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Old April 1st, 2007, 08:50 PM
Edgewaters Edgewaters is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 78
Introducing Diablo, Zotz, and Feather

We have 3 cats, Diablo, Zotz, and our most recent addition, Feather.

Two are rescued.

Diablo:



Diablo was my cat before I met my wife. A roommate of mine brought him home one day, and told us that he had got him from a woman who was afraid for his safety - the men she was living with were abusing him, had thrown him against a wall and often locked him in a closet because they were annoyed with him. My roommate already had two cats and Diablo was absolutely wild, like a feral cat. Though he was just a tiny kitten he terrified Hobbes (one of my roommate's cats) and Tigreu (the other one, a very large strong male tabby) tried very hard to tolerate him, but Diablo would not give up trying to attack him, even though Tigreu could wrestle him down with ease, and was strong enough to overpower him "gently". For about 12 hours Diablo persisted with constant all-out assaults, eventually Tigreu and all of us were just so tired we decided Diablo had to be removed and they weren't going to get along any time soon. We decided to put him in my room. That night I got no sleep; Diablo tried to attack me all night long, always seeking to approach some way and get in to bite me. Well something happened by morning; he settled down and was sleeping under the blanket with me. Ever since then we've been joined at the hip. He was originally going to be Jason's cat, but that got pointless because he had become totally fixated on me. After that first day and night he got along great with the other cats. You'd never know the cat I originally met; he's sweet and gentle now, though he is definately the leader of our little pack, shoving in for first place at the food dish, taking all the best spots in the house, etc. He is also quite naughty - that's about the only thing left from the cat that arrived under my roommate's coat, and thus the name. We love him for his naughtiness. I don't know the name of the breed of cat but he's one of those ones that looks like he's wearing a tuxedo - a Sylvester cat.

Zotz:



The second cat is Zotz. She was originally my wife's cat. She is the most timid of all three, which is surprising, because she's not a rescue and has always lived with other cats. She's never been mistreated either. She is very sweet in her own special way, though if you pet her too long or the wrong way she will sort of nip (I don't know what to call it - she doesn't actually bite, she just sort of punches you with her teeth). She loves to dance. If you start dancing she will start rolling and rolling on the floor in front of you. She does not tolerate any misbehaviour on the other cats part - she goes into what we call "police kitty" mode. If somebody gets up on the table or does something else they're not supposed to, she will hunt them and swat them a few times. She tends to terrify other cats because she has a very upsetting way of telling them to back off - she moves very quickly, and makes the most terrible sound, a great spitting hiss sort of sound which is very alarming. But it's mostly show. She loves her Dad (me) alot and follows me around the house everywhere, but doesn't mind when I'm gone. If Mum leaves she cries for hours sometimes. She is really self-conscious - often we find her watching us but she looks away and pretends she wasn't, until she thinks you're not looking anymore.

Feather:



Last of all is Feather. He's a very recent rescue, he's been with us about 4 or 5 months now. We get alot of strays here and usually there's nothing we can do, there are just too many of them, and most of them are feral. But one day Feather came. He was a huge cinnamon and black tabby, young and in the best of health, but distressed. He had a collar on, no tag. He was really hungry. We fed him, and then crossed our fingers that he would find his way home. Next night he was back again. He was fixated on my wife for some reason - just started crying when he saw her and ran up to her. We decided to take his photo and post it to several lost and found pet resources online (petlynx.net etc), but no luck. He kept coming back, every night. One night we came home and he had somehow gotten inside the building and was waiting for us inside the front door. I'm the caretaker for the small apartment building where we live and there's a window to the furnace room kept open to give air to the furnace so I showed him how to get in and made a bed for him. Every night after that, he was there. He was gone in the day, all day, and back every night (which is good, I'm sure the landlord would not approve but he's only around in the day). We knocked on all the doors in the building, then all the houses for several blocks around, carrying him with us. We then attached a bell and a note to his collar, telling the owner to phone us because we were worried he was lost and were considering keeping him or taking him to the shelter. No response. He was very hungry every night, thirsty too, so we were getting desperate. We decided to hold him in our apartment and called the shelter to pick him up. They came and got him, and we checked on him every few days to see if his owners came - no luck, although he did give one person false hope (thankfully they eventually found their cat). We told the shelter that as a last resort (2 cats in an apartment is hard enough!) to call us, because they are not a no-kill shelter and we would take him if that was the only way to save his life. Well we got the call about a month later - the shelter was full to capacity and there had been an outbreak in one room (not the one he was in). So we went and got him. Strangely he didn't seem at all phased by his shelter experience! He must be very psychologically resilient. And smart too - he knew just who to target for his new home.

He fits in fine, but he's so much younger than the other two. Zotz and him don't really get along very well, but they tolerate each other. Diablo and him get along great - they are always playing, wrestling, or grooming each other. Sickening, sometimes! We are still amazed no one was looking for him - he's large, beautiful, he had a collar, he was fixed, obviously well-fed, great teeth. Someone somewhere loved him and took really good care of him, you can tell from his personality ... so we still wonder what happened. Guess we will never know.

This is the pic we used to try to find his owner, from the second night he came around. What could have happened to the poor fellow?

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