Tabby and Tuxedo Cat blog

Our cats, Seven and Wizard, now have their own blog: tabbyandtuxedo.com

I am Swizzle

We have an extra cat! This has been in the wings the past few days.

While shopping around for an aquarium, we fell in love with Swizzle who was in a little cage at the pet store, waiting for adoption. She was just too cute not to react. We submitted online application and were in touch with saveourstrays, emailed back & forth a little bit about us, our cats Seven & Wizard, etc. They gave it the green light. We are approved to be the adoptive parents of Swizzle and I picked her up at the pet store today. She is such a sweetheart!

M is free again

M came to us via our cats last week and after making sure he was well, we set M free today.

What can brown do for you?

Keep bringing boxes!

Interesting

Seven inspects the newly refinished dining room floor.

Seal of inspection

Nothing beats a refinished floor that is cat inspected & carries a seal of approval

Florida hunting trip

Our two felines Seven & Wizard joined us on our trip south. They
behaved very well in the car. Wizard did excellent compared to his last road
trip two years ago. Maybe they knew they were going on a Florida hunting
vacation?

Wizard like a true tiger, surveying the area:

Seven moved so fast outdoors I had trouble snapping her photo. Every time
I walked closer she thought I’d pick her up to go inside.

Seven talk

Cats can meow, hiss, … and talk back.

Click the image to open the movie (~3MB compressed) in a new window.

A sunny morning with Seven

Waking up (by F)

Green eyes (by F)

Pledge of allegiance (by C)

You don’t even want to be a flying mouse

I had some fun testing the flash & focus system on the 20D.

Come to Seven

The
fear in the mouse’s eyes says it all: “Uh Oh!”

Oh
Wizard, there always has to be an observer, right? Just in case stuff like this
happens:

One of the mice decided to fly behind the tree for cover.
Who said
throwing mice and keeping 2 hands on the camera was easy?

Homeland security

Locked in on the target. Both playing dead? Hypnotizing to unveil
secret information?

(please ignore the antique carpet & the
green trim in the hall way - it’s not mine! I swear! LOL)

I hope she
reads “it” it’s rights! Anyway. Seven caught her 2nd(*) mouse. We suspected
mouse activity upon moving in, and found some new “evidence” the other week, so,
recently we’ve let the cats roam the house at night. Every night, Seven, who has
a super sense of smell (she even smells deep frozen shrimp!), has parked herself
in the kitchen on the floor or on a cabinet, for hours. Last night, shortly
after I noticed she was sitting on the countertop again, I was thinking about
the “no cats on any furniture rule”, but then she’s hunting, right? So, I let
her be … and 20 minutes later she’s there with a mouse! Seven: 2* - Mice: 0
You go, girl!

* Something went on Saturday night where she &
Wizard disturbed the nightly peace and we’re pretty sure she caught something,
and either it got away or Wizard wanted in on it.

Wizard’s mind

Just a snapshot. If only we could read his mind sometimes, as he’s one
sweet & smart cat.

Adopting a kitten, make that two kittens

I haven’t shared yet how we met Seven & Wizard, so here’s the story
of their adoption.

For Christmas 2002 C and I wanted to adopt a
kitten. After a stressful trip to Polk County Animal Control (where we were
treated like criminals) we drove to the Humane Society. I liked a little black
& white kitten (8 weeks) that was oh so cute, while C liked a grey tiger
kitten (12 weeks). We decided on the tiger.

While we were filling
out the adoption papers, the younger girl there puts the box with the kitten
next to me. Mmmm. That little cry sounds like the little b/w kitten. Yes,
there’s some white fur. Since I spent most time with that kitten, they thought
that was the one we had decided on. There was something about the implanted chip
and in no time we decided it was better to have both, so they could keep each
other company when we’re gone during the day.

A short while later we
drove home with our two kittens. We named them Seven and Wizard. We were a bit
worried about our christmas decorations, but that didn’t seem a problem. They
kept close together, exploring the house bit by bit. Seven settled in fine, but
Wizard wouldn’t eat & drink, then he’d throw up. Likely stress from today.
The next days he wouldn’t eat either and at night he’d stay up crying for a very
long time. Since that didn’t improve, after the long Christmas weekend, I took
Wizard back to the Humane Society. We liked him, but what do you do when he
won’t eat or sleep for days?

They had already put him back in a
little cage by the time I walked into the back part of the complex. It was tough
to see him sitting there, looking at me, confused … (that memory still hurts
my feelings) There was a new little 8w old kitten, grey with white in it’s face
and on it’s paws; which I thought was a good match for Seven. Boy was I ever
wrong!

Seven was waiting for Wizard to be back, but instead this
grey kitten pops out of the box that starts a fight whenever they cross paths,
beats Seven up at the food bowl, leaves a big “souvenir” under the Christmas
tree, … What a nightmare. I had to keep them separated and lock this lunatic
kitten in another room!

If only we had Wizard. It was very obvious
to me & C we had already grown too attached to Wizard the past days.
Whatever bothered us about him was nothing compared to stress this third kitten
was causing. I called the Humane Society, but they were already closed. I prayed
Wizard would still be there the next morning. 15min before they were open I was
already waiting in the parking lot. Thank god, he was still there! I drove him
home and things were back to normal, no fights, just peaceful coexistence. And
he ate, drank … Turns out that Wizard & Seven were given worm medicine
which had made him sick and unsettled.

Seven
Female, DOB 10/02, adopted
12/02
Description: short hair, tuxedo (black/white), polydactyl or
“Hemingway”
Behavior: active, asks attention, will initially hide for
visitors
Particular: will talk back with “ih ih” if she doesn’t like a
certain command like down or stay
Likes: play fetch, sit in daddy’s lap,
chin rubs & being petted, chase lizards, shrimp & lobster, lets Wizard
take the lead when she feels uncertain,
Dislikes: vacuum machine,
bathing

The name Seven was chosen because she has polydactyl front
paws with 7 toes and we are fans of Star Trek’s Seven Of Nine. Initially we
thought to name her “zeven” which is Dutch for seven, but it didn’t sound
right.

Wizard
Male, DOB 9/02, adopted 12/02
Description:
short hair, tiger (grey/black)
Behavior: relaxed, more passive, puts up
with Seven’s dominating moments, adventurous, investigates all
changes
Particular: talks to birds & squirrels
Likes: dry cat
food, chase lizards, sit in an empty box, whip cream as a treat
Dislikes:
other food than dry cat food, vacuum machine, bathing, spray bottle / water
gun

The name wizard was chosen because he seemed like a smart cat and
.

Favority toy crash

This morning, while shaving, Seven - who loves to play fetch - was
meowing pretty insistently. I turn around to look at … Ccrraacck!! I flattened
her favorite toy. It’s one of those ping pong ball size open plastic weave balls
with a little bell in it. Super light, rolls far, makes noise, easy to bat
around and grab for return. Maybe I can glue it? No, doesn’t look like it from
the number of fractures.

Seven stared at the broken thing, pawed it
and insisted it was play time. I said I was sorry, strapped the bell to the
fuzzy mouse and threw it in an attempt to distract her. Half a reaction but no
fetch. She returns “Where’s my ball?”. I try another toy. No go. She doesn’t
even move. I put the broken ball out of sight, after which she starts looking
everywhere and meowing for help, without giving up. Shaking fuzzy mouse with
bell gets the look, but not the play. Her meowing persists. She’s on a SAR
mission with total dedication. What to do? Without other solution I start to
super glue the major structure back together, under her supervision! 3/4 dud of
a ball without a bell. Not perfect, and it smells like glue, but she seems at
least a bit happier. Yep, we got game and she settles down a while later.
Pfiew. First time I was faced with the problem of explaining to a cat I’m sorry
I broke something and that I can’t fix it. Usually when she can’t find or reach
something, I come to the rescue … but there was no way out of this one. Pet
parenting is tough!

A trip to the the pet store or the neighborhood
WalMart is in order to get more of these toys. Only thing is I haven’t seen them
for a while.

Wizard

Wizard is far more difficult to photograph than “little
princess photograph me me me” Seven. He likes to stay in the dark, ignores the
camera & photographer, moves around, keeps his eyes half closed, dislikes
the flash, …

Enter: idea + small dose of patience + remote
controlled camera on a mini tripod + one low box placed in a well lit location
2/3 under a cabinet. It didn’t take long before I was able to snap him with his
eyes open looking at Seven who was inspecting the camera just about too much (no
wet noses on the lens fortunately) and looking at the camera while I was making
a little noise with the
zoom.

Got
ya!

A few recent images

Our two cats seem to have adapted very well to the
apartment. They miss going outdoors, which, given our upstairs location and a
handful of loose cats and dogs in the neighborhood is not an option.

One of the their “Maine” activities is keeping an eye on the outside
world.

(click read more for more recent images)