Monday, June 26, 2006

My cats... the real reason for the cattitude!

Well.... I have finally gotten around to posting the 3 reasons behind this blog - Kiwi, Johnny Lee and Mina, our cats.









Here is Kiwi observing us through the chair...


















And Johnny Lee looking as cute as can be!
























And of course the little Mina-bean!

*all photos taken by Christophe Laguigné of Chr.L Photography
www.chrlphotography.com

Kiwi is a calico with the usual attitude to match! She is a little territorial (which we didn't realise until after Johnny and Mina had moved in - hahaha - nothing like cat pee every where...). We did know about the peeing problem, because that's why she had been surrendered to the SPCA (it's not really that big of a deal, I just stock up on enzyme-based odor remover). She came to us two years ago this coming August from the Victoria SPCA, after being fostered by her fabulous foster mom Ramona, and she has made great progress from being a real scaredy-cat who hid in the closet all day to now being the boss of the place and hardly afraid of anyone.

Johnny is a DSH lilac-pointed something-or-other (tabby??) with white. He is a very shy and quiet soul (my Mom calls him Casper Milk-toast)who was the cat of the month at the SPCA just over a year ago - we saw him every week that we went dog-walking at the SPCA. Apparently he had been living in a feral cat colony and was the only cat a lady was able to catch (not hard to believe, especially now - all he does is eat and lay around all day!). He was so cute, and eventually we were hooked. He is very food-oriented, and will sit just out of water-bottle-spraying-reach at about 7:30 AM saying "Mang-mang-mang-mang-mang!" which I guess translates to "Get yourself out here and feed me, I'm starving!!". But he is very cute, for all that.

Mina is a DSH tabby with white. We got her about six months ago from a house on the Indian Reserve near my parents' house - the sign said 'Free cats' so we brought back Basil and Mina. We had them neutered/spayed and vetted, then we found a home for Basil, but Mina stayed... and stayed... and stayed a little longer until we really didn't want to part with her. She's a naughty little cat, and thisnks it's great fun to pounce on Johnny (or even jump clear over him!) and chase him around, but they also like to sleep together - if he sees her sleeping in her basket, he'll go over and lie on her and she'll just squeeze over and make him room. Mina only has half a tail which she wags like a dog! She also chew things like a dog - a favourite activity is "chew the cardboard box/carpet underlay/anything I want to bits". Amazingly, she is the best trained of all the cats. I used treat conditioning to train the following commands: "Come", "Sit", "Up", and we are currently working on "Speak". She is very,very clever!! Her current favourite activity is tearing apart the ventian blinds in our (rented) apartment!

What lovely kids!