A Blind Eye and a Tripod

I have had cats and dogs (as well as other critters) all of my life. This experience has shown me how to read facial expressions on both dogs and cats. Admittedly some have more expressive faces than others, especially cats. I have had very few cats that have a large variety of facial expressions, dogs are generally more expressive.
When I acquired Sugar, my Maine Coon, I thought he had an expressive face. Teddy (my one eyed cat) only has 2 expressions, lazy and alert. But Honey can say more in an expression than I have seen on any animal other than my dogs.
I began to realize her different expressions when she comes up to me and I can tell where she itches. I have been trained to realize if she is wanting to play, be petted or just be lifted to a surface. I guess the most blatant example of her “speaking” through a look happened the other day. Honey was on her perch watching something outside when my mom decided to goose her. As she was hanging off of the side of her bed she gave my mom a look that told everyone what she thought of that trick. I have to admit that she re-gained her perch before I quit laughing.

I find it funny when Honey tries to use her missing leg. She tries to scratch her chin and acts like her chin is getting scratched, or when she takes a step (not as often as she used to) with nothing there. This cat, hysterically, has trained me to be an artificial limb for her. She comes up to me so I pick her up, well that’s not what she wants. She immediately puts her hip in my hand and tries to walk away, normally onto the counter or desk I’m near since she can’t just jump up. She also get’s this look where she comes up to me and stares, then twitches someplace. That is my clue that she needs what I call “super scritches”, where I pick her up and scratch all over. I can always tell when I hit the itchy spot. Who else has been trained by their tripawd?

Lizzy was my friends dog. We had just graduated High School and my friend, Kara, that I had known since 5th grade decided she wanted a dog. We went to the pound and there was a little white dog with only one eye sitting in a cage. This pooch caught my attention but Kara decided to go into the dog room and look around, I stayed with this one. She came out deflated and said none of those where what she wanted, I said look at this one this is your dog. Needless to say “Lizzy” went home with her. Lizzy was a great one eyed dog until she lost her front leg to cancer, then she was a great tripod/one eyed dog. She lost her fight last year but she was in her home for 15 years. She was a great dog!

My little Honey Bear, AKA Munchy Butt, turned 1 year old this month. Teddy will turn 4 next week and Sugar will be 10 sometime this spring (don’t know his exact birthday). Since they all have milestones (and I got a deal on groupon) I decided to get them all one big kitty toy.

I think it’s a hit

“I love to lay an ambush.”

I think that would be Honey’s theme in life. I know the other cats I have are not overly “typical cat” and I think Honey is the most typical cat of all my cats. She is also the biggest clown of any cat I’ve had. My first cat that was “my” cat and not a family cat liked to play “hide and seek” by ambushing me. I think Honey takes this to the extreme. I’m trying to go to sleep, absently scratch an itch, ATTACK! Wiggle a toe? pierced toes. Move my head, she grabs my hair, and then she gives me such a pathetic look I have to play with her.

I’m not her only victim, she hides under the dog food dishes

Hides inside the kitty toys to attack the other cats,

Yet somehow this cat has filled a hole in this house that we didn’t even know was there. Sugar is TOTALLY in love with her and acting like a kitten, Teddy is infatuated with her and not yowling so much, and Pardner has another kitty to play with. I’m lucky, I’ve never had a problem introducing new animals to my existing group but I have never had a cat influence the others as much as this little tripod has.

No fear of doggies

beating up Teddy

I live with my mom. Yes I’m in my mid 30’s and I live with my mom, tough to admit sometimes. We are both single females with no children (I’m my mom’s youngest of 2) and in this economy it would be tough for either of us on our own so we split the bills. Anyway my reason for admitting this is the fact that I have 3 pets, 2 cats and a dog. My mother has 4 pets, 2 cats and 2 dogs, so we have a full house. People ask me how that many critters get along, well my 3 LOVE each other. My mom’s oldest dog, a Pekinese/Pomeranian, has the nickname growly butt for a reason. He does not know how to act or communicate like a dog so he’s a bit of a loaner. He gets along with everyone by ignoring them. Mom’s other dog, Takoda, is full sister to my dog, Pardner (described in my previous post) and is mother to one of my cats (Teddy).  Mom’s black cat, Missy, is a miss priss and tries to ignore everyone and is the only cat allowed outside since she was a trailer park kitty and hates being cooped up. The last kitty is Sugar, a Maine Coon that a friend of mine found along side the road. He is absolutely in love with my tripod Honey and best buds with everyone else.

Ok, now that I’ve confused everyone I will try and post pics of all these critters.

I understand this site is focused on the K9 variety but thought I would throw in a felion purrsonality or two as well. My Tripawd is a felion (yes, lion) but there are K9’s in our house as well. Generally the dogs are cat toys but they have their own adventures without dragging a cat on their tails all the time.

Our stories

Teddy:
Found June 26th, 2009
Presumed birthday March 30th, 2009

I found Teddy as a little 10-12 week old kitten with a horrendous upper respiratory infection. His litter was born as barn cats so they were all outside. I was a fed-ex driver at the time and was delivering there. I saw kittens at a lot of stops but this little guy was just sitting there staring at me (hard to do with ulcers in both eyes). The really funny thing is his mom was staring at him, like she was telling him to look pathetic so I would take him.

I couldn’t get this little kitten out of my mind so I went back and left them a note. They called me that evening and I asked about him. They said they couldn’t afford to take him to the vet but they were trying to keep his eyes clean. I called my vet and said I was going to get a stray the next day and wanted to bring him there first thing, she was more than happy to help. I went back the next day and picked him up, I had to work so I had my mom meet me and take him to the vet. According to my mom he was very quiet on the ride there. Tracy (the vet) said she didn’t know if he would make it but she would try.

While working the next day I got a call from the doc and she said she could tell as soon as he started feeling better because he started yowling. All during the call I could hear a kitten hollering LOL. He tested negative for all the bad stuff so he would be safe to introduce to my current critters (3 dogs and 2 cats).

Teddy was 6% dehydrated, wormy, upper-respiratory infection, ruptured ulcers in both eyes (2 in his right one on the left) and slightly emaciated. As soon as I got home my mom’s dog Takoda decided he was her baby! She kept his face and ears clean whether he liked it or not and they still sleep together (as they are while I type this). Teddy has grown into a beautiful Abyssinian that looks just like his mom, though he did have siblings of all colors and types, long and short hair.

Honey:
Adopted August 10, 2012
Presumed birthday March 10, 2012

Honey was found in a driveway with her left rear leg De-gloved. They presume she was in a car engine and got caught in something. She was taken to a vet who tried for 9 days to save the leg. Apparently she was a favorite at the vet office but they did put her up on petfinder.com where I found her. She still had a small open wound at the amputation because she licked it too much (which is why she wears a cover in some of the older pics). She has settled in and is completely comfortable with the dogs and cats.
Here is the link to Honey’s original petfinder page, it has a picture of her leg before amputation (warning graphic)
http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/23775769?fb_action_ids=10151068447782808&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=246965925417366

 

Pardner: Collie/Cocker mix

Adopted March 28, 2008

Birthday February 15th, 2008

A friend of my mother had a Cocker Spaniel that they had bred to get purebred puppies. The day after they brought her home from breeding she escaped and met with the Rough Coat Collie next door so they didn’t know what they were expecting. Once the mix arrived I was destined to have one. Pardner came to me at a young age because his mother developed mastitis and was unable to nurse. When I picked him up he tucked neatly into the “football” position on my arm so I headed to the petstore to get him some supplies. This itty bitty puppy had just been taken away from his mother, was being carried around a public place by a stranger, had missed his nap and was still having to raise his head and wag his tail at every person we walked by. For the first 6 months of his life he thought the dog park was a place to meet people, he didn’t even acknowledge there were other dogs there. He is a very happy-go-lucky personality that I would love to certify to visit nursing homes.

 

I will share more about the other animals in the house later but these are my 3.