THE LATEST CAT NEWS, by Latifa the Cat

I will begin this report with a photo of me.  Mom took this on Thursday after she came home from the grocery store.  Jason and I were making good use of the bags.  All Mom does with them is put recyclables in them, even though they are clearly meant to be kitty hiding places.  I wish Mom had a better understanding of these things.

Anyway, I believe I can say with some confidence that I have successfully charmed my way into Mom's bed, lap and heart as her most favorite, snuggly cat.  I like to sit on Mom's lap while she's watching TV and give myself a thorough grooming.  At night, if Mom is sleeping on her back, I curl up on her thighs, and when she sleeps on her side, I crawl under the covers, into the curve of her nice, warm body.  I roll all around and Mom pets me and rubs my tummy and we get all cuddly.  Then she goes to sleep and I get too hot, so I have to go find another place to sleep.

Mom has done an excellent job of collecting cat beds for our use, and these are all lined up nicely on the bed in the Cat Room.  Here's the newest bed, with Chloe and Jason sleeping in and on it.  Jason has the wrong idea about how to use this bed, because you are supposed to go inside it to sleep, but I am not going to tell him that.  He can be kind of mean when he gets mad at me!

In other feline news, on Saturday Aunt LaDene got a new cat.  Her old one died last fall, or maybe it was in the summer.  Anyway, he was old and blind and kind of demented.  Also, he was peeing all over the house, so finally he had to go to the Rainbow Bridge.

Mom did not know if Aunt LaDene wanted another kitty or not, but then last week a lady called Mom and said her neighbor had to go to a nursing home, and this neighbor had a cat who needed a new place to live.  The name of the cat was Sonic, because he was found at a Sonic drive-in.  He was mostly orange with some white spots, and he was 10 years old.

Aunt LaDene's new cat Sonny (a.k.a. Sonic)

So Mom told the lady she would find a home for this cat.  Then she told Aunt Tania about him to see if Aunt Tania knew anybody who could foster Sonic.  Aunt Tania tried to find somebody, but she wasn't haven't much luck.  Then Mom thought of Aunt LaDene, and she asked her if she wanted to foster Sonic -- and maybe adopt him if she liked him.  So Aunt LaDene thought about it, and she decided she could do that because she missed her old cat, and she wanted to have another cat to keep her company.

The left side of Sonny

Mom and Aunt LaDene went to pick up Sonic on Saturday, and they took him over to the shelter to get his shots.  But there weren't any vets there, so he couldn't get his shots after all, and Mom is going to take him back there today.  Aunt LaDene decided to change his name to Sonny instead of Sonic.  Mom took some pictures of him, and I have to admit that he is a handsome cat, even if he isn't sleek and black, like I am.

The right side of Sonny.

All right, so now I will talk about our foster cats, Astrid and Achilles.  I think Piper told you that Astrid had a bunch of infection in her mouth, so she had to have 5 teeth pulled.  Then it turned out that she still had some infection, so she had to take Clindamycin for 10 days.  After that, Dr. Regan looked in Astrid's mouth again, and Astrid still had some infection, so she will probably have to have more teeth pulled.  Anyway, Mom is taking Astrid to the shelter today so that she can have another dental done on her.  We will have to see if she comes home with any teeth left at all!

Mom would like to get Astrid listed on Facebook, so that she can get a forever home, but we are going to wait and see how the dental turns out.  Astrid is still kind of itchy, and she has not been gaining weight, even though she eats a bunch, so she might have allergies, and she might be hyperthyroid.  If she has these kinds of health problems, it will be harder to find a home for her.  But Mom thinks Astrid is so pretty that someone will surely want to adopt her, no matter what.

Astrid likes to walk all around the house and check things out.  Sometimes we other cats hiss at her a little bit, but mostly we just ignore her.  She lets Mom pet her, but she gets kind of nervous about it.  You can tell she's not used to being petted and held and handled a whole lot.  And unfortunately, She doesn't know how to schmooze with humans and worm her way into their affections, like I do.

Achilles, on the other hand, spends most of his time in the room where he and Astrid eat and sleep.  He is anemic, so that makes him not have a lot of energy.  Also, I think he is afraid of Jason, because Jason really hates him.  Jason makes loud squalling noises at Achilles, and sometimes Achilles squalls back.  Mom doesn't like hearing this, so when they start, she separates them.  But if Mom doesn't separate them in time, Jason attacks Achilles, and then they have a big, noisy fight.

Yesterday afternoon Mom went to a cactus club meeting, and she left the door open to the foster cats' room.  She has done this before, and nothing bad happened -- at least that she knew of.  So yesterday she left the door open again, and after she came home from the meeting, she took a nap, during which I slept on top of her, as usual.  Then it was suppertime, so Mom went in the Cat Room to get our dishes, and she saw BLOOD on the carpet.  At first, she didn't know where this blood came from.  I could have told her, because I heard the big fight that caused the blood, but I didn't want to be a tattletale.  

This is Achilles before he got bitten by Jason

Mom thought maybe Astrid was peeing blood, and she kept looking at Astrid's butt, but she didn't see any blood there.  Then Mom went downstairs, and she discovered that Achilles was missing from the foster cat room.  So she went back upstairs, and she found him hiding under the bed in the Resident Cat Room.  When she got him out of there, she saw that he had a big wound with lots of dried blood on his jaw, and she knew right away that Jason must have done this bad thing to Achilles.

Of course, Achilles wouldn't let Mom mess with the wound, so Mom called Aunt Tania to ask if she should take Achilles to the emergency clinic, but Aunt Tania said just to wait and bring him to the shelter.  So now Mom has to take 3 cats to the shelter today, Astrid, Achilles, and Sonny.  

But before she can even go there, Mom has to be in a commercial that is being filmed for the Pet Telethon.  The filming will be this morning, and Mom will play one of the starring roles.  Her role is called "older person."  Luckily, Mom doesn't have to learn any lines for this important role.  She just has to look sad and lonely in one scene, and then she has to look happy after she gets a cat.  All of us here are very proud to have a mom who will be on TV, helping cats and dogs get adopted.

Well, that's all the feline news I can think of to tell you right now, but next time something happens, I will let you know, or I'll make sure Piper lets you know.