What is My Cat Thinking? Cat Lovers, You’re Going to Love this Book!

I absolutely love What Is My Cat Thinking?: The Essential Guide to Understanding Pet Behavior, by Gwen Bailey. As the mother of (currently) six cats (and countless cats in the past and future), I can tell you this: Gwen Bailey knows her kitties!

The photography in this wonderful book is gorgeous and the information is priceless. There’s a great deal of humor because, face it, cat’s are – by nature – hilarious little creatures.

Even if you’re as close to and familiar with cats as I am, I guarantee you’ll learn something from this book. It’s chock-full of fascinating insight and explanations for many of the mysteries surrounding the way our cats think and behave. While they revel in being mysterious and quirky, Gwen Bailey lets us in on a few of their secret thoughts and feelings.

It’s just an outstanding book that I turn to again and again.

Below are a few of the excellent and informative Did You Know’s from the pages of What Is My Cat Thinking?

• A cat that has been to the vet may come back smelling very different and may be treated like a stranger by other cats that once lived in harmony with him.  Separating them and swapping their scents with a cloth may help.
• Adult cats are more likely to adjust to a new kitten than to a new adult cat that is introduced into the household.
• By sniffing a male cat’s urine, female cats can tell whether or not he is a suitable mate.  They are able to detect by-products of his food, which tell them how much fresh meat he has eaten, and hence, how good a hunter he is.  This helps determine how suitable he would be as a father for her kittens (Ming Li, apparently never found a scent she didn’t approve of!).
• The amount of socialization a kitten has with people while he is between two and seven weeks old will determine how well he will interact with people later in life.  Good experiences in early life will produce a friendly, outgoing cat.

The last Did You Know is one that I certainly can attest to.    The friendliest, most outgoing cats we’ve ever had were ones that we had from very, very early on. Alexa and Bo, for example, were born to our beloved Carly – we were there when they were born and every day thereafter.  This produced very friendly, outgoing, and spoiled babies!

We got our precious Prissy when she was only about 6 or 7 weeks old.  She was babied and pampered from the time she was tiny enough to fit in one hand to the day, over 20 years later, when we lost her.  On each of those many, many, many days, Prissy was one of the sweetest, friendliest, most sociable cats I’ve ever loved.  She’d greet strangers at the door, sit in any available lap and insist on being in the middle of everything.

Needless to say, I still miss that little girl something fierce but feel incredibly blessed to have had her in our family for so long.

I’m also incredibly blessed to have the beautiful little babies we have now.  Alexa and Hannah are extremely outgoing and friendly.  Alexa is my constant companion – always within reach for chin scratching, head rubbing, and belly tickling (and what a belly it is!).

Jelly Bean – although he was born to our feral cat Ming Li – is coming around.  I can pet him easily now.  I don’t push things and always allow him to call the shots.  He’s a large beautiful, solid black cat with gorgeous big green eyes.  He feels like absolute silk and the fact that he allows me to rub him now just makes me smile head to toe.

Tristan, Gabriel, Bullet, and Scratch (also Ming Li’s) weren’t around us at all in the first month of their lives.  Ming Li brought them into our yard (and garage!) when they were past 7 weeks old.  They remain very much feral cats but I honestly believe I’m winning one of them (Scratch) over.  Tristan, the only girl, is a very tiny black cat and I don’t think I have any hope of ever petting her.

Bullet shows promise, but not quite as much as Scratch.  Feral cats are so frustrating to people who love cats as much as I do!

Jelly Bean honestly is a reformed feral cat – he sticks close to the house and is becoming downright sociable.  I have a large basket with a blue baby blanket in it for him on a shelf on our carport.  It’s his bed of choice and he can be found in it 85 percent of the time. He even lets me pet him and baby talk him in his bed, something I wouldn’t have ever thought possible a few months ago.

Click the link to learn more about What Is My Cat Thinking?: The Essential Guide to Understanding Pet Behavior, by Gwen Bailey and to order a copy for you and your cat(s)!

Our Growing Family of Felines!

A few days ago I happened to be outside walking around our yard, enjoying the gorgeous weather. It won’t be long before the trees are leafless and covered with frost and the grass will suddenly crunch beneath my feet. That’s fine, of course, I absolutely love winter – there’s something positively cozy about it.

I walked toward our pear tree and noticed, from a distance, all the fallen pears on the ground. They weren’t exactly attractive lying there, half exposed, and rotting. But as I got closer I realized that there was, indeed, a great deal of beauty. There were, literally, hundreds of the most beautiful butterflies imaginable feasting on the fallen fruit. There were yellow, white, orange, red, purple, and pinkish butterflies. I plopped down on the ground just to watch their colorful show.

I kicked myself for not having my camera on me.

As I was watching the butterflies enjoying their find, I couldn’t help but think about the poetic scene. Here was a pile of nastiness on the ground – not one of the fallen pears looked even decent, let alone attractive. Yet, some of the most beautiful creatures on earth – delicate little butterflies – came to the scene and enjoyed the spoils.

That’s how it happens so often in life. Just when we think we’re hovering over a situation that couldn’t get much uglier, something beautiful springs forth.

To a certain degree, that’s what happened when I lost Bo and Svenn. I sat outside so many mornings, afternoons, and evenings – missing my boys. The yard (and my life) were missing something and I felt it in every inch of my body. Anyone who has lost a beloved pet knows the profound sadness that I’m talking about.

God certainly did. And God is generous!

Flash forward to today. When I go outside, there is absolutely no emptiness or sadness – whether it’s in the morning, afternoon, evening, or middle of the night! (People who have visited this blog before know that my beautiful, spoiled little Alexa lives inside – which is why all of the other babies must live outdoors, on the carport and in the garage loft)

When any of us go outside now, we’re once again greeted by precious cats:

• Ming Li – A feral cat who has become extremely friendly – she allows me to pet her now and rubs against me.  I’ll add pictures of her soon, I don’t think the camera will frighten her now.  She is very tiny and, of course, perfectly adorable!
• Hannah – Beautiful Hannah is a sweetheart.  She’s the girl in charge out there.  All of the other cats defer to her and she relishes the arrangement.
• Cynthia aka”Cindy Clawford” -  She’s a beauty.  She came along about a week or two ago.  She reminds me a great deal of Prissy, in her younger days.  Very pretty, very friendly, and never met a bite of food she didn’t want desperately.  When they’re eating, Cynthia will hiss at the other cats if they come near food that she’s interested in.  Ming Li and the boy cats will back off, but Hannah ignores her.  Hannah slapped toward Cynthia once and she hasn’t hissed in her direction since.
• Jelly Bean -  Jelly Bean is solid, solid, solid black, precious, and very playful.  I can only touch him if he’s in the middle of eating or distracted.  His shiny black fur feels just like silk. He is one of Ming Li’s kittens, so he has pure feral cat blood in him.  Hopefully, with patience, I can win him over like I did Ming Li.
• Peanut Butter – PB is Jelly Bean’s brother and is even more standoffish than him.  Even Ming Li was never as overly cautious as PB is.  He’s adorable but seems as interested in being touched as I would be in drowning.  I’m not giving up, though!  I’ll win him over.

Cats are so precious and so much fun. I’ve always had cats in my world and I’ve always cherished them.  However, lately I think I may cherish them even more so.   I have three human daughters.   I was always a stay-at-home mom and even homeschooled our girls all the way through school – Kindergarten through 12th grade.  They’re in college now, have boyfriends, work, and so on.  For any parent, it’s a huge adjustment – but for one who, for over 20 years had little ones near her, depending on her every single day – it’s an adjustment that I can’t even begin to describe.

Put simply, my cats keep me sane!

Our Handsome Feral Kitten, Jelly Bean

One of Ming Li’s kittens, Jelly Bean, has become a member of the family.  Since his mom (Ming Li) and dad (Jet Li) were both feral, he’s very, very cautious of humans – including this cat-obsessed human even.  However, unlike his two siblings (nameless until I determine their sexes), he comes close enough to touch.

He lives in the garage with Hannah and she has sort of assumed a motherly role with him.  Ming Li came through about a week ago and was majorly pregnant.  I haven’t seen her for a few days, but I have a feeling that when she shows up again, she’ll be her slender self again.  Jelly Bean went running up to her, glad to see his cat mommy – but she hissed at him and stopped him in his tracks.  He ran back to Hannah’s side.

Can’t say I blame him!

A few nights ago, I took out a couple of Alexa’s toys to entertain Hannah and Jelly Bean.   Hannah is hilarious when she plays.  She’ll sit really still, acting like she’s only half-interested in the ball, feather cat toy, catnip mouse (whatever).  As I rub her head, she seems only interested in that – nothing else in the world seems to matter.  Then, all of a sudden, she’ll prance on the toy and give it heck.

Then…. back to the head rubs.

The first time Jelly Bean saw a toy ball, he looked so adorable sweet it brought tears to my eyes.  He hunkered down, sort of unsure of what he’d do next, then he threw caution out the window and joyously pounced on the ball.  Then he swatted it in my direction.  When I rolled it back to him, he swatted it back again.

Even wild, feral babies enjoy a good game of pitch and catch.

His siblings – who are both beautiful with dark gray fur and black stripes – always watch the playing but never approach a toy until I’ve gone back inside.   When it comes to cats, patience is my middle name, so I’ll win them over.  Funny thing is, these two are going to be really hard to tell apart.  One was a lot smaller, but it has caught up with the other one.   Jelly Bean is totally and completley black – even the bottoms of his paws are black.  He doesn’t have any white or gray on him whatsoever.

When I lost Bo and Svenn, the outdoors (which I’d always loved with a passion) just seemed sad and empty to me.  I can’t tell you what a blessing it is to have Hannah, Jelly Bean, Ming Li (when she shows), and ???? and ??????.  It’s as though God knew how empty my yard felt to me and filled it with something that means the world to me – precious, beautiful, wonderful cats!

**** I’ll add pictures of the kittens as soon as possible – I also have new pics of Alexa and Hannah to add.