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I know you wanna hear more about my kittons. Their personalities are so very different, in adorable ways and it never ceases to amaze me how their reactions to a situation can vary drastically.
We have a clowder of feral cats at the cabin, which of course I feed. This means they come up to the house when we are there. A couple of them even come right to the front door (which is glass) and look right in at me, so that I know they are there and that they are desperate for cat food. And because cats have domesticated humans (rather than the other way around), I get up out of my chair and get them some breakfast. When these felines come around, Siada and Malik go on alert. They will follow the cats from window to window to keep an eye on them. Most of them they just watch, there is one that they are a little more aggressive over (a torbie female that I think is sister to Mommy Cat, the sweetest and least skittish of the colony). But mostly they just stalk around and glare at the interlopers and keep them in their place. Layla is different. When she sees Mommy Cat or her black and white kitten from this fall (which is now almost cat sized), she is actually excited. Her posture is playful and she wags her tail like a puppy (not the thrashing of the tail which is her "annoyed" sign). She will play peek-a-boo with the black and white one at the door for hours. Outside Kitton sits right outside the door and looks in and Layla crunches down and then pops up, and they are nose to nose at the glass. The kitten then ducks down and Layla looks around bewildered as to where it went and then when it pops up she ducks down. Over and over and over. It is just about the cutest thing ever. Hopefully I can coordinate with a friend who is a vet and get some of these critters caught and fixed so that the population doesn't get out of control.
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If you are on the internet, you had to have seen the multitude of memes going around with two distraught prissy women on the left and with a cat making a face in front of a salad on the right. The women on the left are, as I understand it, reality TV stars. Some of the memes that have come out of this are pretty hysterical, but mostly I just want to address the awesomeness of the cat. The famous feline is named Smudge. He is clearly awesome and clearly just doesn't care for salad. In fact, he uses what we call "Chicken-Wing-Face" in the photo. Layla was a food-thief as a baby kitton. Her little chonky butt would just hop right up on you and nab your bacon or porkchop and run for her life. The last time she tried that she dashed up the BigMan's leg to the TV tray that was laden with spicy Buffalo wings. She reached for one but the moment she smelled that wonderful (to me) sauce, she recoiled, her eyes went wide and she made the Chicken-Wing-Face and then ran for her little kitty life. (It was NOT the BEST DAY EVER.) I think she fears that wings now lurk on every human plate because she hasn't tried to pilfer a meal since. Smudge, I do believe that Layla has a deep understanding of the dramas of your life!
When one kitton poops, they all poop. I am not even kidding. One will hop in the box and go and the other two line up and wait.
Waiting, of course, is totally ridiculous, because we have 8 litter boxes. Usually several are in the same room together. Meaning, lines do not need to form, but clearly, we must all poop on top of other poop. The only saving grace is that occasionally Siada is at the end of the line and she at least has the decency to bury and will sometimes even do the work for the other two (who just don't bury at all). Yes, I did just mention Kitton Poop (which, btw, is not nearly as glorious as the kittons themselves). But what I really want to talk about is Breeze litterboxes. Or "Litterbox Magic" as my friend Lucy put it after she tried them. When Nimar was diagnosed with diabetes, he was peeing what seemed like gallons a day. We were hauling heavy, urine laden bags of litter to the trash can twice a week. It was becoming exceedingly pricey (on top of the insane quantity of food he needed then, and the criminal cost of insulin). The BigMan decided to give the Tidy Cats Breeze litter boxes a try and I can say we definitely have never looked back.
The boxes come in both a hooded and open version. The floor of the box has slots that allow liquids to pass through to a peepad which is accessed from a drawer on the front of the box. The pan is filled with litter pellets (almost like small stones). Solids stay on top and you remove them as need with the provided scoop. Even with crazy-peeing Nimar or a parcel of geriatric cats and crazy-kittons, there is no dire cat-pee smell in the house ever. And I do mean EVER. We change used pads weekly (not every box gets used, remember, we have 8 boxes and they sometimes prefer one over another for whatever reason that cats do things). It is as simple as pulling the pads out and putting them in a trash bag. Litter gets replaced as needed. Note that the manufacturer recommends monthly, but it is very easy to go longer. And if you really want to go through the trouble, put it in a bin and wash it and rinse it outside and let dry in the sun and reuse it. After washing, I have also disinfected after that with a bit of with Lysol Daily Cleanser, as the cats are not bothered by the smell of that product and it is pet safe. If you prefer to use pine pellets, this litterbox is actually ideal for those! When pine litter becomes saturated with liquid, it turns into sawdust that will fall into the drawer below (no pee pad needed), merely by shaking the box. We have used pine before with these boxes, but I prefer the pellets as the cats sometimes track sawdust around the house with the pine litter. There are a couple of drawbacks to this system. One is that sometimes a cat just won't like the new litter. If you get a box and have that issue, I recommend trying Dr. Elseys litterbox attractant. We rarely have litterbox issues (mostly because we offer so many choices for location), but the few times we needed it, this product is fantastic. I also know that at least one owner of a 35+lb Savannah said that the box was too small for her cat, but I can say that 23lb Nimar had no issues at all using the open version of the boxes, nor does Malik (who is taller than Nimar was). All of our cats prefer these, even when other choices are given. The only other drawback I have found is that stepping on a stray pebble is the equivalent of stepping on a LEGO. Given that I am also likely step on my own stray LEGOs, I can live with this. 3 out of 3 Kittons (and one Isis) highly recommend the Breeze system! The Merry Rosette participates in the Amazon Associates program and a small commission is earned on qualifying purchases. I have mentioned before that Layla Squashin is really a thing, and I just need to let the world know that yes, the gloriousness of Squashin a Layla continues!
I know that many pet owners wonder what things their companions would tell them, if only they could. Would they let us know about all the things they saw out the window while we were at work? Would the rat out their siblings for eating the bed, breaking a dish, or tearing into the trash? Would they tells us how much they loved and missed us when we were away? I recently read an article about a speech pathologist, Christina Hunger, who has devised a way for her dog to better communicate with her. The article is totally worth a read and of course it sets my mind spinning and wondering how well a Savannah could learn to communicate this way! Siada, at least, would be smart enough, I think it would just depend on whether she actually wanted to learn. Of course, I sort of thing I already know how the conversations would go... Siada
Malik
Layla"BEST DAY EVER!" Today I want to take some time to talk about Layla. I know she has her own devout fan club (for good reason), but there is something that y'all don't know about this adorable goofball of a kitton. Normally sweet, loving all all humans and so happy to see you she falls off the table when you approach, this nub-tailed marble also has a very different side to her personality. Sometimes, at night she becomes the dread Troll Under the Bed. We still are not sure why this happens, as it happens only in Maryland. At the WV cabin, in the camper, or at my mom's, she is a chonker-in-training cuddle muffin who likes to sleep perched on your hip or shoulder, or who curls up in the very center of your chest (People Squashin' Time!). You might also wake to find her sprawled across your legs, and Siada or Malik as well. When I announce bedtime, Siada races me to the bed to prance around and get kisses, settling in on top of me before I am even fully under the covers. Isis flops on my Pillow and Malik starts pouncing the bed wrinkles. Only Layla dashes straight under the bed to not be seen again until the sun rises. For the longest time I could not even figure out where she would disappear too at this hour. I would check and double check closets to ensure that she didn't sneak in as I was putting away the laundry. I would call and call and suddenly, out of nowhere, she would appear at my feet. This repeated itself for many months until I looked under the bed and there, with many of those lost socks that were mysteriously separated from their mates, was a pair of wide green eyes staring at me in disbelief that I discovered her secret. We have come to accept this side of her, the lurking little troll. We know that in the morning she will waken to repeatedly attack our unsuspecting toes from under the shelter of the dust ruffle. And by the time the morning showers are done and we have prepared ourselves to go out into the world, the goofball Layla casts off her trollish fiend alter ego and bounces out from the cave and is happy to wallow on the floor and have her belly petted. I want to preface this post with a request that no one take what follows as a sign that a Savannah is guaranteed to wreck your home. I mean, they can get into things, make messes, and sometimes be destructive, but so can a normal cat who claws the sofa or shreds the TP. Puppies chew all the things (I even had a dog once who ate the passenger seat in my van and turned the spare bricks behind our house to dust). Toddlers write on the walls and squirt hand lotion all over the floor. Older kids try to build a swimming pool on the bedroom floor on the second story with a trash bag and gallons of water (oops). Hell, even I manage to get raviolis stuck in my keyboard and regularly make coffee stains and seem to have this cloud of shattered glass and ceramics that exists in my wake. But back to Savannah specifics (because Savandalism is a real thing), Nimar was a chewer. The good thing was that he mostly only chewed his Kong chew toys (which he loved). He would carry one to his plate and eat some food, chew a toy, eat some food, chew a toy. We were going through a toy about once a week with him after he got sick (and was chewing more aggressively). Aside from that and cardboard boxes, he really was not a destructive cat. Siada is even better, she works hard at chewing up boxes, but aside from that her desire to use my shoes as a scratching post is about the worst damage she does (as long as you don't count flipping over a whole pizza that one time). And Layla, well, she isn't much of a destuctor, but she falls off tables regularly. I am really only worried she will do damage to herself with her goofball antics. And this brings me to Mr. Malik. He has perfect litterbox habits, never claws the sofa, properly reduces boxes to piles of confetti, will only turn taters into hashbrowns if I leave them within his reach, but he also has an issue with foam. He hates it. I have no clue what foam ever did to him, but his life's mission is to remove it from this earth. He never chews feather pillows or normal fluff filled pillows, but Papa's foam pillow was an enemy, until I put a heavy linen pillowcase on it. He bit it twice to test (taste?) it, but has since left it alone. He also likes to add air conditioning to the bedding. Fleece blankets have to exist between layers of cotton bedding (which sometimes also 'develop' holes). The whole thing was really bizarre to me until I saw someone on one of the Serval forums that I follow pose the question "When does the destruction of blankets phase end..." The first response was, "hahahaha, they live up to 25 years". So THAT is where he gets it from. I had a brilliant idea though, that I am hoping solves the hole-ridded bedcover issue as the weather grows colder and I desire to keep all the heat next to me. He didn't like the linen pillow case, and I have a ton of linen scraps from decades of crafting medieval garments, so I decided to make a patchwork quilt out of linen. This idea is pretty brilliant as it should yield a durable, Malik-proof blanket, and use up at least one of the bins of linen scraps that I have been hoarding for decades. The only problem is that he really, really wants to help me make the dang thing. The Merry Rosette participates in the Amazon Associates program and a small commission is earned on qualifying purchases.
The Butthead Brigade got to make one final outing for 2019 when we headed again to Staunton, VA and the Walnut Hills Campground. This is our second fall outing to this location because it really is a lovely campground with exceptionally level sites, Halloween activities and fun things to do nearby such as the Frontier Culture Museum and a wonderful little German restaurant. Siada got to shine this trip in some wonderful photos, and they all had their fill of playing the-floor-is-lava game where they jump from the bunks, to the cat tree, to the theatre seats, to the table to the bed. I think they are already looking forward to taking the Princess Palace back out next year!
Cats "cleaning house" can be absolutely hysterical at times (especially when they are on the edge of the sofa and just fall off the side while grooming). But never in my life have I seen the Two Feet Up Technique that is regularly displayed by the Savannah girls in our house. Typically, I see the Feline Yoga Pose, with one back foot pointed to the ceiling, and the other stretched delicately out to the side. Such a mundane approach is not for the likes of Princess Siada and the Layla Beans. They are quite skilled at the Two Feet Up pose, that I have never before in my life seen. Right about now I think this must be how they were taught to tend to their business at Select Exotics School of Kittons, but wherever it comes from, it certainly is a conversation starter. On the surface, it seems pretty simple, but I think that pointing your feet towards the sky and folding yourself completely in half definitely involves some skills I clearly do not have. Of course, this also now leads me to wonder if this is a documented medieval technique as well and these girls are just honoring their ancestors. From which school does your feline friend hail, Cat Yoga or the more specialized Two Feet Up?
I create historical costumes, primarily from the Viking Age. As part of my research process I became familiar with types of wool that were used in period and bought several Icelandic sheepskins. Nimar absolutely loved laying on them, with this multi-colored one being his favorite. He spent a fair bit of time keeping toasty warm on this fleece in the middle of the floor. I put the fleeces away when we welcomed the Kittons into our home, for fear that they might want to groom or eat the fur. Apparently, they really just prefer to pose for photos there. |
AuthorSavannah Caretaker who is honored to do the job. The Merry Rosette participates in the Amazon Associates program and a small commission is earned on qualifying purchases. This revenue goes towards helping to feed the Furrals!
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