Mary, queen of cats » psychology

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Nikki — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:55:22 +0000

So we took Mary to the vet to have her lump checked out. But somehow, the day after the previous post and three days after the appearance of said lump, it mysteriously disappeared. The lack of the lump was discovered just before we went to the vet. We took her anyway, just in case. The vet declared her as fit as a fiddle and fortunately Mary wasn’t too upset. The worst part was a thermometer up the bum which yielded a look that was a mixture between extreme embarrassment and anger. But once the offensive object was removed, she was just fine.

One remark I would like to make though – the day before we took her to the vet she scratched the area of the lump furiously which makes me believe that perhaps it was a ganglion. But who knows. This is Mary.

Since we came from the vet though, she has been acting strangely. Mary is not a very playful cat and only my husband ever seems able to get her in the mood. But lately, you look at her or move in her direction and she hops like Tigger from Winnie the Pooh and bobs her head back and forth like one of those cheap head bobbing dolls people tend to put on the dashboards of their cars. And then she would just attack the carpet. Last night it looked like she was trying to bite my husband’s pants.

Who knows where this behaviour comes from. As I said, this is Mary and there is a very good reason her name is what it is.

Collarless

Nikki — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:45:13 +0000

I am absolutely besotted with Mary. It is winter time and her fur is bountiful, thick and soft. And when we are not participating in our cold war, she is loving and just magnificent to cuddle. The cold war happens when for no reason whatsoever I have fallen out of favour and my partner is just the bees knees while I am nothing more than gum under a shoe.

We were going through a good patch, with plenty of love and purrs and cuddles, but I don’t know how popular I will be after her being locked up inside last night. It doesn’t matter that the decision to lock her up was made by my partner *and* I. Someone has to be blamed and it will most likely be me.
We had a very good reason to lock her up inside. Mary lost two collars (with tags) in three days. I don’t know how, or where, but I do know that she ain’t going nowhere without visible identification.

I went and bought two new collars with two new tags so we will have to wait and see whether these last. Watch this space!

One Wild Guess What This Is About

Nikki — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:15:14 +0000

Take one wild guess what this post is about. The winning answer of course is another trip to the vet.

Christmas day, Mary’s new human friend, The Neighbour knocked on our door informing us that Mary had a wound on her shoulder blade and it was bloody.
We have been dealing with this particular wound for quite a while. We have no idea how she got it. It looks like a graze of some sort. It is not a tear and it is not deep enough for stitched. And we couldn’t put on a Victorian Collar because the wound falls outside the area of the collar. Mary kept on scratching and scratching and it would heal and then just be bloody after she was done with it. We were stumped.

Being Christmas, the vet was closed and we had to wait until the 27th of December for the vet to open. The solution of course was something I never thought of – wrapping the back paw she does the scratching with. As per usual, Mary was really not happy.

Sometime in January the scab of the wound came off. I took off the bandages around her back paw thinking everything was finally over. I was sadly mistaken. The day after I removed the bandage, the bloody wound was back. So back on the bandages went. It has now almost been a month and the wound is almost healed. Mary in the meantime, has figured out the most impossible ways to remove the bandages, meaning we have to rebandage her foot every second day or so.

She also uses the bandage to her full advantage. When meowing in the morning to wake us up for food does not work, she loudly sits and picks the bandage with her teeth. She bites and pulls (hard) and then releases it with a loud snap of the teeth. That get us up in a flash.

The Wound

Back from the vet, the wound clearly visible

The bandaged paw

I wonder what she is trying to say?

Nikki — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:31:51 +0000

Here we go again. This time, I had my shoes included.

The vet said Mary has allergies that causes her to self mutilate. Fabulous.

At War

Nikki — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 16:36:58 +0000

Mary and I are having a petty little war. Every day this week (since being at the vet on Sunday), when we get home from work, we find our cupboard in this state:

Please note that it is only my clothes that are being ripped out of the cupboard. Not my partner’s, but mine only. All my nicely ironed clothes, crumpled and on the floor.

My revenge? Every time she annoys me while I am at home (specifically when she whinges and whines for no good reason), I give her a squirt with a syringe full of water. I started that this morning, and got her a pot shot in the middle of her forehead! She was really not pleased. But it seems the message got through – we came home today and there was only one item on the floor!

And before anyone jumps down my throat for animal abuse, chill. We used to discipline Mary that way. It is completely painless and harmless. It is just very undignified and annoying. She does something we don’t like, we do something she does not like. She learned very quickly where her boundaries are within the “pack”.

What does the vet have that I don’t have?

Nikki — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 11:45:20 +0000

It’s been a while since I posted on Mary’s site. I took a bit of a prolonged break from anything computer related. Since the last post, Mary had to go to the vet twice, and we experienced quite a few “tantrums”.

The first visit entailed injections. We went to the vet to get more of her prescription food as she was all out, only to be told the food won’t be available in the country for the next 3 months as there is some or other problem with customs. We called around everywhere. All surgeries were out of stock. We fed her on ordinary cat food pouches. After 3 days, we noticed Mary’s irritable skin condition was back. This confirmed what the vet suspected: there is something in the food that irritates her skin. Makes one wonder what they put in it….

Anyway, so off to the vet we go. She got a shot to help relieve the condition. We were worse than dog poo. Oh wait hang on no, I was worse than dog poo because somehow this was all my fault. This put us in a difficult position. What is she going to eat? We can’t feed her ordinary food! The vet suggested some other food (which was ludicrously expensive, but there is no price on Mary’s health!), but madam rather starved herself for two days than eat it. We tried absolutely everything. We even bought her fresh raw fish. She just was not interested. We were desperate. We finally found a tin of food called Lucky Pet Supreme, containing whole pilchards or whole sardines in jelly. This she happily ate. I was worried at first that it was because she was so damn hungry she would eat just about everything and then as soon as her hunger were satisfied she would pull her nose up at it again, but so far so good! I don’t know what effect it will have on her skin because the injection lasts about a month or so, so we will just have to wait and see.

The next visit saw Mary stay overnight at the vet’s. She came in one morning with a fat bottom lip. Literally. By the evening the swelling had not gone down, so off we went to the vet. Somehow she hurt herself on her bottom lip and in the space of a day the wound developed an abscess which had to be drained. We had to leave her there overnight and pick her up the next day after work. It was painfully difficult to carry her to the cage and leave her there. I wanted to crack. My poor poor baby.

When we collected her the next day my partner and I were like little kids on Christmas morning! We could not wait to have kitty back with us again! She was equally happy to see us. All these visits meant she had to stay inside for a day or so after each visit – we did not want her to run away because she was upset with us (you never know with Mary!).

I am pleased to report that she is doing well and I sincerely hope it stays that way. I really can’t afford to lose the teeny bit of popularity I worked so hard to get!

Mary Has Mommy Issues

Nikki — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 06:38:49 +0000

My darling cat and I are having some issues. I recently came to the conclusion that Mary does not like me – she merely tolerates me because I am the local “take-away counter”. I discussed this conclusion with my partner and he did not disagree.

Mary and I always had a bit of a strange relationship. She is so much daddy’s little girl. She looks at my partner with complete and utter adoration in her eyes and it is clear that she worships him. The moment I touch her or look at her, she starts flicking her tail. Sometimes she would simply get up and move to a different spot, sometimes she would move to a different spot and settle with her back to me, sometimes she simply walks away, sometimes she would lick herself where I touched her.
In the beginning when she joined our little family, I was the third wheel in the relationship. At one point it actually made me feel resentful towards my partner because the cat liked him better than she liked me.

It was a long, hard journey to build a bond with her, but eventually it happened. That was until recently when it dawned on me that she really actually does not like me, she just tolerates me for the sake of it.

Mary and I are now in the process of rebuilding our relationship and it is a struggle. Every now and again I have a breakthrough moment with her. Let’s hope it works!

Fast asleep under Daddy’s blanket, on Daddy’s side of the bed

ROMPS #002

zsh — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 17:24:20 +0000

Our life with her has proven to us that Mary is a lot more intelligent than we often believe. Here she is, showing us that if we don’t take the treats to the cat, she’ll bring the cat to the treats.

Back in to the Routine

Nikki — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 15:46:59 +0000

This past week I went back to work and for Mary it meant back to being locked up during the day. She adapted pretty quickly as she always does, but Monday morning we had to deal with a bit of sulking. She was sitting on the bed, very clearly with her back to us – you had to be a complete idiot not to get the message. I went and sat next to her and ever so lightly started stroking her. She simply got up in a huff and went and sat on the other side of the bed, with her back to me.

The upside is she is milking my guilt and getting treats galore! Except, now she expects treats. The moment either my partner or I walk towards the kitchen, madam is there, right in front of the treat drawer, looking at us with big googly eyes and the sweetest look on her face. It is incredibly difficult not to give in.

The weather has been bad for Mary – it has been really cold and raining buckets. This of course is good news for us as she is inside with us all the time and she likes to snuggle. She was snuggling up tightly against me the other night as I fell asleep and feeling the rise and fall of her soft warm little body and hearing her breathe next to me…..it was the best damn feeling in the whole world.

Mary fell in love with the rug/mat we put on the bed. Whenever we put our hands close to the rug, she goes all psycho on us. Mind you, very often she does not need any provocation at all. Out of the blue she would just start attacking either the rug or herself. The once she even spat loudly twice in a row which of course had us in stitches!

I love Mary so incredibly much. I can’t wait to get back from work during the week to see her. I wish I could let people know what a massive joy it is to share your life with a cat – not only do they love you unconditionally, but they truly enrich your life and bring beauty and joy to it.

Mary on her mat/rug on the bed, cleaning herself in the Sunday afternoon sun

This one speaks for itself!

Sleeping on top of her “house” instead of inside

Exploring the new furniture

Winter

Nikki — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 09:46:12 +0000

Thank you to all of you for your wonderful comments It is hugely encouraging!

Typical of Mary Mary Quite Contrary, she is dealing with winter in a strange way. She loved being outside when it is wet and cold, but when it is dry and cold, she comes inside. This does not make for a pleasant experience for us. As mentioned before, wet cold cat is not all that charming, especially when she tries to snuggle up next to you at night when you are sleeping. I am starting to wonder whether that is not the reason she likes being outside when it rains: so she can come in and take revenge by plonking her cold wet body next to our warm dry bodies!

She is currently the most amazing shades of grey. Her down has grown in full force and is a light silver white in colour. And it is incredibly soft!

Today is a lovely day outside (in cat terms) – the sun is out and the day is crisp and clear. Kitten (who is a boy kitty) is outside and so is Mary. Mary was rolling around on her back, performing for the kitten – it was too cute to see! I ran back inside to fetch the camera, but by the time I came out, Mary was quite relaxed, while Kitten was rolling around in a frenzy trying to outdo Mary’s rolling spectacle.

Mary with Kitten in the background (by the car’s front tyre), just after her rolling performance. If you look carefully, you can see the bald patch on Mary’s cheek (on the right as you look at the picture).

Kitten performing for Mary

I have taken a week’s leave this coming week and I have set aside a day or two to spend just with Mary, and I honestly and truly cannot wait. I miss her company so much when I go to work. I like the people I work with, make no mistake, but I prefer the company of my partner and Mary, who both love me flaws and all.

Kitten and Mary