The death of Freckles, the wee grey cat, ended the plan to have two cats, one to entertain the other. That left me with Louie, approximately five years old, very much in charge of his life and mine, with one exception: He wanted to go outside and I intended him to be an inside cat.
Louie’s demonstrated interest in the outside means he has to wear a collar with “credentials”, just in case he gets out on his own. He’s my cat companion now because someone else didn’t take the same precaution.
Louie has options to going outside. He has a cat tree on one side of the apartment. On the other side, he has a perch on a shelf on my computer desk. Both allow him to look outside, but, perhaps more important to a cat, a place to stretch out or curl up and sleep!
[Little Freckles is in the photo below. The other two are Louie.]
Looking isn't the same as smelling and seeing, though. Louie continues to beg to go out. Whine I mean. He is persistent and annoying!
I tried to stop the whining by picking Louie up and carrying him outside the front door for a sniff and a look. That helps. He stays interested pretty much as long as I can stand the cold- that was a sly way of putting it! Two variations of the theme: mechanical things and dogs scare him so he wants to go in right now, and cats and people interest him so we have to stay out a little longer.
Back in for whatever reason Louie runs first to his cat tree where he scratches vigorously, shredding carpet or scattering slivers of wood, depending on which of two vertical scratching poles he decides to use. Ears folded back, his full 20 pounds put into it, Louie looks like a lynx or bobcat marking his territory.
The transformation is remarkable for a pussycat! Sometimes he vocalizes with little growls or scared murmurs, again depending on why we came in. “You do it Louie. You mark your territory so the bogeyman doesn’t catch you in your sleep!” I’ll say in encouragement. Or “Good for you Louie. You the cat!”
This side benefit of holding Louie outside is he’s much more comfortable when I want to give him “kitty wuv”, holding him just to pet and cuddle him. The other day he even put his head on my shoulder while I cuddled him. Altogether now: awwww!
The day came to take him to meet the neighbors. The lady across the way was ok, though Louie wasn’t interested in her so much as the new smells outside and coming from her home (it was just after dinnertime).
Next, I took him to meet a neighbor I thought he’d really like, Pepe the tuxedo cat! Pepe is a smaller male than Louie, and is the prettiest tuxedo cat I’ve ever seen, with classic markings. Louie wasn’t impressed. Pepe came out of the darkened bedroom where he hid when we came in. Louie hissed. Pepe ran back into the bedroom, and Louie and I left after a little more chatter with Louie’s human companion. Time to leave! Oops!
Come to think of it, though, Louie hissed at Freckles, too, but by the next morning, she was play-stalking and pouncing on him!
Cats.
Louie at two months: I can’t imagine life without him!
Fascinating blog! Is your theme custom made or did you download it from somewhere?
A theme like yours with a few simple adjustements would
really make my blog stand out. Please let me know where you got your theme.
Bless you
My theme is one available from WordPress. There are ways to customize it (color of headings, background photos, other things from the “Appearance” options), and it is about average for this sort of thing. Other formats can be customized quite a bit more than this, though some are very simple and allow little changing. You will find this out when you read the descriptions. The more a theme can be modified, the more likely you will have to pay a fee to use it, something that is noted in the description when it applies.
Go to the options on the left side of the edit page. Go down and open “Appearance”. You can select themes (like the one I use) from dozens available for free or for a fee if you have specific modifications available. Once you select a theme you like, come back to the option, and work your way down the list to make changes to further customize the theme to your liking. You may make changes you don’t like after trying them, but they are easy enough to change back to where you started.
One way to select a theme is to find one you like among those blogs you read. WordPress puts the name of the theme at the very bottom of the posted blog posting, then it’s a matter of finding it among their dozens available. Keep in mind some themes allow a lot of modification (fonts, backgrounds, etc.), and others are very basic. The descriptions in the theme section explain these things, though you may not realize what they mean until you’ve blogged here for a bit. Of course, you can always change your theme later if the one you initially chose proves limiting. It’s as simple as coming back to the Appearance menu, and selecting a new one!
Grand merci, Beaucoup d’info.
You’re welcome. I was surprised to find you’d read this very early blog. Louie was a great cat, very self-assured and sassy! I loved him and was devastated when he died on August 1, 2011. I can’t believe I had him such a short time yet became so attached to him.
[translation by google, so it doubtlessly is flawed…!]
Soyez le bienvenu. J’ai été surpris de trouver que vous lisez ce blog très tôt. Louie était un grand chat, très sûr de lui et impertinent! Je l’aimais et été dévasté quand il mourut le 1er Août 2011. Je ne peux pas croire que je l’ai eu si peu de temps encore est devenu tellement attaché à lui.
hi doug,
hope i can use you to cotact the wegs forum. my access is blocked from this hospital site!
fallen down stairs. bit beaten up. broken knee and other bits,
jack.
Jack- Absolutely! Glad to help any way I can till you have access again. I’ve had a bit of the “broken-downedness” business myself the past couple of weeks, with enough of it going on I was a bit concerned I had a WG flare coming on. The symptom, numbness and weakness in the lower extremities. After treating myself with OTC nostrums, I established the pain was related to a pelvic injury I had as a kid instead. Whew! Specifically, similar pains associated with WG didn’t respond to the same rtreatment. After a day of rest and nostrums, only the side with the pelvic injury killed me. Also, I have no other symptoms of WG.
Also, try weggieboy@gmail.com to see if that works for getting messages out, too. In the meantime, I’m going to post your message, as is, for the forum. Sorry to read about this spell of misfortune, Jack. Take care and get better, of course, but know that you will be missed if we can’t work up an alternative way to get you on the forum.