Wordless Wednesday

Fun, fun, fun!

It is always great to have a playful pet. Growing up, my pets weren't too in to toys. Cassie liked catnip and string and that was about it. She really just liked to sleep. Titan really only ever played with an old rope toy and, for one summer, an old Pringle can. Honestly, this was probably because by the time I realized we had pets, they were both old. My parents had Titan a year before I was born and they found Cassie when I was two.

But this generation of pets is playful as can be. Woody has lost a bit of it and I think that's partly because I'm not home anymore to play with him. I've been told that he's a completely different dog when I come to visit. Cherry is just as crazy at 8 years old as she was at 7 months old. And Piper is still only around 2, so she's pretty playful.

So what are their favorite toys and games?

Woody

Woody has always loved stuffed squeaky toys. He can't get enough of them. If we're in a store and someone squeaks one, he is entranced. For a long time he thought any stuffed animal was his, but I think he's figured it out now and he's never ripped up any that he wasn't allowed to. He just walks around with them and nibbles on them. 

His favorite is probably a little stuffed octopus that I got from Petsmart. This is almost always the toy he brings me when I visit. He will dig through his toy basket to find it. 

He also loves giant stuffed animals and pillows. I guess there's just something about playing with a toy bigger than you...

(This video is a few years old and this toy has since been retired)

He is also very fascinated by tennis balls, but will not fetch one. He liked to jump with them while they bounce. Blankets are also a favorite of his. 

Cherry

Cherry definitely has a few favorites, but ultimately will play with anything. She is always looking for some trouble. Feather toys were her first love. She has gone through so many of them and it's been awhile since I've gotten her a new one to play with. She shreds them too quickly for them to be worth the money.

She also has one of these that she used to be obsessed with. My parents' nicknamed her "thunder kitty" because she would play with it in the room above theirs. She still has it and occasionally plays with it, but not like she used to. 

Her current favorites are her laser pointer, toy mice, my kitchen rug, string, and anything else that looks fun (scraps of paper, plastic wraps, candy wrappers, twist ties, etc.). She is very much a collector of random items and I used to wake up to all sorts of pieces of things in my bed.

 

She also loves my laptop. She used to play games on my iPad, but I don't have that anymore. Sometimes I let her play games on my laptop, but usually she just watches what I'm doing. We watch Netflix together sometimes.

And as you'd expect from a rocket kitty, she loves running around. Her favorite game is "tag". She loves me to chase her and then she chases me back. 

Piper

Piper seems to still be finding her favorites. So far, we are sure her favorite is these catnip mice. I had them for a few years before we got her and she just loved them from the start. I was actually surprised they still had any catnip smell left. I did recently buy her a new pack of them when I thought we had lost them all and I found out my work sells them. I'm considering stocking up on them. A few weeks ago, I watched her dig through the toy basket and pull them all out. And that's quite a lot of toys to go through. 

She's recently discovered playing with the kitchen rug as well. She isn't as into it as Cherry is though. I am very glad that rug is just an old one I found in a closet and not something I spent any money on. 

One thing that does keep them both very entertained is a popup hamper we have. They love sleeping in it, chewing on it, and ambushing each-other (and us) from it. 

Wordless Wednesday

Siblings are Tough

Piper and Cherry did not get along well at first. We always assumed Cherry would be fine with another cat because she's sweet as can be, loves to play, and was with lots of other cats at the shelter. She disagreed.

We brought Piper home and put her in a separate room. I had done so much reading on introducing two cats so I thought it would go smoothly. What the books don't tell you is that it is a long and rough process. There were many times I thought we had made a mistake and I was so worried about Cherry. The first few meetings went terribly. Piper just wanted to attack and Cherry did not want anything to do with her.

We ended up having to quarantine Piper for two weeks due to some medical issues. Her lymph nodes were swollen and we weren't sure what was causing it. The vet suggested we wait two weeks and bring her back. She was also concerned because Piper's paperwork had nothing about a FIV test (she had one but the shelter didn't give me all her paperwork). Turns out nothing was really wrong with Piper and we now just believe it was allergies. We switched her food and she's fine.

So, we took things slower with the girls. We would separate them with a screen and eventually let them hang out together. It was a slow start, but then all of a sudden they were fine with each other. They still aren't great friends, but they play and tolerate each other. Some days we get really cute pictures:

Those are my legs in between them

And other days we get this:

Piper flattened the hamper on Cherry. She was able to back out of it pretty quickly. This is now Piper's favorite thing to do when Cherry is in the hamper. What a devil.

Wordless Wednesday

Welcome!

Our previous blog was https://rocket-kitty.blogspot.com/, but due to the changes to Photobucket and just general life changes, I decided to start fresh. Let me start by introducing everyone!

Cherry

Age: 8 

Favorite Food: Chips

Favorite Toy: Laser pointer

The original Rocket Kitty. I adopted Cherry on January 17, 2011 (I dragged my poor dad to the shelter on his birthday to adopt this monster he pretends to hate). She was 7 months old at the time. I had just lost my first cat on January 3rd and Cherry was a big part of my recovery from that. I couldn't sleep at night without my cat beside me and she helped to fill that void. And she was definitely a lot nicer than my previous cat! 

Cherry is very curious, but also very shy. She's really only herself with me and a few select people. Many people I have over never even see her, but then there are some random people that she just decides she will befriend. It always surprises me who she chooses. 

She is such a sweet girl, but also made of pure mischief. She is always finding something to do, whether it be chasing bugs around the apartment, batting coins all around, or wrestling with my rugs. She may be considered a senior at almost 8 years old, but she definitely still acts like a kitten! We're just glad she outgrew some of her old habits (like stealing paperwork and dunking scraps of fabric in the toilet/dog's water and leaving them on the floor for you to step on). 

I truly believe she came into my life for a reason. She and I have such a special bond. 

Piper

Age: 8 

Favorite Food: All 

Favorite Toy: Catnip mice

The newest addition to our little family. My boyfriend and I adopted Piper on September 11th, 2017. She's around 2 1/2 years old. She was found in the middle of giving birth to kittens and was brought to a local rescue. I've been told she was an excellent mother to her three babies (who were all adopted before she was). 

It's kind of funny that we ended up with a second cat. I've always wanted multiple cats. I've loved them since I was little. But my parents never let me have a second one. When I moved out, I asked my boyfriend about it. He said no since he was allergic, our place is tiny, and it just wasn't realistic at the time. As he started to set up more fish tanks, I made a deal with him that if I could get a second cat, he could have two more fish tanks (we will get to the fish obsession in a bit). I figured it would never happen and that I had easily managed our fish tank situation. Yeah, no. Occasionally I like to torture myself by looking at animals for adoption. He looked at what I was doing and said, "I wouldn't really mind a second cat." Fast forward maybe three days and we were meeting Piper. We had no intention of adopting a cat that soon. We really just wanted to meet with some and see how his allergies would do (he got used to Cherry pretty quickly when she moved in). We ended up falling in love with her and filled out the adoption form. A few days later she came home with us. 

Piper is definitely a little spitfire. She is wild and outgoing, the complete opposite of Cherry. I always called Cherry my little monster, but Piper definitely embodies it. She's loud and pushy, but so loving. She constantly yells for attention, food, or both. No food is safe around her. She once ate a blueberry muffin (through the plastic!) that I had on the counter. I never thought I'd have to hide those from the cats! When she isn't hanging around the kitchen looking for scraps, she's usually hanging out in the cat tree watching the world outside. I wish so badly that I had the space to make the girls an outdoor enclosure. Someday....

Woody

Age: 9

Favorite Food: Food

Favorite Toy: Stuffed octopus

Woody doesn't live with us (yet). Our apartment doesn't allow dogs, so he lives with my parents. I see him weekly and we try to take him as often as we can on adventures. He was adopted in August of 2010. We aren't sure of his age, but we believe he was under a year old at the time making him about 8 or 9 now. He's a Brittany mix and so full of spunk. He's a bit odd looking at time since his coat is weird. He really shouldn't be fluffy, so we get him shaved in the summer. He actually loves it since his fluff catches on everything. He's always so happy after a visit to the groomer. I took him a few weeks ago and when I brought him home he ran around playing for an hour (much more than he has been lately). It was also great timing because a few days later it was nearly 90 degrees and we went hiking!

Woody is an interesting dog. He has a lot of issues with people and other dogs. He used to do well with other dogs, but our neighbor's dog has attacked him a few too many times. He doesn't go after other dogs, but he definitely prefers his space. As for people, he is very picky. He bonded with me and my dad almost instantly when we brought him home, but still is afraid of my brother (who has never done anything to harm him). He is so sweet and I wish he was able to show that to others. He is truly special to me and I believe I am special to him (I must be by how attached he is to me). 

It's been rough for him being without me for so long. Before I moved (in November 2016), I was living in a dorm and was rarely home. Cherry lived with my parents at the time and seemed to have a falling out with Woody over the fact that I was gone. While they've never been the best of friends, Cherry was never afraid of him. She used to bat at him when he was sleeping so he would get up and chase her. She loved teasing him and sitting just out of reach. Things are better with them now. Cherry has lived with me since January 2018 and was back with my parents for a week in March and her and Woody were back to how they used to be. 

Piper has met Woody once. She teased him the whole time as well. 

Cassie (RIP)

Cassie was the first cat I had and I figured I should introduce her. Here was what I wrote about her on our previous blog:

"We had Cassie since I was two. She was found on the side of the road as a kitten. My parents were driving to a country club at the time and saw a bunch of kittens playing in the road, but they couldn't stop and get them. On the way home, they were still there, so my parents drove home and then came back for the kittens. The others hid in a drainage pipe and my dad was only able to grab Cassie. I guess we're kind of lucky he only could catch her, otherwise we would have never had a cat. If they had rescued more than one, they would have all been brought to a shelter, but my mom wanted to keep Cassie. 

I'll admit it, Cassie was a bit of a bitch. She chose me as her person, so she was as mean to me. Actually, that's a lie. She probably attacked me the most, but we had a bond. She was my best friend. She was my protector. I remember one morning, someone came to wake me up and Cassie was on the outside edge of the bed where the person came to wake me up. I ended up being woken up by Cassie hissing at them. It was actually kind of funny. Nice to know she would have protected me if needed. 

Now fast forward to October 2010. I had a feeling something was wrong with Cassie, but had no way of justifying a trip to the vet. If it was up to me, she would have been there ASAP, but it was up to my parents. 

Cassie was always fat looking(I'll get to that in a bit), but I was starting to notice that if you looked at her back end while she was standing, you could see her bones while her stomach hung to the ground. 

Then finally in December, we got her to the vet. She wasn't eating and that wasn't normal at all for her. She loved food, but I couldn't get her to eat anything. We got her to the vet and he said he felt something weird in her abdomen, so they needed to take an x-ray. Long story short, she had a huge mass and we were given a choice. They said they could operate(with a 50/50 chance of survival) and see what could be done, we could give her antibiotics to see if that helped at all, we could let her live until she died, or we could put her to sleep. We chose the operation and we were sent home with antibiotics for her for the few days before the operation. 

That weekend, I had gotten a new camera so I spent the whole weekend taking pictures of her. I think I took over 300 of her...

The night before her operation, she couldn't eat or drink so I put her in the dog's crate so she couldn't get into anything. I was taking no chances of her getting into anything. That night, I slept on the floor beside the crate. A few times during the night, I could feel her pawing at me. I knew she wasn't happy about being in there, but I wasn't going to take the risk. 

I skipped school the next day. I think my parents understood how much she meant to me and deep down, they probably knew she wouldn't live. 

Anyway, we dropped her off at the vet's that morning. I told myself I'd ask to stay with her until she was asleep, but I just couldn't. I walked in there, handed her over and just ran out crying. I feel horrible about it now. I owed it to her to be with her. I should have been the last thing she saw. Instead, my last image of her was her terrified face watching me as I ran out. 

She ended up being put to sleep during the operation. There was nothing they could do about the tumor. It was already in three organs and she would have died a few weeks later. I don't think I'd ever been so upset. We had lost a dog a few years before, but we didn't share the same bond as I did with Cassie. She was my baby girl. 

And I still love her with all of my heart. Never will I forget her."

Titan (RIP)

Titan was the first dog I had. My parents adopted him a year before my brother and I were born. He was a Brittany spaniel and truly embodied the craziest of one. He died in I believe March of 2010. He had a form of vertigo common in old dogs. He recovered from it once, but the when it came back we decided he didn't need to suffer through it again. He was deaf and probably going blind and being sick made him so weak that he could barely stand up. He was the first pet I had that was put down. He was a good dog, but he was always my mom's dog so I don't have a lot to say about him.

And finally...THE FISH

I mentioned how we have an insane amount of fish. We currently have 7 fish tanks set up. Here's the breakdown of them all:

92 gallon corner tank: Tropical fish

55 gallon: Axolotl tank

29 gallon #1: African clawed frog tank

29 gallon #2: Guppy tank

15 gallon hexagon: Betta and tropical fish tank

10 gallon #1: Shrimp tank

10 gallon #2: Temporary crab tank/potential quarantine

I will most likely do a post about the fish some other time. They are mainly my boyfriend's and I don't have a ton of interest in them anymore.

But I will introduce a few of the critters:

Axolotl Rose - melanoid male axolotl

Speckles - leucistic male axolotl

Nebula - wild type female axolotl

Sylvester - larger albino African clawed frog

Iggy - smaller albino African clawed frog

Cotton Candy - male betta

Noodle - rope fish

Schnozz Berry - peacock eel

Now some context...

So now everyone has been introduced, but where do they all fit in? Right now, I live with my boyfriend in a small city apartment. Cherry, Piper, and all the fish live with us. Woody lives back home with my parents. I'm hoping to take him once we have a house, but I'm not sure if my parents will let me have him. At least then he can visit and spend nights. 

And a little about me:

I'm a 21 year old environmental science student. I have an associate's in natural resources and, well, school has been rough for me. I've done school non-traditionally for years now and I'm sure there will be some mention of that at later dates. My current ambition is to be a science teacher. 

So, stick around for cute stories and pictures! These guys are always up to something!