Category Elvis

Not All Cats Are The Same – Katzenworld

by Elvis

19
Mar

We took Elvis to the vet’s yesterday for a check-up and some blood tests. The blood test required him to not eat for 12 hours beforehand, and it got me thinking about how different our cats are.

When Lola went to have her teeth cleaned back in January she wasn’t allowed to eat beforehand either. And she spent almost all of the 12 hours loudly voicing her displeasure at the lack of food. The result of that was a very restless night, as she kept us awake with all her yelling.

Elvis on the other hand didn’t yell. He was very quiet. But each time that it was close to a meal time he would do his best Puss In Boots impression, with the widest eyes he could muster, and give the sweetest questioning meow. And then when I fed the others but not him he looked at me with such a bewildered and betrayed expression..!

As far as I can remember we haven’t had to withhold food from Sampson at any time, so I don’t have any evidence of how he’d react. But given that he’s so very food oriented I can’t imagine it would be fun for anyone involved. I expect he would get very hangry, and almost definitely take out his frustrations on the two cats that would be getting fed.

Hopefully we won’t have to find out!

Love,

Lady Joyful

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Elvis In The House – Katzenworld

by Elvis

26
Feb

When we first got this little cat house Elvis wasn’t interested in it in the slightest. Whilst Lola and Sampson fussed over it, sniffing out the catnip and testing the scratchable floor, Elvis gave it a disinterested glance and went back to sleep.

It’s funny how things change.

Lola and Sampson seem to no longer have any interest in the cat house at all. None whatsoever. But Elvis…

We frequently find Elvis curled up in there asleep. Or as curled up as the narrow house allows. It seems to be one of his favourite napping places now. So much so that the scratchable base is slowly filling with fluff to become a nice soft bed!

Love,

Lady Joyful

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The Wolf, The Sheep and The Cabbage – Katzenworld

by Elvis

27
Nov

You might be looking at that title and thinking “that’s a weird title to have on a blog about cats!”

You’d be right to be confused. And you can blame husband for that.

I should start by explaining a bit about our cats. If you’re a regular reader of my posts you probably already know something about them!

A lot of the time our three cats get on fairly well. They’re by no means the best of friends, and you’re unlikely to see them snuggling up together.

That’s a pretty vicious looking “sheep”!

But from time to time they’ll permit nose kisses or a friendly licking session. Sometimes they’ll even play together.

Sometimes though those play sessions get a bit rough. A bit hissy. And that’s where the title of this post comes in.

If you’re not familiar with the story, it’s a logic puzzle. You have a wolf, sheep and cabbage and you have to get them across the river, but you can only have one in the boat at the time. You can’t leave the wolf and sheep together, because the wolf will eat the sheep. If you leave the sheep and the cabbage together, the cabbage will get eaten. The puzzle is to work out how to get them all across without anyone getting eaten.

Hopefully I haven’t lost you!

So, how husband came up with this analogy…

At bedtime we have to have Sampson not behind a door because he scratches awfully (even with sticky back plastic up! Although I think this new brand is less sticky which may be the problem…) But then Elvis kept bothering Lola at night, keeping us awake with the sound of bickering. We figured we’d have Elvis through with us as well which solved that problem.

That reminded husband of the logic puzzle. Lola is obviously (according to husband!) the sheep. The problem was between Elvis and her, which means Elvis is the wolf. Therefore Sampson is the cabbage. It’s fitting, because sometimes he seems to have the brains of a cabbage..!

But sometimes… the cabbage attacks the wolf. And that seems to be where the analogy falls apart!

Love,

Lady Joyful

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Elvis Has Entered The Building – Katzenworld

by Elvis

20
Nov

When I first moved to Finland husband (boyfriend at the time) and I were living with his parents for a while. Once we were able to move into our own flat, our girls Lola and Maisi came with us.

Very soon after moving we happened to visit the local cat rescue centre for one of their open days. We didn’t go with the plan of adopting another cat, but we were open to the idea.

The rescue centre had 5 or 6 rooms, each with several cats in them. I think it was the very first room we went into that we spotted a tabby and white cat curled up on one of the beds. He gave us a curious look, and I approached to see if he’d let me stroke him.

I didn’t go to look in any of the other rooms. That cat had accosted me, and took up all my time demanding love. He purred and pushed against me, and even rolled to show me his tummy. I was smitten!

Husband had a look at the information on the door to try and work out which cat he was. One on the list seemed to have a matching description – an older tabby boy by the name of Tesla. I liked the name, and the cat.

As it turned out the list was not up to date. In fact this was a different older (by rescue centre standards) tabby boy. His name was Elvis.

I’ll be honest, it’s not a name I would have picked. But I was hardly going to let that stop me.

We told them we wanted to adopt him. The problem was, we needed to let the girls settle in to the new flat first. We decided to wait a week.

It was a nervewracking week. I was constantly worrying that someone else would adopt him. Why wouldn’t they? He was a lovely, cuddly fluffball!

Thankfully nobody did, which meant we were eventually able to bring him home. Lola and Maisi weren’t too impressed with him, despite his best efforts to befriend them once we let them see each other.

When we sadly lost Maisi to a sudden illness nearly a year after getting Elvis, we were all the more glad to have him. Though he and Lola still weren’t best of friends I felt (and still feel) that it is good for her to have another feline friend. And I’ve no doubt he’d be friends with her if she let him – after all, he loved it when we had foster kittens for him to snuggle!

Even now Elvis (or as we tend to call him, Leli) is a friendly, cuddly boy. I can’t believe nobody tried to adopt him during that week, given what a wonderful cat he is. But their loss is our gain!

Love,

Lady Joyful

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Let’s Share! – Katzenworld

by Elvis

19
Jun

I wrote a post last month about Elvis stealing Lola’s Princess Pod. In that post, I was wondering if he’d ever build up the courage to go into the pod with her, forcing her to share.

He hasn’t got up the courage to do that yet (though that may in part be because we removed the pod for cleaning recently!) but he did decide to share another of Lola’s sleeping spots recently.

To be fair, it’s a place they both like to sleep individually. The tops of the computers do of course make very wonderful sleep spots. Except when there’s a piece of paper on them and whilst laying on that paper on top of the computer you sleepily sneeze and the force of the sneeze combined with the slipperiness of the paper causes you to fall off the computer… Not that Lola would know anything about that…

Anyway, as I was saying… Lola and Elvis both like to sleep on the top of the computers. Earlier this week, whilst Lola was sleeping, Elvis decided he’d like to be there too. He sniffed her a couple of times, gave her a lick, and when she didn’t smack him he took the leap – literally – and jumped up beside her.

As you can see from the picture, it was a bit cramped but they did both fit. Just about. Lola didn’t seem to like the situation much though, as she fairly quickly relinquished the spot to Elvis once she’d realised he wasn’t going to be going anywhere!

Love,

Lady Joyful

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You’re Alright – Katzenworld

by Elvis

05
Jun

A little over a month ago we had a dog come to live with us. Initial meetings with the cats were, understandably, strained. The cats were suspicious, and a little scared, of the strange, larger creature, and Urho was confused by them in return.

It didn’t take very long at all for the boys to get used to him, though it took Lola a bit longer. Elvis quickly decided that the blanket that is Urho’s bed would be his instead. Luckily Urho decided the mat in front of the door was preferable anyway.

Lola continued to be suspicious, and avoid him to an extent, for a fair bit longer than the boys did. Even so she’s now happy enough to be around him and, like the boys, doesn’t seem to mind sharing space with him. No cuddles between any of them, but I didn’t expect that.

It’s interesting to see how the dog reacts to the cats, too. As I write this, Sampson is having a “Funny Five Minutes”, running around the flat like a crazed thing. Urho is diligently walking back and forth after him to check what he’s up to. If the boys bicker, Urho goes to see what’s wrong, inevitably breaking up the altercation regardless of whether he was intending to. And if Lola yells he will again go to check what is the matter.

Unfortunately for one reason and another we are not going to be able to keep Urho. We adore him and would love to keep him with us. The cats are not an issue, which is something we were concerned about. But sadly we can’t. So today, Sunday, as the trial period comes to an end he will be returning to his old owner until they can find someone else to take him. I know husband and I will miss him a lot. I have a feeling the cats will too, in their own way!

Love,

Lady Joyful

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Perhaps We Can Share? – Katzenworld

by Elvis

22
May

I posted this picture over on my own blog in the middle of last week. You may remember the Princess Pod from previous posts in which I’ve mentioned it. If you don’t remember, it’s a white, fluffy, pyramid-shaped pod which my husband’s parents gave us and which Lola quickly claimed as her own.

In the nine or so months that we’ve had the pod, Lola has used it as her primary sleeping place. The boys have sniffed it a few times, and then decided to give it a wide berth. Sampson has even hissed at it, sometimes when Lola is in there, other times not.

A couple of weeks ago, and quite to our amazement, Elvis decided that he wanted in on this business. Whilst Lola was up and doing something other than sleeping, Elvis took advantage of her absence to pop in side and have his own Princess Pod nap.

Since then he’s been in there several times. And every single time it takes us by surprise! Once or twice he’s jumped up (it’s on a table) ready to go in only to realise the pod is already occupied. On some of those occasions he seems to almost debate whether it is worth trying to get inside with Lola, but he’s yet to pluck up the courage to do so. I’m curious to see what would happen if he does!

Love,

Lady Joyful

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The Dreaded V-E-T – Katzenworld

by Elvis

15
May

A couple of weeks ago we took our cats to the vets. All three of them, at the same time. That was quite an undertaking!

We don’t have our own car so we borrowed a van from one of the families I work for. For that reason it made sense to do all the vet related things in one go whilst we had the vehicle available.

For the boys the vet visit was pretty straightforward. Sampson needed a vaccination ready for when they’ll be boarded in July. (The other two are already up to date on all theirs.)

Elvis needed a blood test. We’re monitoring levels related to his kidneys as he’s quite old, and a previous test showed the particular level in question to be borderline. Results showed a slight improvement though we still need to monitor it.

Actually doing the blood test was slightly problematic. The nurses decided the best way to go about it would be to wrap him in a towel, have one of them hold on to him and the other try to take the blood. He didn’t like that much. The second attempt had husband cuddling Elvis whilst the nurses took the blood. No towel involved. That went far better.

The Dreaded V-E-T 2 The Dreaded V-E-T 3 The Dreaded V-E-T 4 The Dreaded V-E-T 5

Lola was a little more complicated as she had to go in for teeth cleaning. She has had problems with her teeth all her life. She does not like going to the vet, and whilst the boys will get loud and complain about being in their carriers, she just shrinks into the back of hers and makes herself as small and quiet as possible.

Lola and Elvis both had lovely bandages on their legs after the vet trip. Elvis actually had two, both in pink, and Lola’s was green. They both greatly disapproved of the bandages, and Elvis very quickly removed his. Lola was a bit slower about it but did get it off before too long.


Whilst none of the cats were very happy about the vet trip, they did settle down again very quickly once they were home. It’s nice that they didn’t hate us for very long!

Love,

Lady Joyful

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Hisses and Kisses – Katzenworld

by Elvis

08
May

If you’ve read my posts before you are probably already aware that we have three cats. Last Saturday we gained another furry, four-legged friend. This one is a dog.

Adding a dog to our family was not a decision we made lightly. In fact the decision is not yet finalised – we’re undergoing a one month trial period to see if Urho (that’s his name) fits into our lives. I’m hoping he will because I love him already! Ultimately the decision is down to my husband, and of course the cats. They were here first, and if they don’t like him then we won’t be able to keep him.

On that note, you’re probably wondering what the cats think of this new addition.

When he lived in England Sampson had a dog friend. My brother’s dog Wispa was a puppy when we got Sampson as a kitten, and there’s only a couple of months age difference between the two of them. And whilst Urho is no Wispa, Sampson at least had an idea of what to expect from the large black creature in the hallway. He hissed a little but other than that has mostly been content to ignore the dog.

Elvis was already fully grown, and approaching old age, when we adopted him. We don’t actually know much of his first seven years so I’ve no idea if he’s had any experience with dogs. Nonetheless after some initial suspicion, tail puffing, and arched back, he settled down and, like Sampson, is happy to ignore Urho.

The foster home where Lola lived as a kitten did have several large dogs, but I think they didn’t really interact with each other much. Lola is certainly the least happy with our new family member. She avoids him as much as possible, which is easy enough as we’re not letting him in the living room yet so she’s able to stay out of his way there. She has ventured beyond and sniffed around him a bit but she’s definitely suspicious of him still.

Getting the cats and dog used to each other will of course take time. It definitely helps that Urho is a fairly laid back dog, and very well-behaved. (At least most of the time!) He doesn’t pester the cats at all, though he certainly gets interested (and perhaps even a little worried) when Lola yells!

Love,

Lady Joyful

Do your cats get along with dogs? If you have both, how did you go about getting them comfortable with each other?

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Warm(er) Days – Katzenworld

by Elvis

01
May

I’ve been complaining for quite some time now about winter lasting forever. I was sick of snow, fed up of cold, and completely done with the darkness. Thankfully in the last couple of weeks Spring has finally decided to show up!

Yesterday morning was so lovely and warm that we decided to open up the door to our balcony. The sun was shining and the birds were singing.

Turns out I wasn’t the only one who was fed up of winter. The minute the cats realised the balcony was open they were off to investigate all the sights and sounds of Spring. Our balcony is glassed so there was no risk of them escaping, but they were still able to sit and enjoy the sunshine. Lola had great fun trying to bat at a fly on the other side of the glass.

I guess the floor of the balcony is still pretty cold, as the boys decided they’d rather sunbathe in the doorway than actually on the balcony. I’m sure by the time Summer is truly upon us the balcony will become even more tempting.

It’s really lovely to see the cats enjoying the sunshine. And such a relief that we can let them out there safely, knowing that they won’t be able to escape!

Love,

Lady Joyful

Where is your cat’s favourite place to sunbathe?

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