Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Cats (::Sigh::)

My two new kittens, Ginny and Gypsy, are Manx cats, meaning that they have a genetic mutation that gave them short tails. Actually, Ginny is a "stumpy" with a small nub of a tail and Gypsy is a "rumpy" with no tail at all. The mutation is a dominant trait and two Manx cats should never be allowed to mate because the offspring would be likely to die.

As it turns out, Gypsy has a very slight problem with fecal incontinence. I understand this is not uncommon among completely tailless cats. I'm very lucky that she doesn't have a serious problem due to her shortened spine. She's happy, energetic, and extremely intelligent. Now that I know she has the incontinence problem, I'll take her to the vet next week to have her condition assessed and see if she can be helped in any way.

 Gypsy - The Sweetie Pie

Meanwhile, Ginny is turning into a little brick. She feels like she weighs 15 or 16 pounds already. She's very loving but doesn't understand how powerful she is. Ginny sees featherweight Gypsy jump onto my shoulder and she decides to give it a try herself. This usually results in a near miss and her digging her claws into my back to keep from falling. Oh, the pain, the pain!

My other cat, Lucy, has developed an unusual phobia. In the evenings while I'm playing World of Warcraft, I keep the door closed because the kittens climb all over the monitor trying to interact with the game. Lucy is allowed to stay if she wishes since she's much more calm. She usually steals my good chair and either sleeps or asks for cat treats. If I give her crunchy cat treats, she'll eat 'em up. If I try to give her a soft cat treat, she leaps off the chair and asks to be let out of the room.

 Lucy - The Nervous Cat

The reason for Lucy's reaction is the kittens' obsession with the soft treats. They're indifferent to the crunchy treats but gobble up the soft ones with barely a chew. I ran out of crunchy treats a few days ago so I tried to give Lucy one of the soft ones. Ginny leapt onto the chair and snapped up the treat. So now, even if Lucy is the only cat in the room, she associates the soft treats with being "assaulted" by a kitten.

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