Milestones for our furry ones

I know we all have milestones with our pets. Thought I'd share a few of mine and you guys could too. :thumbs up

Teiya - I adpoted her and her sister Kinsey from the SPCA a little over a year ago as 4 month old kittens. Teiya has always been calm and LOVES to be petted or brushed but shows no interest in being physically held or cuddled. None what so ever. It's not that she will freak if you do it. More like she just doesn't have her button turned on for it. Often when she lays on my bed at night when I'm on the computer, reading, etc., I reach out and pet her. She ALWAYS lets out a little squeek and if I don't just pet her over and over she will move so I can't reach her. :sad:

Well last night she was laying there and I put my hand on her and she didn't move. I was able to leave my hand there and she laid her head on it for over 1/2 hour. 'Course that meant I was trapped there and couldn't move. :p On another note, Teiya is most certainly not dumb. She loves to climb in to the drawers in my nephew's closet and to avoid this he was making a point of closing his closet door (bi-fold type). Well, Teiya figured out she could open them by putting her paw underneath them and pulling. :laughing::laughing: Then she opens the drawers and climbs right in for a snooze.


Kinsey - as I said above is Teiya's sister. Kinsey LOVES physical contact and like her sister will roll over and show her belly the minute you pet her. She is really jumpy, though. Not sure what they experienced in their previous life but obviously it wasn't good human contact. Well when I would pick Kinsey up she would fight like the dickens to get away. She would just freak. If I petted her she would have to be on the floor, my bed, etc. Just in the last couple months now I've been able to pick her up and she won't fight me. She most certainly doesn't relax like Ginkgo, Mochie, Smitty do but she will rub against my hand when I pet her and doesn't struggle to get away. :cloud9: I am so happy about this. It's taken a year but finally is happening.


Ginkgo - was like this, too (came from the SPCA as well) and today she loves being picked up. She is my snuggle bunny and spends the most time of all my cats attached to me. When I picked her up she would literally freak out and claw to get away. It broke my heart. Slowly but surely she learned to trust me. Today she does what my oldest one, Mochie, does...if she is scared she usually runs to me. If Dracko is trying to "play" with her and she doesn't want to she comes to mommy for "protection." It is sweet to see her know that I am a safe place for her.

Dracko,you forgot the other 2 kitties and Dracko:cat::cat::dog:

Tee Hee :p Well that's cuz not sure if there are "milestones" for them. Mochie and Smitty are pretty well adjusted and always such lovers and not overly skittish.

For Dracko I would have to say at just over 7 years old he is really a grown up boy now. He listens so well unlike when he was younger and would get overly excited and I couldn't calm him down. He is just a pleasure to walk now a days as he listens when I tell him to cross the street, sit, ignores the dogs on the other side of fences who are barking their heads off at him as we pass by, etc.

I've always been a bit of a lazy @ss when it comes to wanting to walk Dracko. I am certainly more suited to having cats. :o But these days I really enjoy it cuz he is so good. When we approach a corner you can see him look back for a cue as to if he's suppose to turn the corner, wait or sit.

One "milestone" I'm waiting for now is for TEIYA TO FIGURE OUT WHAT HER NAME IS!!! I have never had a pet who didn't come to their name. With my other 4 cats when I call one the RIGHT ONE COMES. All the time. Teiya's sister, Kinsey, is so in tune with her name. Mochie, Smitty and Ginkgo all knows theirs from the other. Two other cats I had for almost 2 decades knew their names and always talked to me when I spoke to them and came when I called.

Teiya...nope...doesn't react at all. Doesn't even look at you when you say her name making it look like she's just ignoring you. Just zero comprehension you are calling her.

I actually for a bit wondered if her hearing was impaired. Nope. She hears everything just had no reaction to her name. I continue to use her name around her in hopes one day it will click. The only thing that will guarantee her to come is to take the cat brush and brush something. She adores being brushed and will come to the sound of it. Maybe I should change her name to "Brush." :laughing:

Dracko,I was not quiet sure what you meant by milestone:lightbulb:but now I get it,it always takes a while for me:headslap:

LOL...yeah I mean when our pets make changes that to us are big things we've been hoping for. I imagine ancientgirl's Czarina has had so many and will continue to since none of us knew if she would adjust at all to indoor life with 4 siblings.

It's funny but I don't have any milestones about the cats. Monsieur le chat and Paddington are the same as they were when they got here. :shrug: which is ok because they were 100% comfy from day one !! And I thought adult cats would take longer to settle in :rolleyes: nope , not mine anyway. Oh Monsieur le chat still don't like to be picked up , it's his right :laughing: but he does love to get pet. :cat: Paddy ... always wants to be on your knees. He is as I'm typing this :laughing: :cloud9:

I know what you mean by milestones, my cats have them too.

You forgot the pics to go with the stories though :sad: :D

Frenchy I think you were lucky,Monsieur and Paddy came from a good place:thumbs up
I guess my cats milestone was,when I got Feli-Way diffusers and the spraying stopped 99,9%:cat:

There's hope for me then. Vlad, Maks and Kiska hate being picked up and held. I'll hold them, and they'll do that thing like sort of push away and turn their head. :laughing: I sometimes wonder if it's my breath.:rolleyes:

Oksana HATES being picked up and held, but if I do pick her up she won't fight too much, just sqeak and meow until I let her down, and when I do she wiggles so much to get away you'd think I was asking her for money.:D She'll also climb on the bed super early and paw at me so I can pet her, while she's walking away from me.:frustrated:

Czarina tenses up when I pick her up, but she loves laying next to me on the couch or on bed.

I'm thinking they will all eventually come crawling to me, begging me to snuggle with them.

But I won't hold my breath.:D

AG,None of my cats like to be carried around,there really is no need for it IMO,lifting them to put them somewhere is ok,Vinnie likes to hang on my shoulder,all 18lb's of him,he's done that since he was a baby.
But that does not mean they don't cuddle,they are all 3 love-bugs.:lovestruck::offtopic:sorry

I'm glad not all of mine are all over me. That could get hard to manage. :laughing: But I am glad to see personality changes in them where it shows they are more relaxed with me.

Smitty likes to be petty and doesn't mind being picked up but doesn't like being cuddled or squeezed. Whereas, Mochie LOVES to be held tight and rocked.

Ancientgirl, yours are still young so you never know who might migrate in to a cuddler yet. I love the Czarina likes to lay with you. She must have been an indoor cat at one time given how quickly she has taken to being indoors.

Dracko, yeah, all of mine are still under 2 years old. Vlad and Oksana will be two in February and April, and Maks and Kiska in August. I don't quite know how old Czari is, but I have her birthday down at the vets for December and I figure she'll be about 4 or 5.

I believe she was indoor cat at some point. She had to have been since the vet told me she was spayed.:shrug: