Mazie Becomes an Only Child and Then We Find the Shadow Cat

You might have noticed in reading back through previous blogs that we were pretty attached to our dog, Camille.  Okay - huge understatement.  We were crazily in love with our dog.  She was a huge part of our lives (mine for 14 years and Dave's for the last 3 years).

Camille told me last month that she was ready to go.  Her eyes just spoke to me that she was tired and anxious and no longer frightened to leave us.  She knew that we were safe and had made sure that we could take care of each other.  My heart broke when I realized that her time to leave had arrived.  My breath is absolutely stolen from my chest at the very realization that she is no longer here in her physical form.

It's taken me a month just to pull myself together enough to actually write the words:  Camille is gone.  We miss her so damn much!  There hasn't been an hour that has passed in which I haven't thought of my darling polka-dotted princess and yearned to have her with me again.  That dog was loved and it is my fondest hope that she knew how much she meant to us and always felt safe and cared for.  I tried to love her as best as my flawed human heart knew how. 

Dillon Beach, CA - Summer 2011

We spent her last week-end pampering her.  We took a drive to the coast.  She had one final romp on the beach, sniffing the sea and feeling the sand on her toes.  The beach was one of her favorite places - she was always happy to be there and had visiting them on every coast of the US - from Cape Cod to the Sonoma Coast.  I hope we gave her a great final adventure.  We had a hospice vet visit us at home on Sunday, January 26, 2014.  Camille passed away snuggled in my arms in her house with no fear and no pain.

In our fog of sadness, we tried hard to remember to keep our hearts open and poured all our love on Mazie.  Poor little girl just couldn't understand why sudenly her humans' faces leaked so much.  I don't think she really appreciated being used as a hanky, but hey - she's very easy to cuddle and sometimes a girl's nose and eyes run just when she needs cuddling the most.  Mazie was lonely too.  Okay - maybe that's just me transferring my feelings onto her.  I was desperately lonely for my pup-pup.

Camille and Mazie enjoy a snuggle - Christmas 2013

Mazie was pretty attached to Camille.  She thought her big sister was kinda smelly, but also loved to curl up under her ear and snuggle.  I think all three of us, human and cat wandered around the house in a daze for quite a few days trying to understand our loss.  Mazie was a great comfort.  Just having her warm little beanie baby body tucked under my chin as I sobbed for what seemed like days on end kept me attached to this world.






Sincer we're huge pet lovers, even before we knew Camille's time was here, Dave and I had talked about rescuing another animal.  About a year ago, we came very close to bringing a rescue beagle home to be a part of our family.  The pets in our life enrich us in so many ways.  We love having them around and we think we're pretty good pet parents.  We had begun, sometime around Thanksgiving, to feed a stray Manx that lived out in the parking lot of our community.  As the weather got colder and more harsh, we telked more and more about trying to catch her and help her find a forever home.

Camille passed in the middle of the hardest winter we here in Charlotte have seen in a long time.  We've had record cold and more snow than anyone recalls.  Even with our hearts broken, we knew we couldn't leave the Manx outside in the harsh elements.  She was very smart and personable - she'd come running for food when she heard me calling outside the front door.  I'd started calling her Bunny or Lupi, because Manx have funny little tail-less bunny butts and longer rear legs so their posture is sort of lapine.

About a week after Camille passed, we were able to borrow a Have a Heart trap to try and get the little bunny butt kitty inside.  We were semi-succesful on our first night.  We caught a kitty.  It was a GIANT black panther who showed no interest whatsoever in being friendly or living indoors.  We were able to safely turn him over to a shelter with their commitment that if he could not be calmed that they would neuter him and release him back into the neighborhood.  We've checked on him since and he's part of a large pet adoption initiative going on now in Charlotte - having calmed enough that the shelter thinks he will find a home.  PHEW!

Two nights later, we bunny butt was in our trap.  We've had her inside for about two weeks now.  She's a shadow cat.  She is not yet willing to trust the aliens who have abducted her, but she's calm and gentle.  There's no snarling or scratching... no painicked runs for the front door.  She's just observing and trying to decide about us.  The consensus was that we could not call her bunny and after some inquiry and input, our godson, Noah, came up with the name Morgan - a nice traditional Old English name for a very old breed from the Isle of Man.

Morgan the Bunny Butt Kitty - AKA Shadow Cat

Today we had her spayed and got her shots.  She's pretty doped up.  Hating the human abductors.  I'm sad sometimes because I know she's scared and we're the cause, but we're hoping she'll come around and decide to tolerate us.

Mazie needs a big sister.  Dave and I need another furry child to love and most of all, Morgan needs a safe and loving home.

Praying for a happy ending to a very sad winter.

And, just because I'm maudlin and can't help myself, here are some of our favorite pix of Camille over the years together.  What great adventures we shared my darling BumbleBee!

Mazie's Holidaze

Wow!  We've been busy with Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Both of our girls are pooped and lounging in their beds in the beams of sunlight coming in the windows on this chilly Boxing Day.  Little fluffy slackers!

When we last left our heroine, The Amazing Mazie, she was all settled into her new home here in Charlotte and learning to work over Mom and Dad with her "sad" face, her "frustrated" face and her "hungry" face.  I'm happy to report that Mazie has us thoroughly trained at this point and is ruling the roost.

So - what's been happening in the world?  Mazie discovered that she likes turkey.  She likes turkey very much, in fact.  She went through a sudden burst of agility the day after we returned from our family road trip to Atlanta for Turkey day and she discovered her mom is a slob when she eats leftovers.  She tumbled her way a good 5' across the floor doing a combination of flips and wobbles and hissed at the dog to chase her away from the scrap (don't worry, Camille got a piece of yummy turkey too).

Oh... and the road trip.  Totally forgot to tell you all about that.  Mazie, Camille, Dave and I piled in the car and headed to Atlanta for Thanksgiving weekend.  We had dinner here with friends and then drove down to Hotlanta for our godson's hockey tournament (which his team won!)  Mazie was a champ in the car and loved meeting her cousin Noah.  We avoided the cats at the Cannon house because they're so big and territorial, but one day, Mazie will be able to play with her big extended furry family.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Mazie has been very busy too.  She helped us throw a fundraiser for Second Helpings Charlotte, a non-profit that benefits women who have been previously incarcerated.  Dave is working there as a consulting chef, helping them to expand their menu and bring some farm to table touches to the place.  The fundraiser went great and the women from Second Helpings all fell in love with Mazie when they came to our place to use the kitchen for the event.  She and Camille were overwhelmed with new admirers.

A week later, we hosted a Christmas party for our friends and family and the little pipsqueak stole the show again.  Pastor Flo and quite a few others fell head over heels for the little munchkin.  Wobbles are adorable, apparently.

Mazie really is doing great!  Dave and I spent a few days away and our pet sitter, Brandi took care of her and Camille.  She did great and we came home to found her bigger and waling just a little bit better.  Christmas day she was wobbling all over the living room, making tracks.  We'd like to think she was excited that mom and dad were home.

As we approach the New Year, we know Mazie will continue to grow and thrive.  She's very loved here and even when we're pretty sure she wants to kill us for making her do her exercises or stand in the "contraption" we also know she feels safe and cared for.  Isn't that what we all want out of life?

Pipsqueak On the Move!

So much activity in the life of this little kitten.  Dave and I are kitty helicopter parents... sigh.

After we last posted on Sunday, both Camille and Mazie went in for check-up with our vet, Dr. Dayton.  At 14+ yrs, Camille is hanging in there and has managed to gain a pound or two, so we're pretty happy about that.  She is a little anemic, so we're adding some liver and other yummy stuff to her diet.  Thank goodness for our friends at East of Eden Farms who are pasture raising beef, chicken and turkey for us humans and using the bits and pieces to make a super high quality raw pet food.  Camille will be eating like a queen (as if she doesn't already).

As for Ms. Mazie, of course the entire staff at the vet's fell in love.  She's a cute little creature.  Her health is excellent.  They checked her tummy, which had been a little bloated, and said it was most likely due to her not getting enough physical activity and eating while laying down.  So, now more kitty exercise!  Dave and I are putting her wet food on the edge of her bowl and helping her to hold her bottom up so she can stand while eating.  She's getting the hang of it and even had a little snack all on her own this morning.  All in all, both our lovely little girls are doing splendidly.

Mazie's mobility is improving day by day.  Evil Dave has found a box!  Most cats, as you know, seem to love to hop into and out of boxes for whatever mysterious kitty reason they have.  Hopping anywhere is not a reality for Mazie (yet), but alas she now has a box.  We are putting her into it a few times a day and letting her find a way out on her own.  The first time we did it, we completely lost it in guilty laughter.   You see, our little champion's victory was short lived.  As soon as she managed to pull herself over the lip of the box and rest her front paws on the ground, the box flipped and turned over on top of her.  Poor kitten - so close only to have victory snatched from her tiny paws by the laws of physics.

She's mastered the box now and just looks pretty annoyed with us when she sees it coming.  One of these days, she's going to figure out how to swat us for what we're putting her through.  We're not being sadistic, we're trying to help her figure out how her body's parts all work together and there's no better way to do that than to put her in situations that she has to puzzle out for herself.

Yesterday, Dave took the girls to VetRec, a pet physical therapy practice which Camille has been visiting for some time to help with her arthritic back-end. Three more adoring fans for the Pipsqueak as she met Dr. Meyer (the rehab vet), Dr. Klein (the acupuncture practitioner) and Jason, the vet tech.  Quite a few ooohs and aaahs later, Mazie has a little exercise routine that we do with her twice a day (she has truly mastered the "stink eye" expression) and a plan to begin some acupuncture on her to see if that gives her a little boost in muscular control.  We've pinged a couple of CH kitty forums to see if anyone has had any luck with acupuncture and haven't gotten any replies. 

The Amazing Mazie continues to progress daily.  There are dozens of tiny milestones that Dave and I ooh and aah over.  She takes a tumble every few steps, has perfected a backwards scooting that typically ends in an epic somersault, and continues to try, try, try.  We are her biggest cheerleaders.  She must wonder what all the fuss is about when she climbs out of the littler box or takes a drink of water on her own, but we want her to have as much positive stimuli as possible.

Thanks goodness we don't have human children.  We'd be terrible helicopter parents.

One Tough Little Pipsqueak

Mazie is totally ticked off at Dave and me right now.  We're getting kitty cold shoulder.

Why, you ask?

Today we adjusted the "contraption" and put her in it for a while.  The contraption is a cool little cart with a sling in it for Mazie.  It helps her to exercise and learn how to walk properly.  She HATES it.  However, she's also beginning to outsmart it, which we think is overall pretty cool.  She's all feisty when we come near her with the sling.  Definitely capable of delivering a major "stink eye" when she's not happy.

We're working on adapting the "contraption" so it's a little less odious to her.  We definitely need to rethink the harness on the sling since she totally Houdinied her way out of it today.

What Strange Hell Is This?

You Cannot Just Leave Me Hanging Here!!

Hah!  I Showed Them... Now To Make a Clean Escape.

First she got irritated














Then she got discombobulated.














Then she solved the problem.

That's our feisty little girl!  We're happy to see her outsmarting things and using her wits.  She was on the move quite a bit today.  Moseying around from the dog bed to her igloo and has climbed out of the littler box twice already.  She's strong and determined.

She's having a nap in her little igloo now.  We're letting her rest up.  This afternoon she meets her new vet and gets a check-up.  Both she and Camille are going in, so we'll have adventures in the car. 

It's another big day in kitty-land, but no challenges that Mazie isn't up for.

Wish us luck at the vet.

Meep!

Mazie Came Home!

Finally!

After a long week of preparation, Mazie is home where she belongs.

Her foster mommies, Diane and Martha, drove her down to Charlotte on Friday.  She was a little tuckered out from a 90 minute car trip, but she settled in pretty easily.  She spent much of the afternoon snuggling her new dog and learning how to wrap her mommy and poppa around her little paw.

Mazie's foster mommies, Martha and Diane, showed us all the little idiosyncrasies.  Mazie presently needs a lot of TLC.  She would be considered severe on the CH scale for now and is in need of help with most motor functions.  She can pull herself around for very short distances, but does not have much strength in her rear legs.  

She needs help getting to and from her litter box.  Eating and drinking can be tricky too since she tends to have a lot of nervous head bobbing when she's trying to feed herself.  Nothing we can't cope with and work with try to teach her to compensate.  So, for now, we are feeding her by hand and giving her water from a syringe a couple of times a day.

With time and patience, Mazie will be doing a whole lot more on her own.  We were thrilled today when she climbed out of her litter box not once, but three times all on her own.  That's a big deal for a kitty who doesn't know where her own butt is.  Here's a short video of Dave helping her to finish her dinner last night.  (There is definitely something magical about this little kitten).

Today she played, she practiced walking in her contraption (a cool cart made by her foster mommy, Martha), she got sat on by a dog and managed to extricate herself.  We were afraid of a smoosh and now it's happened.  Everyone survived.

She really likes the ribbon toy we bought for her and killed it at least seven times today.  She enjoys the bright plastic springs that she had to play with in foster care too.

Must catch ribbon!!!

She seems to have pretty good kitty instincts.  Her vet in Winston-Salem thought she might be blind, but based on her behavior with the ribbon toy and the strings, she's definitely not.  She has great vision and wants to take that ribbon out!  Her hearing seems to be pretty good too.  She looks up when we enter the room and responds to whistles and clicks.

Her appetite is great too.  She's gone through a can and a half of wet kitten food and about a tablespoon of kitty kibble.  She probably burns as many calories as she takes in when she eats the kibble on her own.  We're feeding her the wet food by hand and she really munches out!  Camille likes it too and has begun to learn that if she looks very, very sad that mommy will let her lick the spoon a little too.

Our neighbor, Stephen, came over for pizza tonight.  I'm pretty sure Mazie's fan club grew by one.  She cuddled up right in his lap and gave him her best "I'm cute" face. 

She is pretty darn cute, we have to agree.

So now it's time to tuck Mazie (and ourselves) in for the night.  She's had another big day in kittyland.

Everyone have sweet kitty dreams!

Meep!

The Polka Dotted Princess Meets a Teethanclaws

I was reminded last night that Mazie is not the only miracle in our lives.  Seems Camille has retained an agent who is requesting equal air time.  Since we love all our fur babies equally, it seemed only fair that you meet The Polka Dotted Princess and hear some of her story so that you would understand our little family and the ends we go to for our little fluffy-nutters.

In November of 2000, I was working full-time and going to graduate school to get my MBA.  I had no life, I was completely stressed out.  Perfect time to get a dog, right?  I'd been wanting a dog for a couple of years.  I grew up in a dog family - we always had at least one, so being in a dog-free house just didn't feel right to me.

In typical fashion, I spent hours online (instead of studying) researching breeds and reading listings on Petfinder.  I found an amazing rescue group called Dalmatian Rescue of the Carolinas being run, at the time, by a wonderful woman named Terry Cooper.  Terry was fostering an adorable 4-6 month old male Dalmatian (one of my top three breeds).

At the time, I lived in Atlanta, GA.  So, having contacted Terry and told her a little about my lifestyle and hopes for a dog, we made arrangements for me to have a visit with Jax.  I drove 6 hours up to Greensboro, NC to meet and hopefully bring home my new little puppy.  Boy, did I have another think coming.

When I arrived, Terry greeted me heartily and said "I hope you don't mind, but there's one other dog I want you to meet before you meet Jax.  I think this one might be a better fit for you."  Deferring to the expertise of this woman who was rescuing 40-50 dogs per year seemed perfectly reasonable, so I sat on her sofa and she opened a dog crate in her living room.

What crawled out was the saddest little dog I'd ever seen.  Camille had been horribly neglected and abused.  At 14 mos old she weighed only 32 lbs.  She was emaciated.  She was recovering from infected flea bites and her entire back was bald and scabby.  She had heart worm and was in the throes of a false pregnancy brought on through malnutrition.  Someone had even filed down all her teeth so she just had blunt little stubs.  She was so terrified, that she crawled on her elbows across the room instead of walking.  When she got to me, she gently rested her chin on my knees and looked up at me with big, sad, brown eyes that spoke so clearly to me "please love me".

So, I did.

And I haven't stopped for a second since November 4, 2000 when she became my little princess.  The long drive back to Atlanta (almost 6 hours) with a trembling little dog in my arms left a deep impression on me.  She was desperate to be touched and loved and so scared to be rejected.  I have to confess, I never even saw Jax.  Forgot completely about that little boy when I looked into the face of my dog and knew her.  Sorry, Jax!  I know Terry found you a great home somewhere.

As for my journey with Camille, I believe my exact words to Terry were "okay, let's load up the car."  I knew Cami was my girl.  Terry and I made a trip to the local Petsmart with her and loaded up on all the gear we would need.  Dog food, collar, leashes, bowls, beds, crate, treats, and a very special gift from her foster mommy, Terry.  Camille still wears a lovely velvet "red riding hood" coat on very cold days.  It helps her to stop trembling and reminds me of the amazing woman who helped me find my best friend for life.

Since then, Camille and I have had many great adventures.  She's been a devoted companion on many a long car trip between Atlanta and Boston where we used to go visit every summer.  She's stayed at the Ritz in Washington, DC, flown with me in first class on a flight from SFO to Miami, ridden on a fire truck, been colored with neon (water soluble / non-toxic) highlighters for a fancy artsy dog look.  She's had a great life and has enriched mine in ways I can only begin to describe.

She's traveled from coast to coast, played on beaches in Florida, Georgia, Cape Cod and California, chased squirrels, caught a bird mid-flight, made friends with Boxers, Yorkies, Danes and her favorite German Shepherds.  



She's always been particularly fond of the beach, which is pretty funny because she doesn't like the water.  She logs miles running up and down avoiding the surf.

She learned to bark from Bruno a Great Dane, who then proceeded to confuse her with his teachings because she also started to lift her leg to pee.  

Her biggest crush was Jake.  a retired war dog German Shepherd.  He was a big goofy boy, but Camille LOVED him!  She would launch herself at him every time he was at the park regardless of how pooped or achy she was beginning to feel as she got older.  

Camille has a wardrobe most women I know would envy - with collars and leashes from Paris, Rome, Stockholm, Miami and NYC.  We even splurged at Galleries Layfayette and got her a fancy designer one on one trip.  She's had custom made (thanks to Jumping Mouse Designs) charms for her collar, pedicures (she hated that!) and seldom has slept on less than 500 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets.

She's not just a pretty face. She's worked in a nursing home as a therapy dog too.  She's a certified Canine Good Citizen (AKC) and would spend time at a elder care/memory care residential home in Roswell, GA when we lived there.  Her calm demeanor and gentle nature calmed many of the clients and residents.  She also helped me (supervisory mostly) as I have worked from home over the last ten years or so.

Camille has seen great things and we intend to keep right on spoiling her rotten.  She gives back so much more than she gets.   She's 14 years old now.  She's getting wobbly and now she's being treated for Canine Cognitive Disorder (dementia).

Chapter Two:

Through the years, Camille displayed a fascination with cats.  She wasn't hostile.  She never chased or pestered them like some dogs.  She just watched them.  Intently.  I would find her in the window of my home in Atlanta having staring contests with the neighbor's outdoor cat Luke.  They'd stare for hours, Camille with her whole body quivering with concentration.  It was the same every time we went to a Petsmart or other store that had adoptions for kitties.  She was glued to the windows watching the cats inside.  I came close to getting her a cat several times.  I think she had other plans for me.

In May 2010, I met Dave.  Dave likes kitties.  He had adopted Sierra about 10 months before we met and had always had at least one cat in his household.   I'm pretty sure Camille was behind the entire plot.  She adored Dave from their first meeting.  I became second fiddle player to her new poppa.  I think she pretty much wanted me out of the picture so the two of them could be together, but alas the laws of man and nature would not allow that.  Dave and I moved in together in September 2010.  We were nervous about introducing the "kids".  His brother and sister-in-law had just had a disastrous experience in introducing a little terrier mix into their previously cat centric household and we were worried that there might be similar issues.

We got lucky (again!).  After her initial discomfiture at being jammed in a carrier and driven to a new home ended, Sierra pretty much sized up the dog, told herself "I can take her" and proceeded to ignore Camille thereafter.  Camille, a-quiver with anticipation of finally having a kitty of her own, tried to make friends a few times.  Sierra judiciously displayed fangs and claws with a few hisses thrown in for drama and Camille was convinced that the cat (heretofore forever known to Camille as the "Teethanclaws") was in charge.   The just gave each other space and left each other alone.  Wisely.

Once in a while, we would return to the house and find the two of them sharing a bed.  They always looked slightly chagrined to have been caught providing one another company "don't let the other cats know I snuggled a dog" Sierra would seem to say.   So, Camille finally had her kitty.  And we were all happily ever after, for a while at least.

Our family has changed.  Sierra is on a great adventure we cannot join her on for a while yet.  But Camille likes kitties too now.  We're going to make sure that she always has one to keep her company.  We know she and Mazie will be just fine together.  They already got a good sniff of each other and seemed to be perfectly content in meeting their new sister.

Fingers and paws crossed for a peaceful household.  Our biggest concern now is which one is going to tip over the most on any given day.

Meep!