Lola 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

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