This morning we said goodbye to our sweet Scout. She had been sick for a long time, but she was a super champ and lived well beyond what was expected. Even though I hate that she’s gone, I feel like I got a bonus year with her. She had lots of health problems toward the end. She had hyperthyroidism, high blood pressure, kidney issues, IBD, and finally sarcoma. She got really sick last April, and I thought she was near the end at that point. But we got her on a million meds (I used to joke that she was more medicine than cat), and she really rallied. Up until about 2 weeks ago you would barely know anything was wrong with her. But she slowly started eating less and less even after we got her some appetite stimulants, and it just became very clear by yesterday morning that it was time to let her go.

She was part of our lives for a very long time, and I don’t know how I’m going to live without her. We got her in June of 2005, so we had her almost 18 years. We don’t know her exact birthday, but based on how old she was when we got her she would have been born right about this time of year, so she may have died on her 18th birthday for all we know.

She came to us as Rachel, clearly named after the character in Friends because the name of the other kitten in her cage that had already been adopted out was named Joey. So I always assumed she came from a litter of six, and they were named after Friends characters. We chose to name her Scout after the character in To Kill a Mockingbird instead. She had many nicknames. I know there are ones I’ve used and totally forgotten about, but she rarely just got called by her actual name. There were lots of variations of Scout including Scouties, Scouters, and Scoutling. Mostly there were lots of completely random names including my bud, princessy baby, sweeter boo, noodles, noodly, sweeter noo, and fuzzer head. My husband called her monster and cat a lot.

She was definitely not a monster though. She was the sweetest girl there ever was. She was the softest, cuddliest, most lovey cat I have ever had. She loved being around people. She was not a cat who ever hid away. She always wanted to be wherever the people were. Everybody loved her and said she was the best cat, even people with cats of their own. I was always a little curious about her background and wondered if one her parents was a long haired cat because she wasn’t a long haired cat, but she had the thickest, shiniest fur I’ve ever seen on a short haired cat. Everyone commented on it all the way until literally the vet putting her to sleep. A lot of cats’ fur gets kind of greasy and gross when they get old, but not hers. She had beautiful, luxurious fur until the end.

We adopted her with another cat from a different litter because there weren’t any kittens from the same litter when we got them. They became fast friends though. Charlotte sadly died much too young when she was only 9 years old, so Scout lived half of her life as a solo cat. I think to some degree she preferred that. She definitely mourned like crazy when Charlotte died, but I also didn’t feel like she would adapt well to us bringing another cat into the house after that. I think the thing she missed the most was getting to get all of Charlotte’s food. Scout was a real chunker, but she really always was. Even when she was a tiny kitten she would sit down and her round little belly made her look like she had swallowed a baseball.

She did have her moments of driving us crazy and getting into trouble. She had a short history of chewing on computer cables, which she cured herself of by chomping into my laptop cord and creating enough of an electrical surge that it fried my hard drive. Luckily she was fine, but it obviously gave her enough of a shock that she never chewed on a cable again. It is the reason that I have very few pictures of the first few years of her life. I was not good about backing up my digital photos back then and I lost a bunch when she killed that computer. The only kitten photos I have are ones my husband hunted down for me in his photos after Charlotte died, and I wanted them for her tribute post. She also had a longer history of peeing outside of her litter box on fabric things. For a long time she kept peeing on our bathmat. She peed on rugs. I could not use a Christmas tree skirt because she would pee on it every year. I stupidly kept trying, but finally gave up after about 4 years.

Mostly though she was just the absolute best cat you could ever ask for as you can see from all the photos below. I’m going to miss her so much. She was the best cat all the way until the very end. She had a spot we trained her sleep at the foot of our bed where we put a little blanket for her. But most mornings about a half hour before my alarm would go off she would come snuggle up on top of me. She never woke us up begging for food. She just wanted to cuddle. Food demands only started once she knew we were clearly awake. Anyway, the last few days when she was clearly uncomfortable she stopped coming to cuddle with me. Before bed last night I told her I needed her to cuddle with me one last time. I had to pull her up on me instead of her coming to me, but she did stay on top of me and cuddle for a half hour because she knew I needed it. My life is going to be so much sadder without her. I love you and miss you forever my sweet Scout.

On December 28 we sadly had to put our cat Charlotte to sleep. We first noticed that she was sick back in August when she stopped eating and getting sick if she did eat anything. It then became very apparent that she had slowly been losing weight for some time and because she had always been a skinny cat we hadn’t really noticed. The initial diagnosis was hyperthyroidism, which she did in fact have and was probably a large contributor to the weight loss, but even after going on medication for that she was still getting sick and not eating. We did a bunch of additional tests, but even after spending all the money on that the vet was never able to come to any conclusion about what was actually wrong with her. They said they could continue to run more tests that would get increasingly more invasive and more expensive without necessarily getting any great feedback. We all decided the best course was to treat her with steroids for lymphoma, which was their best guess about what was wrong and see how she responded.

After going on the steroids she seemed to bounce back. With the help from some appetite stimulants she gained back all her weight and was acting more like herself again. Sadly I think all the help from the extra weight and the steroids just helped her mask the fact that she still wasn’t well. According to the vet cats do everything they can to hide the fact that they are sick, so you often don’t know anything is wrong until they are really bad off. Charlotte seemed perfectly fine when we left for our Christmas trip to Arizona and the friend who was watching her on Christmas sent a photo of her looking all happy that day. Unfortunately a few days later that was not the case. Our friends that were watching her on that Sunday night found her lying on our basement floor not moving and breathing really funny. They called to let us know and tell us they were going to take her to the emergency vet.

The vet called us and let us know that she was showing neurological issues. She wasn’t responsive when they waved a hand in front of her face and her legs were locked, which is a sign of neurological issues. Her lungs were also very bad which they said could be due to issues in the part of the brain that control the lungs or she could have aspirated some of the blood that she was drooling. The whole situation sounded awful. After asking them realistically whether she would really be able to come back from this they said no, so we made the decision to have her put down and not prolong her suffering. At the time I was really sad that we weren’t there in order to say goodbye to her, but in retrospect I’m kind of glad I didn’t have to see her the way they were describing her condition. I get to remember her seemingly happy and healthy as she was when I said goodbye to her on the morning that we left.

We got our Charlotte along with our other cat Scout about 9 and half years ago from the SPCA that is down the street from our house. Although we adopted them at the same time they are not from the same litter. All of the other kittens from their respective litters had been adopted out and there were no two kittens available from the same litter at that time, so we picked out two kittens from different litters. Paul picked out Scout immediately and then was looking at some other kitten who was just sleeping and looked boring to me. I told him I didn’t want the other kitten. Instead I was taken by the kitten that was literally hanging off of her cage door. I thought that looks like an insane, fun little cat. That was my Charlotte.

At the time her name was Precious. There was no way I was going to call a cat Precious, so she got renamed Charlotte after Charlotte’s Web (obviously Scout was named for To Kill a Mockingbird). I would still call her my precious kitty all the time though, especially after The Lord of the Rings when I would say my precious like Smeagol. Paul did not like it when I did that. I had many other names for her as well. I called her gooberhead all the time. She was also known as Meeper because of the cute little barely there meow that she had that was more like a meep than a meow. She also went by Little One in contrast to her fat sister, and as stealth kitty or sneaky cat because she was very good at sneaking past you into rooms she wasn’t supposed to be in without you noticing and then getting locked in there. I called her Crazy Pants because true to how she was acting from the first moment I saw her she was always slightly insane. I also called her Smushface because of her tendency to sit with her face smushed into the corner of the cat tree.

Incidentally she never paid much attention to that cat tree in it’s original location along the wall on the opposite side of the room, but as soon as it was moved across in front of the book shelf in order to make room for the Christmas tree or for the new cat tree we bought to replace this one she loved it.

I lost most of my pictures of the cats from the first few years of their life when the hard drive on one of my old computers fried after Scout chewed through the cord on it. Paul pulled up some of these cute kitten pictures of Charlotte that he had for me.

Charlotte was the sweetest cat I have ever known. Together Scout and Charlotte are the best cats I have ever had by far. They love people, are very mellow, and are not at all biters or scratchers. Most of our friends prefer Scout because she is the more outgoing cat and is the one that will come out during parties and stuff. Don’t tell Scout, but I always had a special place in my heart for my little Charlotte. She wasn’t a fan of commotion, so she would run into the basement when people were in the house and moving around a lot. At the end of parties or when people were over and just chilling on our couches or around the dining room table then she would come out and beg for attention. She loved for people to pet her and would sit next to me on the couch, meow, and head butt me until I would pet her. I once read an article saying that petting cats creates a stress response in them. I said someone should tell Charlotte that because she insists on being petted at all times. I have never had another cat who has begged for attention like she did. She was definitely a lap cat.

Almost every morning before I left for work she would run to the sit on the arm of the couch, which is right next to our front door and beg me to pet her on the way out the door. It was the sweetest thing. She knew my routine and when she would hear me coming back down the stairs after brushing my teeth she would race from the back of the house, around the top of the couches, and onto the arm of the couch. I always wanted to get a video of her doing it, but sadly I never did. I did snap this picture of her waiting for me on the arm of the couch one morning though.

Charlotte also liked nothing better than a precarious position to sleep or sit in. She was constantly amusing me with the places and positions I would find her sleeping and sitting in.

Charlotte also had a weird obsession with tomatoes. You could not leave tomatoes out on the counter or that cat would get into them. The first time she did it as a kitten I thought she was attracted to it because as a red, shiny ball it looked like a fun toy. I was completely wrong. It was definitely something about the smell that attracted her. Even when we brought tomatoes home from the farmers’ market in a completely opaque bag she couldn’t see into she would start stalking around them and jumping up on the counter to try and get into them. She would not just play with them. She would actually eat them. This is what would happen if you left a tomato unattended around Charlotte.

Charlotte and Scout were never super cuddly with each other, but they did like each other and get along. They would play and wrestle with each other and groom each other, which usually devolved into said wrestling matches. They would chase each other around the house and Charlotte was also smart enough to cut Scout off by taking the shorter route behind the TV stand instead of running in front of it. Every once in awhile you would find them cuddled up together though. Scout is definitely missing Charlotte and has been wandering around the house meowing like she has never done before and is super needy with us at the moment. It’s sad because you can’t really explain to a cat what happened to her little buddy.

This is the last picture I have of Charlotte. My friend Kristen took it and texted it to me on Christmas. I miss this little girl so much and I’m so sad that she’s gone, but I’m glad I got to spend 9 and a half years giving love and getting love from this super sweet little cat.

Scout has always loved “catching” various tie type items. In the past she would come triumphantly bounding up the basement stairs making this adorable little meow with various types of wire ties that she found. They varied from velcro ones to plastic ones that Paul had either left lying around or cut off of something. Paul bought a package of hair bands so he could use one to attach his Halloween costume to his head. There were four more in the package. Knowing how much she loved the wire ties I figured Scout would love to play with them so I tossed them out on the floor for her. I was right. She loves them and carries them all over the house. Sadly she has given up her adorable triumphant meowing for a sort of yowling at them, which is not so adorable. It’s funny because she’s usually a very silent cat. She has very strong feelings about these hair bands though apparently.

*Note: The talking you can hear in the first 30 seconds or so of the video is an Extra Hot Great mini-podcast, which I was listening to before it dawned on me I should probably shut it off until I finished recording the video.

This isn’t necessarily making me happy, but it’s making the cats happy so pretend they’re writing this. Though they are cute, which makes me happy.

We’ve been talking for awhile about getting a new cat tree. The original one we had for the cats is probably about 7 years old. It’s Scout’s primary scratching place so it’s pretty worn out as you can see. We actually replaced the sisal rope ourselves a few years ago, but it still cost about $30 for the rope and was a pain in the butt to do because of trying to get around that little tunnel. So we decided next time it needed to be replaced we would just get a new tree instead. The carpet on the little platforms is pretty gross at this point too from years of the cats lying on them and puking on them.

The rope where Scout usually scratches is really falling apart at this point and she doesn’t like scratching there anymore so she decided the furniture was a good replacement while we were gone for Christmas. She luckily didn’t do too much damage, and I immediately bought some stuff to cover the corners on the couches and decided it was time to break down and spend the money on a new cat tree.

Paul finally went out last weekend to try and buy one but neither the nearest Petsmart nor the nearest Petco had ones on par with what we currently have. Either they just had tiny ones or great big crazy ones. So he came home empty handed. I had told him I couldn’t get one on my own because it would be too heavy for me to deal with based on the weight of the one we currently have. I was going down to run some other errands in the suburbs south of the city yesterday so I told him I would at least pop in to the Petsmart and Petco down there to see if those locations had anything different even if I wouldn’t be able to buy and bring it home. At least we would know.

The Petsmart did wind up have some stuff that was akin to what we already had. I wound up buying one and bringing it home. It’s not as sturdy as the old one nor quite as big so I was actually able to bring it home by myself. I feel a little bad that it’s not as nice as the old one, but the cats don’t really seem to mind at this point. I do imagine this one won’t last as long as the one we’re replacing though.

Scout is very happy to have new rope to scratch on. Charlotte really likes those cardboard scratch things for her scratching pleasure so we have a couple of those lying around. So I figured she would like having one on the new cat tree. So far she hasn’t touched it yet. I’m sure if sprinkle some catnip on it she’ll get excited about it. Though in retrospect I’m now questioning my decision on that one since those cardboard things make a mess. The corner by our bookshelf where we have the regular one tucked away for her always has masses of cardboard shavings lying around it. Now I realize this stuff is going to be lying right out in the main part of my living room. Perhaps I’ll avoid alerting her that it’s there and if she never figures it out good.

As you can tell they seem to be enjoying it so far. They’re pretty much enjoying exactly like one would expect with Scout being the lazy cat and Charlotte being the crazy cat.

 

 

 

As I have mentioned in this blog before I have two cats. They have entirely different personalities. Charlotte is an insanely crazy, bonkers kitty. I should have known when I picked her out at the SPCA because she was hanging off of her cage door. She treats all of our furniture like her personal jungle gym and likes to sleep balanced precariously on things so not much has changed from the time she was a wee little kitten only a few months old and now when she’s an 8 year old cat.

Scout on the other hand is the exact opposite and is extremely lazy. Consequently she’s a fatty. In her defense she has always been chunky even when she was a tiny little kitten. She looked like she swallowed a baseball. Now she just looks like a big blob. She’s definitely gotten lazier with age. She used to chase toy mice around like crazy, but now she kind of half-heartedly will bat a new one around for a few minutes.

You can totally tell their personalities when playing with the laser pointer. The laser pointer we have is attached to a keychain which makes it jingle when you pick it up. The cats have developed a Pavlovian response and come running when they hear that noise. I don’t know why Scout gets so excited because this is how she plays with the laser pointer now in her old age laziness. She runs and sits under the cat tree and does this. She wouldn’t cooperate for my video, but occasionally she’ll stick a paw out as if she’s trying to get the dot.

Charlotte on the other hand is insanely crazy and bouncing off the walls. She kind of acts like this even when she’s not chasing a laser pointer. She doesn’t really jump at the walls then, but the running thing she does all the time no matter what. Usually it ends with her hanging off the sofas, which I am not a fan of for obvious reasons.

 

My cat Charlotte would like you to know that I am a mean cat mom. You can tell she is clearly starving and yet I just stand there don’t do anything to help her. Not only that like any good parent I take video of her being pathetic. She pretty much does this every night while people in the kitchen making dinner despite the fact that it’s usually 3 hours before she usually gets fed. Poor pathetic kitten makes me happy.