I hang out regularly at the About Cats Forum, and have for quite a few years. Often when I travel, I try to find out if there’s anyone from the forum where I’m going, and if they are, we often try to hook up. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn’t.
I was in Denver a few months ago, and met with a couple of different members. Sadly, I was only able to meet the cats of one member, but I had a great time with them both! It’s really great to be able to meet people you’ve only “talked” to online in RL (real life).
Here’s one of the Denver kitties I met. Her name is Scout (the other cat is Atticus — how I love those names! I love “To Kill a Mockingbird”, one of my favorite books growing up, but then I have a lot of favorite books.
Scout, as you can see, is an all white cat. Many all white cats (especially blue-eyed or those with eyes of different colors) are deaf, as is Scout. And I learned some very interesting things about deaf cats while visiting with her.
For instance, I was told she loves kids. Because she can always feel them coming, since they have a tendency to run & stomp around. In addition, she loves thunderstorms. She loves the lightning, and of course can’t hear (but can feel) the thunder.
Now, luckily my cats don’t mind thunderstorms. Giz will get scared if he gets caught outside in one, but if he’s inside, he’s okay. Chester’s fine with them too. Lola, unfortunately, is afraid of them, and that fear seems to be worsening.
While the above photo didn’t really show off Scout well, I thought it was kind of a cool photo. And the last Scout story? Scout’s mom looked after her neighbor’s elderly dog, who was mostly blind, for a little while. Scout couldn’t stand the fact that the dog didn’t respect her place as queen of all the food in the house. When the dog would go to eat, Scout would puff up — only the dog, being blind, couldn’t see it, and walked right by, while Scout watched in bewilderment. Didn’t the dog know that Scout was a ferocious lion?
Here’s a photo of both Scout & Atticus together. When they were kittens, apparently, they got along famously. However, Atticus, apparently, had been intent on stalking Scout now that they’re older. Unfortuantely, it’s gotten to the point where their mom is considering rehoming Atticus.
I can definitely feel for her. The boys got along famosly as kittens, too. Around the age of two, though, Simba began to stalk and attack Gizmo. Luckily, despite being skittish, Gizmo always comes back for more. He adores his big brother, and his main aim in life is to cuddle up with Simba.
While Simba still attacks Gizmo occasionally, there’s a lot more cuddling these days. I saw a big change again around age six.
Sadly, Gizmo does not like the dogs, and the dogs don’t like Gizmo. And worse, Gizmo will run when threatened, which of course only entices the dogs to chase. We are working very, very hard on “leave it”. Mostly they tolerate each other. Mostly I can get them to stop chasing him immediately. But I’m not sure I trust them all together for any length of time. Simba’s not a problem; they like Simba.
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