myjournallifeinthesticks: Missy Growing Up

myjournallifeinthesticks: Missy Growing Up: This past Tuesday, Missy (the one we kept from the litter) was 13-weeks-old. The day after she was 12-weeks-old, she went to the vet t...

Missy Growing Up

This past Tuesday, Missy (the one we kept from the litter) was 13-weeks-old. The day after she was 12-weeks-old, she went to the vet to be spayed and de-clawed. Like her mother before her, the spaying didn't keep her down long. She was kicking up dust to get out of the pet carrier and has pretty much been going like a freight train ever since.

Sometime between Saturday evening and Sunday morning, she chewed her stitches out of her belly. We worried about this and the fact that her mother--the wandering mouser--has brought fleas back in the house from outside. The poor little thing has them and now, well, we have a flea problem. It's not that unusual in the country to get fleas in the house, with or without pets. Flea eggs can be picked up on shoes or caught in the creases of pant legs and travel into a home that way.

The problem with the fleas is not that we don't know what to do about them, but that kittens cannot be treated with most of the products used for grown cats--this would include Missy's mother as she is less than a year old, as well. So, we called the vet.

The vet didn't seem overly surprised that the kitten had chewed her stitches out, and she suggested that the flea collars we had purchased probably weren't the type that work well. We're now going to PetSmart to get new ones this Friday. Didn't matter terribly much as Missy--a predominantly white cat--has already had to have her collar removed. We're not sure what it was doing, but she had become almost lethargic and the moment we took the collar off, she was springing about the house again.

I removed the collar instinctively, because we had had other cats that reacted badly to one. Since I'm not a cat expert and have only had cats and seen their reactions to different things, I can only say that light colored cats tend to have more allergies to items such as flea collars. My daughter's cat Tigger-Bob lost the hair around his neck due to a flea collar, and we ended up having to treat him. It made a nasty-mess and I wasn't going to risk that that was what was happening with Missy.

Aside from a flea problem, Missy is growing up. She's begun counter sitting--not a bright idea. She's learned what the water bottle is for and how to avoid it, and she sleeps with us. It's really quite cute. She puts herself to bed at or around 9:45 every night, because she knows my husband's schedule. If we're in the office, she climbs behind my trash can under the small desk and begins her nap. She waits there, sound asleep, until Gary calls her out to go to bed.

She's smart, sassy, and convinced the world revolves around her. She has overtaken the house with her toys and overtaken the large and not-so nice older cat Max. He, on the other hand, is not at all impressed, but knows better than to do anything to her. She bounds at his tail, growls when he gets in the food bowl ahead of her, and in general, rules the roost with her delicate 2-pounds and 4-ounce body. Her mom stays outside until she gets hungry. She will come to the back door and trill to be let in and then she eats, gives Missy a cursory licking, and goes back to whatever it is she does outside.

Missy's siblings live with my youngest son and daughter, and we've been informed that Calypso--Missy's twin--is not at all frightened of life around her. The smallest of the litter is Minnie-Me named so because she is the mirror image of her mom and is finally growing. She's a bit of a miracle kitten because she fell into her water bottle and almost drown. Our son-in-law's quick thinking saved her life. Then there's Bandit, the kitten my son took home. He's a mouser like mom. He's a lover, fighter, and mouser. He loves kids and that is a very good thing.

We will always have the photos of Missy growing up. There are daily photos of all the kittens until they were five-weeks-old, and with Missy, the photos have continued. The photo at the top is one of my favorites of Missy. She's a bit of a dork, but she's so much fun.

 

Missy's mom is a beautiful calico. She came to us in November as we were putting up the Christmas decorations. It was along in a time when we were wondering what we do when Max passed on. Max is 14 and has been through a bout with diabetes, but hasn't realized that he can no longer eat dry cat food. Lately, I've noticed what looks like smoke in eyes, which can only mean cataracts. It's not always present, but could be a contributing factor in his missing the kitty litter box while taking care of business. We have worried about the hole he will leave in our lives, and can only believe that God sent Chrissy to us and everything else has unfolded accordingly. 

When God shuts a door, he opens a window. Chrissy is our window. 

Max, sometimes called TC for Top Cat, is an English Gray and true to form, he doesn't really like most people. He loves Gary and I and that's about it. The one exception is our son-in-law Robert. But all animals love Robert. Max has been the bane of our youngest granddaughter's existence. She is scared to death of him. He's 14 and weighs in at 11-pounds now. He has been heavier than that, but had to be put on a diet to get the diabetes under control.



Between them, we have the door, Max, and the window, Chrissy, and the little fan, Missy. Yes, cats are hard animals to love because they're stubborn, they're picky, and they can be quite mean when upset, but they also provide a love that is deep. Only a cat owner can understand the intricacies of the cat's nature. And that, is about all we understand of them.