SWEET STINKER

Tilly, my sweet baboo, is a naughty cat. She recently turned four years old nevertheless still seeks out mischief. As you can see from her photo below, she is utterly adorable. She is small for a Maine Coon but that is probably due to mixed heritage. She was about five weeks old when I adopted her into our home because my elder cat, Momo, had died and Zozo was depressed.

The ensuing years have been a tad tumultuous. Zozo wanted a companion but Tilly wanted to be Queen Cat. As a result, Zozo has become more jumpy and submissive even though she outweighs Tilly by at least a pound. Zozo isn’t overweight she is a long muscular feline. Tilly likes to pester Zozo so Zo ends up yelling and swatting Tilly several times per day. They really didn’t get along until Tilly was two years old and post spaying.

Tilly has her claws and ignores the scratching post. She prefers to wear them down on the wood post in the basement and the floor carpet. The carpets are old and mangy but someday I plan to rip them out and get the hardwood floors refinished. I don’t know what she will do at that time. It is aggravating when she scratches at the door. The cats aren’t allowed on second floor due to the plants and she will sit at the top of the stairs and cry. She scratched some of the paint off the door (I’m planning to repaint it anyway but its irritating). I placed two feet of aluminum foil at the base of the door, which only deterred her for a few weeks. She soon destroyed the foil.

Zozo went through an impish phase, too. Her nickname was Chewbacca. She chewed anything and everything. She even gnawed along the wood table that I inherited from my grandparents. It now has tiny cat teeth marks along the edge. Zozo would also crawl into any box or bag that had an opening. She frequently would get stuck in a box and call to me for help. One time she became trapped under the radiator trying to reach a toy. She forgot that she had grown and couldn’t squeeze into the small space. It took a couple years before she finally calmed down.

Momo was about seven years old when she arrived shivering at my doorstep. She had been neglected and somewhat abused by her previous owners. She didn’t trust me and I didn’t know what to do with an indoor feline. She chomped on me several times before she figured out that I would not hurt her. Momo had been starved at some point so she compulsively ate paper. I had to make certain that no paper products were within reach even with food in the bowl. She was always concerned when the contents of the bowl dropped below three-quarters full. Momo became a very good companion and I still miss her fuzzy presence.

To be continued…

Cat patron and servant.
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