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We had a discussion the other night about whether or not the kittons could survive in the wild if they got outside. The decisions we came to are as follows:
Siada: She could absolutely do it. She is fast, an accomplished huntress, and is capable of hiding in plain site. Could, however, is not would. She considers working for her food to be beneath her and therefor would expect to have a handmaiden out in the forest with her to hand feed her and provide kisses and warm lap. Layla: Not for five minutes. Poor gal jumps at her own shadow and isn't capable of killing anything, as the mouse she watched getting fat sitting in the midst of her kibble bowl can attest. (She stared in awe, and perhaps sorrow over loss of kibble, as the tiny rodent just chowed away mere inches from her own fuzzy muzzle.) Malik: Like Siada, he is an accomplished hunter, but given that there would be no one out there to tell him to eat his yummy, nummy food and OMGYOUARESUCHAGOODBOI and WHATACHAMPIONEATERYOUARE as he noshes away, he would not last much past a day.
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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. 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!
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?
This past weekend the BigMan's mom came to visit us. Despite her intense cat allergy, she got to meet the Kittons (and suffered no ill effects as a result, but then, they don't trigger my allergies either). The purpose for her visit, I was to learn, was to deliver my Christmas gift.
I was in awe at the amount of time she put into crafting this beautiful fleece blanket with appliqued images of Siada and Layla! She did admit that by the end she did not want to ever sew another spot in her life. lol 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!)
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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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