Thomas Update. (Or Love in Fur)

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Well, Thomas has been here for nearly 3 months and has settled in and made this his home.

He is one of the most affectionate, gentle, and loving cats I have ever had the honor of knowing.

He has gained his weight back and now weighs about 17lbs. He has had no further problems with his teeth.

His coat is growing out apace, and he is turning into a magnificent animal. He follows me from room to room, sleeps next to my pillow, and perches on the toilet tank when I use the bathroom. (the better to lick my ears).

As I type this, he is flopped in my lap purring and head butting my arm trying to distract me from typing as of course, scratching him is more important.

He is eating well, and has lost the last vestiges of hand-shyness. he no longer flinches when I make sudden movements toward his head or move my feet suddenly.

Squeaky and Thomas are getting along much better. They have their territories in the house mostly sorted out and there is very little hissing and growling on Squeaky's part these days, and we haven't had an "explosion" in weeks.

Thank you to the Oneida County Humane Society for allowing me to make Sir Thomas my forever family member.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Thanks for giving a deserving, homeless animal a family. I'm a huge animal lover and you done good ;)

You should put your pets in your avator, like I did. I'd love to see the cats!
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Right now, Thomas is helping me do laundry.

He is sitting in front of my front loading washer watching the laundry go round and round. This is one of his favorite things to do.

It absolutely fascinates him. Hmmm...I wonder if I should have him assessed for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)?
 

Tanya M

Living with an attitude of gratitude
Staff member
About 5 years ago our neighbor moved to TX, she had been caring for a female feral cat. When she told us she was moving she was very concerned about what would happen to "Sissy". I told her I would start putting food out so she would know there was another food source. It took 3 months before she would let me pet her. Flash forward to today, she has been "domesticated". She is absolutely the sweetest little cat and so well behaved. She likes watching the microwave go round and round. One day I showed her some youtube videos of various cats, she wasn't all that interested until there were kittens meowing, she came running up to my laptop, would look at it then look behind it. Too funny!!
She is so snuggable.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Thomas had been on the streets for at least a year before his "owners" turned him in because he "was a dirty, mean cat and wouldn't keep himself clean".

He's a longhaired cat and no, he cannot care for his coat himself. The first two weeks he was here, he was terrified.

Once he made the decision to trust, he trusted wholeheartedly, though it took time for him to get over the baggage of past abuse.

Luckily, he'd had a good start as a younger cat and had those memories to help him overcome the past abuse as an older cat (he's 11)

I don't know how he lost his original home, or how he wound up with abusive, neglectful owners, but I'm sure glad he wound up with me.

He's a very special boy, a bit weird, but a real lover.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Cedar, it totally reminds me of when my Aspie nephew was an infant and would zone out whenever there was a ceiling fan overhead.

He was a terrible sleeper and my sister and brother in law used to take him to a housing supplies store to the fan department with dozens of fans rotating overhead.

He'd be in absolute heaven and would eventually fall sleep.

Thomas is very vocal and makes good eye-contact, so I don't think he's on the spectrum.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Wow. I'm so glad he found you.

Actually, cats can live to twenty. I know a few cats who are twenty and I think one is twenty-two. Sir Thomas isn't that old. He is just an old soul because he's seen too much. I'm sure he desperately appreciates all the love and warmth and kindness he is getting from you. I think our animals friends have a lot more feelings than some give them credit for.

Bless you and you babies.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Well, he's learning to be naughty, which is actually a good sign. Up until very recently,he's been walking on eggshells, so to speak.

I came home to find the most of the house TPed.

Seems Thomas had discovered that if he grabs the roll of toilet paper by the end and takes off with it, he can festoon the entire house with the stuff!

Other than that, he likes to bite buttons off of my shirts when he's sitting in my lap, and has bitten through a charger cord for one of my e-cigs (luckily, I have a spare)

Most other incidents are caused by him not having a clue how big he is, and by his being a klutz on top of that.

The other day, I was unpacking groceries after having bought quite a bit of fish and meat, including a large tray of ground round that was on sale.

I put Squeaky in her crate while I was re-packaging the meat and fish as she is a terrible food thief.

I didn't think much about Thomas as he doesn't like people food.

I got the fish and pork chops re-packaged for freezing, put them in the freezer, and turned towards the table to get the ground round, only to find Thomas standing knee deep in very expensive hamburger!

He wasn't eating it. Apparently, he stepped on the tray of burger, and had gone right through the packaging. In fact, he looked totally grossed out.

I yelled at him to get off the table, grabbed the meat, and proved that I've been living alone for too long:

I simply cleared out the squished meat that had been in contact with Thomas; grubby paws, put it in the fridge for treats for Squeaky, and divided and packaged the rest of it.

I figured I'm the only one who is going to eating it, and after nearly 36 years with the beasties, I'm probably immune to cat germs anyways.

That said, I plan on crating BOTH cats when dealing with groceries from here on out.

Other than that, Thomas is doing well, though living with him sometimes feels like living with a furry, drunken bulldozer operator, complete with small bulldozer.

He makes up for it by being sweet, cuddly, and mostly adorable.

He is, however, quite frequently told that he's lucky I love him.
 

Scent of Cedar *

Well-Known Member
Ha! I wish I could have seen his face when you looked up and spotted him in the hamburger. That is what I love best about cats. That goofy-defiant way they look at you when they've done something they know darn well is wrong.

Our cat was jumping onto the dining room table and from there, onto the kitchen counter. Which was bad enough. But then, she decided her favorite place was the kitchen sink.

So, I moved the table.

She has learned somehow how to access the sink anyway, but those first attempts (and the looks I got when she couldn't make the counter) were priceless!

I love cats.

Cedar

And dogs, and we have fish, too.

When we go North, the fish come along in one of those really big pickle jars.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
The funny thing with the hamburger incident was that Thomas had no idea he had done anything wrong. I think he was as surprised as I was.

Squeaky earned the privilege of being crated for grocery processing when she got into a package of (expensive) walleye filets and ate better than half of one while my attention was elsewhere.

I was less than amused.

Meanwhile, someone of a feline persuasion figured out how to get into the plastic food storage container I use to keep the butter in and ate part of a stick of butter.

Since each cat has their own litterpan, I'll know by tomorrow AM which of the little buggers was the culprit when the diarrhea from all that fat hits.

Now to figure out what to keep the butter in that is fully cat proof.
 

Scent of Cedar *

Well-Known Member
There is no such thing as cat proof.

That is a myth spread by dogs, accounting for the exuberant bark and excessive salivation noted as, skidding across the counter, the cat lands the goodies on the floor.

That is how it is done at my house.

:O)

Cedar
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Many years ago, when Stu and I were living in Germany, we had Hanni, the German Shepherd, Wolf the mutt cat who had heart disease and was sickly, and Mouse the Maine Coon.

Hanni was too well-trained to counter surf, Wolf got winded walking across the living room, and Mouse was into everything and VERY helpful.

He routinely got up on the "counters" built into the free standing storage cabinets we had in lieu of built ins and shared his findings. Of course, he knocked the "easy" stuff on to the floor for Wolf and Hanni to keep them quiet while he pigged out on the good stuff.

Funniest thing I ever saw a cat do was one Thanksgiving right after Stu and I got married. At the time, we had Norn, Wolf's mother, who was a tiny kitten (She matured to weigh a whopping 5lbs).

Stu had the raw turkey sitting out on the kitchen table while he got the materials ready to truss it before putting it in the oven.

The phone rang and he left the kitchen to take the call.

When he came back into the kitchen, the turkey was MOVING! He stared at it in horror for a few minutes, totally unable to figure out what was wrong.

Then, he went to get me (he had partaken of "herbs" not meant for the turkey before embarking on the cooking project) I looked at the magic, vibrating bird for a moment, and then Norn's head popped out of the opening between the turkey's legs.

She had crawled into the bird with every intent of eating her way back out!
 

dstc_99

Well-Known Member
OMG! I would have died laughing.

We had one cat that would eat meat and bread if we left it out. I used to have to thaw things by leaving them in the microwave. Bread was like crack to her. She would chew through the bags to get at it. Our microwave became the bread box until a real bread box was located in a store.
 
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