Holiday Magic

Bob is the weirdest cat I have ever lived with, probably because he is the only cat who actually behaves like a cat. He is extremely aloof and very picky about who he considers a friend. He does not like many of my friends and he refuses to allow his first human to invade his space. He has insisted Marley maintain a 3" separation between them at all times.

Dogs are totally smelly!

I totally wanted them to become friends and cuddle together, like Marley and Mahone used to cuddle. Bob totally refused...until this week!

This dog is such a pain but kind of warm!

It took freezing temperatures to coax Bob into sharing my lap.

Grief

I expected to be devastated by letting Mahone go; however I was totally taken aback by Bob and Marley's grief. Bob has been cuddly and refused to be more than 4 feet away from me at any time; normally he is very aloof and while very curious he does not feel the need to interact with me regularly. He has also become very vocal, meowing and chirping as he follows me around.

Marley seemed to realize Mahone was missing at dinner time. She was looking around for Mahone when I called her to dinner. She ran into her crate and stared at Mahone's food bowl spot. She lightly whined and refused her dinner and breakfast. On our walk she didn't spend much time sniffing and she kept a close eye on me. I tried to entice her to play and she refused, she just looked away and sighed.

This is my favorite picture of my two troublemakers.
They spent a great deal of time sleeping together and following each other around.

It seems very easy to find books that refer to human grief at the loss of a pet; however, I have not found anything that addresses the grief other pets feel at the loss of a friend. I've totally been taken aback by the level of distress they seem to be feeling. I'm sure many people will say they are reacting to my grief; however, I think they actually notice Mahone is missing and they are grieving. I'm not sure what I can do to make them feel better.

Goodbye Mahone

For the last 18 years Mahone has taken great care of me, he ensured my feet were never cold, he saved me from having to eat any peas and he was always ready to listen. I first met him when he was a few days old and his head was twice the size of his body. He came to live with me when he was six months old and the first thing he did was bite me and proceed to fight with the other cats in the household.

Mahone had a lot of wonderful traits, however he was just never very bright. It took him a year to figure out I had a purpose besides giving him baths. It took him another year to realize he liked to be cuddled and laps were fun places to hang out. He was always very accepting of any other pets I brought home, especially my blue betta.

Mahone assigned himself a few jobs that I enjoyed such as foot warmer and pea eater; however, he was also an official boyfriend picker. I'm not sure when he assigned himself this job but it was most annoying, basically if he didn't think a boy was worthy of my attention he began to mark (yep, pee on stuff that didn't belong to him) the boys possessions. Given a choice between cleaning up cat urine or fining a new boyfriend...well Mahone always won.

He had excellent recall skills and had I discovered clicker training earlier, I'm sure Mahone would have had quite a few tricks up his paw. He used to play fetch until he became 5 years old and the thought it was dumb game. He had the loudest purr I have ever heard, he would sit in my lap and people could hear him purr over the phone.

Mahone was not particularly athletic, he prefered finding the best nap spots. I always thought "had he been a person" he would have been the high school jock, who scored 5 touchdowns in a single game and now lived for his tv and beer while reminiscing about the good old high school days.

We loved Mahone and he is greatly missed.

Cat Protector

Mahone has had some really good days recently. I've started to feed him canned food twice a day instead of only in the evening. He is actually feeling a bit feisty, I caught him playing with Bob. Mahone was sitting on a stool and reached down and batted at Bob. Bob responded by crouching down and batting a Mahone. I was so surprised I stopped everything to watch and make sure Bob didn't accidentally injure Mahone.

The play continued for a few minutes and then Mahone jumped off the stool and they started wrestling. Bob quickly got Mahone in a head lock and at that moment I saw a black streak run between the cats turn around and body slam Bob. Bob jumped up and took off running with Marley and Mahone in hot pursuit.

I was totally caught off guard, I didn't realize Marley would feel protective towards Mahone.

Old Cat Mahone

I've spent the last couple of months worried about Mahone. He is doing well for an 18 year old cat, however his body has started to deteriorate.

He has started to sleep more than usual. At times he seems disoriented and he seems to be losing his hearing. He has gone from a robust 20 lbs to about 12 lbs. He is having a difficult time grooming parts of his coat. He has also become extremely clingy; he constantly wants to be in my lap.

I'm having a difficult time knowing he might not make it to the end of the year. I've started to feed him wet food (which he loves but never ate on a regular basis), he gets brushed every evening and I've spent more time doing nothing but cuddling my senior cat.

I simply can not imagine my life with out him. Marley is incredibly gentle around Mahone and spends a lot of time cuddling with him.

I may continue to post sporadically in order to spend more time with Mahone.

Thanksgiving

I hope everybody had a great thanksgiving. I am thankful Mahone, Bob and Marley are in good health.

Mahone is thankful for a warm afgan and a warm, cuddly friend.

Marley is thankful cats make great pillows.

Snuggle

Every time I mention I have a dog and two cats everybody wants to know how they get along. To be totally honest, the question focuses on how do the cats tolerate Marley. I'm not sure they believe me when I tell them Marley loves Mahone. Marley is always very gentle around Mahone and grooms him all the time. Mahone tolerates it, I think he pretends Marley is a weird looking/acting kitten.

For the last 17 years Mahone has had 2 jobs; entertainment and foot warmer. I think he has taken Marley under his paw and is doing some on the job training.

"First you curl up around the foot, once you are comfy you can take a nap"