Calico and Siamese don't mix, and when you add a worried Dad and an anxious Mom, things can and did get out of hand.
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| Jezibel, looks are deceiving |
Jezibel is the matriarch of the family. She is our oldest cat at 14 years. She's a calico with brilliant orange, black, and white markings. The top of her head is divided like a straight razor between black and orange. She brought nine kittens into the world when she was barely six months old. Two of them were too weak and we lost them within the first week. That left seven. We kept five of them, two girls and three boys. The other two boys were given to close friends. That was over 13 years ago.
Three of Jezibel’s “kittens” have passed on, two of our boys, Grady and Toby, and our friend’s boy, Pinto. The three we still have with us deal with various age related maladies: asthma, diabetes, thyroid conditions, high blood pressure, neuropathy, and endemic congestion. Jezibel is slightly asthmatic, but other than that remains in good health.
Jezibel became attached to Charlie during her pregnancy. She is domineering, irascible, and fairly and equally hates the rest of the cats in the house. They know it and give her a wide berth. Underneath that bullying exterior, though, she is a sweet cat who likes attention, but doesn't want you to know it. Of course, Charlie sees her that way. He may have a biased opinion about that. She and I have this relationship that I call “a mother/daughter thing”.
Since Taz was my cat and Jezibel was Charlie’s, there was forever a jealous rivalry going on between the two of them. They both were alpha and both ran the house.
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| Buffy, outside before we brought him in |
About five months ago, a stray cat scaled the seven foot fence that surrounds our back yard and took up residence on the concrete of our unfinished, soon to be enclosed patio. We could not get within thirty feet of him before he would swiftly depart, but he kept coming back. Since some of our cats have back yard privileges and do not leave the yard, we were worried about contact with that stray.
Our fears proved founded when 13 year old, Mr. Creme, one of Jezibel’s “kitten” was seen chasing the stray across our yard. Mr Creme is pretty spry when he wants to be, but the stray managed to get away. It looked like he was saying, “You young whipper-snapper, get out of my yard!”
We couldn't let that continue, though, and decided we would have to catch him, fix him, get his shots, and then release him where he could no longer worry us.
Of course, we had to keep him for a few days after his surgery to make sure everything was all right. He was 100% feral. I would swear that no human had ever touched him. When we first put him in a large crate right after we caught him, he practically destroyed it trying to get out. I don’t think he had ever been confined before. Despite our long history of working with cats, we were a little intimidated at what he might do in his effort to get free.
We soon discovered, however, that the little guy was mostly just bravado. He was actually timid and frightened. That didn't mean he was any less feral. The vet said he was about two years old. We named him Buffy. He had a lot of Siamese in him and I could tell (having once raised my own Siamese cat) that his Siamese markings would get more distinct over time and with good food. We thought someone might want him if we could get him to that point of domesticity.
We contacted a friend who knew a friend who worked with feral cats. We thought we could give Buffy a better chance for adoption if someone could tame him down. The short of it, though, was that the friend of a friend said she wanted to help, but was going on vacation and would let us know when she returned in a couple of weeks. While we waited, we worked with him ourselves. Good thing we did because the friend of a friend finally said she couldn't take him.
Over months of effort, Buffy, who clearly wanted to have a home, worked as hard as we did to learn how to be a domesticated cat. Since Charlie worked with him the most, and since Siamese tend to connect strongly with just one person, Buffy became attached to him.
I fed him and tried to pet him, but for some reason, he didn’t trust me like he did Charlie. He would slap me and if his claws were out, he really nailed me good. I bruise easily anyway and he left some nasty bruises on my hand or wrist. That’s when we decided that if we were going to keep Buffy, we should have him declawed like our other cats. We have found that when declawed, temprament changes. Charlie was hesitant, but he realized that it would make a difference in the taming process and Buffy would be calmer.
Other than slapping me, with other cats, Buffy is one of the least aggressive cats we have ever owned. He creates few problems and avoids confrontation. Unfortunately, when confrontation comes to him, all he knows to do is run. We have a theory about how and why Buffy ended up with us. We think he belonged to a local feral colony, but because of his nature, he was eventually driven off by more aggressive cats, and went in search of a new colony and since our cats are in the yard during the day, he found us.
Everything was going along fine, until the first time Jezibel saw Buffy. Not only was Buffy a new cat in the house, he was horning in on Jezibel's territory -- Charlie. Jezibel had no intention of sharing. Jezibel attacked, and Buffy ran.
The first time it happened Charlie separated Jezibel from Buffy and things went ok for awhile. A couple of days later, she attacked him again, and this time it got serious. Jezibel would not back down, continuing a furious chase and attack. Buffy just wanted to get away, but if truly cornered, he could strike back at Jezibel. Neither have front claws, but Buffy is young and very strong. He could hurt her out of fear.
Charlie separated them again. Jezibel, trying to get at Buffy, bit Charlie’s hand.
Charlie’s hand was swollen the next day after Jezibel bit him. He went to the doctor. They gave him a tetanus shot and penicillin to fight the infection. His hand was so swollen, he couldn’t make a fist. Maybe a good thing for Jezibel! Lol Two of his fingers were so sore he couldn’t use his hand for a few days.
We now monitor the two of them and make sure there is always separation between them so Jezibel can't get at Buffy. Buffy stays on the “catio” and it's off limits to Jezibel.
I'm hoping that over time, with Charlie spending a lot of time with each of them so they don't feel slighted, they might one day be able to pass each other without a fight.
But, if they manage to get at each other again, I know we’ll wade right in. We couldn't bear to see either get hurt.
Stay tuned.......
My middle name is Devil,
Tazzy D =^..^=
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