Wine.

When we sit on the couch, all the cats assume their preferred locations. Boudicca cannot wait to climb onto my lap, receive pets and smooches, and purr contentedly.

Googly cat is googly.

Charlie often hangs out on the cat tree but if he is feeling lovey he ask to get onto the couch next to me. Then he flops repeatedly, purrs very loudly, and head bunts my hand as I pet him.

Charlie likes to curl his paws over the edge of the platform when I pet him.
We’ve been introducing him to snuggling (with humans) and lap time. He approves.

Somebody was being really cute!

Garrus generally hangs out on the floor on the other side of the ottoman but lately he has been sharing the ottoman with us. Garrus, reserved Gentleman Cat of the house, is most particular about his spot, is slow to warm up, and has an established bubble of personal space. He is slowly learning how to relax around us. We give him space so that he can decide if he wants to engage with us. If it takes him a while, that’s okay.

Isn’t he handsome?

Occasionally, Garrus has been brave and hung out on the couch with us! This has been a lovely breakthrough!

While I certainly hope that the boys will become lap kitties in time, I will not be heartbroken if they are not. They both have made leaps and bounds of progress in the seven months we have had them. They are less skittish, shy, and reactive, and now seek us out for attention. Working with shy cats can be a challenge (it requires a lot of patience) but I have found it worthwhile. Charlie, in particular, has blossomed from a very hidey cat to an incredibly sweet, squeaky boy who frequently looks like he has a blissful smile on his face. Garrus is a bit more inscrutable but when I get him to purr I take that as a win!

Do your cats adhere to a particular evening routine? Do they have preferred spots? Do they like lap time?

Mornings with the Cats

Cats are creatures of routine, and this definitely applies to my little pounce. While Garrus does not always come up onto the bed for a visit as we wake up, as Boudicca and Charlie do on a regular basis, Garrus greets us with his characteristically jaunty trot and lots of tail hugs. He habitually escorts one of us into Aaron’s office to his food bowl and waits patiently by the door. “Good morning, my caretakers! I trust you slept well. It’s time for breakfast!” he seems to say. Keep in mind that Garrus only meows (politely, mind you) when in the carrier; otherwise he does not meow, squeak, chatter, or make any other noise. Even his purr is so quiet most of the time that you can’t tell he is purring unless you feel his neck.

After we feed the cats and refresh their water, it is our routine to visit each of the cats, or sometimes, they come to us. Boudicca wakes up and joins us by the kitchen table, where she stares intently at Aaron as she attempts to execute the Schnauzer Mind Meld. (As I have mentioned before, Boudicca has not yet figured out that she is, in fact, not a Miniature Schnauzer.) Aaron sits on the Morsel Distribution Throne and has the Morsel Distribution Hand. Apparently his morsels taste better than mine. We occasionally give her tiny bits of egg (good for her coat) or meat. (There are people food items that are safe for cats.) When Aaron has waffles or pancakes, Boudicca seems to pout, since she firmly believes that all people food is for kitties and does not understand when we don’t share.

This past week, there was a beautifully choreographed kitty ballet in our kitchen whenever we gave Boudicca her medication in wet food. The boys were keenly interested in what prompted Boudicca to become such a Meower Mouth. Charlie had to contribute his two cents by squeaking. Garrus, a characteristically quiet Gentleman Cat, simply pirouetted with his tail high and a hopeful expression, “I used to eat wet food. I like it…May I have some please?” Unfortunately I was not able to get the kitty ballet on video but I did capture a short video of Boudicca demonstrating her Meower Mouth alter ego.

Usually Charlie comes to us as we wake up and happily purrs when we give him rubs. Once we wake up, he trots off to play in the living room, snuggle with Garrus on the ottoman, or hang out on his favorite platform on the cat tower. Sometimes he will stroll by the kitchen table as we eat breakfast, squeaking, polishing our ankles, giving tail hugs, and generally being cute. Incidentally, his presence occasionally bugs Boudicca, although she will ignore him if she is intent on begging. After breakfast, we stop by the cat tower, where Charlie has taken up his post, and remind him how cute he is. Cue slow blinks.

Garrus doesn’t often visit us while we eat breakfast. He tends to hang out in the living room, where his favorite spot (the ottoman) is. Boudicca meanwhile claims her spot on the couch. Garrus has a habit of following us into the bedroom–or me into the bathroom–and asks for pets. If I am standing up and wiggle my fingers in invitation, he can be convinced to jump onto the bed for scritches. His preferred spot for visits, however, is on the ottoman.

This morning I sat on the ottoman and called Garrus. He trotted over with a marked spring in his step and tail-hugged my legs. Then he hopped up onto the ottoman and rubbed himself against my back and hands, semi-flopping next to me. He started purring quietly when I scritched this side of his neck and shoulder, or when I scritched the base of his tail. (Cue elevator butt.)

Since we’ve been working on getting him acclimated to being handled, I gently picked him up and placed him on my lap. I do this regularly but he tends to jump off after about 10-30 seconds. This morning he appeared to be calmer and more relaxed because he remained on my lap for a few minutes. I gently stroked him (not too much so he would not get over-stimulated) and talked to him, telling him how handsome and good he was. He continued to purr and slow blinked. When he decided to end our lovely lap session, he did not abruptly kick off my lap but instead stood up and leisurely walked over to the free space on the ottoman next to me. Lying down, he looked up at me with those big yellow eyes and asked me to continue petting him, which of course I did. What a breakthrough!

During our visit, Charlie woke up and started playing. As per his habit, he plucked the toy mice from the highest platform, choosing one by one with his mouth or paws and deliberately throwing them onto the floor. He held the largest (his newest prize) in his mouth and carried it as he climbed down the cat tree and strolled over to me. He gave one muffled squeak, dropped the mouse at my feet, and flopped over so I could give him a belly rub. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me or else I would have recorded it. But he was SO CUTE. All in all it was a very pleasant morning!

Do your cats like to greet you in the morning? What are your morning routines with your fur people? Are they lovey in the morning or in the evening? Tell your stories in the comments section!