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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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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!" 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!
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. On April 14, Mr. Malik has been with us a whole year. I still cannot believe how fast time has gone by, just as much as I cannot believe that I am honored to have another loving F1 boy in my life. He is the most social, loving, handsome little dude. He is also a bit bonkers, but we knew that when we signed on for all of this! How many Savannahs, and for how man years, does it take to make you officially an experienced Savannah owner? I am pretty sure that at some point we definitely cross that threshold! LOL What else is going on? Well, someone exploded the favorite banana in the bathtub, causing it to leak catnip all over the place (which caused the BigMan to worry about having to shower in catnip tea). They still play with the deflated banana husk though, and I could not find a new one at the pet store so I procured a hot pepper instead. All I can say is that that is one wacky pepper, getting Layla so hopped up on the 'nip that she totally thumped Malik and drove him up into the cat tree afeared to come down! They eventually made up though, which was pretty adorable, and he learned that he definitely needs to share the 'nip with Layla. Siada, of course, just watched their shenanigans in mild amusement. She cannot be bothered with such frivolous games as she is better off spending her time judging the rest of us or just generally being perfect.
The Merry Rosette participates in the Amazon Associates program and a small commission is earned on qualifying purchases. Friday was the big day. It marked Siada's total release from her probation. She was cleared in early March to slowly resume "normal activity" (though I am not really sure the vet understood exactly HOW much activity is normal for a Savannah). The Princess was still on lock-down while we were at work (in a bedroom though, not her prison cell). We allowed her more and more "run free" time every week. This Friday was the last day of any sort of containment. And that meant this weekend she got to take a short walk outside again, the first one since October. I put her little vest on her, and the minute the leash was clipped on she went and say by the front door and waited. I was so surprised she remembered! Walkies is really the only time we use that door at all and it has been months, but she is the smart one of the clowder so she knew what was up. We told her we will be camping later this month and I think she is already getting excited. In other news, Siada is not the only smart one. Malik figured out doors and helped himself to a whole bag of cat treats. When I mentioned this, someone asked about Layla being smart, and, well, I said that our darling little BESTDAYEVER Layla finally learned her name. ;-)
For Siada's second birthday we celebrated with an Under the Sea them. The kittons feasted on shrimp and played with new feeshie toys and even dressed the part for the occasion. I am rather amused that the kitton of honor enjoyed the little 'cake topper' more than the toys or the jellyfish that I had made specifically for them to destroy. (And Layla makes the cutest little lobster!)
Because I talked up Malik's first birthday on Facebook, I totally forgot to share it here!
On February 13, our baby kitton turned a year old. Of course, I had to dig up his baby pics and ooo and ahhh over them all over again. I remembered his breeder posting the pics of the new litter on one of the many FB groups, and even though were technically not looking for another kitten just yet (and were never planning to get another F1), I went to her site and absolutely fell in love with his squeezy-sad face and that FAT tail. (Baby photos credit all goes to OICSPots Hybrid Cats.)
It wasn't even long after he was born that the deposit was made and I was waiting (with a little trepidation) on our new family member. F1s are a lot of work. I was hoping he would be half as good as Nimar was, and hoping he would be social, and hoping he would get along with the girls, and hoping he would not beat up the old cats, and even though I was super excited, the uncertainty was stressful.
And even after we got him, it took a little while for him to develop enough of his adorable personality that I didn't think of Nimar every time I saw Malik. And I really do not know when exactly it happened, but the little guy totally stole my heart. I could not have ever imagined such a social, cuddly, loving dude, but here he is! Since we had a Princess Party for Siada last year, and a Pirate Party for Layla, we decided to do something slightly different and have a ball pit for the kittons! It was really simple in that I just ordered a big bag of ballpit balls from Amazon and poured them in a bin and let all the kittons play. They absolutely love their new toy and we can hear them batting balls around at all hours. I eventually will have to order more, as Malik likes to select one and then totally crush it (and then bat the squashed, fang-pierced ball around), but the entertainment they get out of it is totally worth it. The Merry Rosette participates in the Amazon Associates program and a small commission is earned on qualifying purchases. |
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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