Elvis Archives - Katzenworld

Not All Cats Are The Same

Published on March 19, 2017March 19, 2017 by Lady Joyful33 Comments

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

Elvis In The House

Published on February 26, 2017February 21, 2017 by Lady Joyful29 Comments

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

The Wolf, The Sheep and The Cabbage

Published on November 27, 2016November 26, 2016 by Lady Joyful30 Comments

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"! — 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

Elvis Has Entered The Building

Published on November 20, 2016November 19, 2016 by Lady Joyful27 Comments

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

Let’s Share!

Published on June 19, 2016June 18, 2016 by Lady Joyful22 Comments

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

You’re Alright

Published on June 5, 2016June 5, 2016 by Lady Joyful19 Comments

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

Perhaps We Can Share?

Published on May 22, 2016May 21, 2016 by Lady Joyful17 Comments

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