My new baby

No pictures of him yet, he's still scared so I'm not going to push it. Not sure he'd mind but I'll post pics when I take some.

His name is Mitchell but I despise that name so he will end up renamed whenever we figure out a good name for him. For now I think I'll use Mr. Black until he has a name.

He is(obviously) all black and big. He weighs 12 lbs and some change, Nuts was 12.5 lbs on our scale. Mr. Black is bigger in body size so he is rather thin at the moment. He also has a very very long thin tail. His tail is as long as his entire body from his rump to the back of his head.

He has obviously been raised with dogs since he is letting Dexter do whatever he wants with him(which is just him sniffing Mr. Black and pestering him wanting to get acquainted(Mr. Black has been sniffing him back) it is going almost too well. They has been no issues, no hissing, no growling, or barking and no aggression, nothing. Mr. Black doesn't care if Dexter follows him around everywhere(I'm trying to make Dex give him his space) He however has decided he owns the place and is exploring everywhere. He has also used the litter box so he is in fact litter trained(you always have to worry about that a little.) He seems to be a very submissive cat and Dex is a submissive dog so it might just work out, it has so far.

Like I said I'll post pictures when I get dome, he wasn't up on pet finder yet so I can't just post a link there.

He has the world biggest purr and is just a lover.

I hope this works out he seems to be a perfect addition to our family. I'll post more about him tomorrow when I get to know him a little better, we've only had him since about 4 PM.

Taryn

This picture isn't the greatest. I couldn't get his eyes to quit reflecting.



Any name ideas?

Taryn

Someone mutilated him, no wonder he had no freaking clue what a scratching post is or what to do with it. Someone DECLAWED him.

Paul mentioned he appeared to not have claws, he couldn't feel any, so I went to clip them(if he did in fact have claws I knew they would be overgrown, that was what Paul was checking for overgrown claws) and sure enough no claws in front(and he didn't want me to do his back claws, they can wait until he settles in) He was already chipped, I want his name if the chip registers it and nothing else. I don't care if he is someone's missing cat(they think they contacted someone regarding his chip and no one came to claim him but they are so overloaded with cats who knows if they did or didn't) he isn't going back to someone who mutilated him, unless they agree to have all their fingers amputated at the first joint.

I'm mad, someone put him through a lot of pain and suffering so they wouldn't have to teach him to use a scratching post(or simply use Soft Claws), which is NOT that hard. I taught both Attitude and Nuts to use a post and used Soft Claws very short term when they first moved in(they weren't needed) and then again short term when Nuts decided the box spring was too much of a temptation. I felt bad putting Soft Claws on Attitude and Nuts because they couldn't tear up their scratching posts like they wanted to. I think what makes it even worse is he came in as a stray, so he was on the streets with zero ability to defend himself.

He is such a sweetheart too, he doesn't bite, and he appears to have perfect litter box manners. I feel so bad for him(he's only around 2 years old), someone mutilated him. I can't say what I really want to put about the person who could do this, but lets just say it involves a lot of words that we're not allowed to say here. I hate people a times, I really do.

Taryn

I have 4 scratching posts(no trees) around including a cardboard one and he has zero clue what to even do with them. He looked at me like I was stupid when I put catnip on the cardboard scratcher(he doesn't react to catnip ether.)
He didn't like the softened side(from Nuts) or the slightly used, 99% intact side(by Nuts.)

Someone taught him not to get on counters, which is a problem since that is where his food is. I just pick him up everytime he comes in here in case he wants to eat. He's also picky. He should get over that since he'll eat what I serve(I'm remembering what flavors of canned food he seems to like and which ones he doesn't) and of course he won't touch the dry ToTW.

Dexter wants to play with him so badly but Mr. Black won't play back. We haven't had any problems except he is terrified of the door opening. He runs everytime the door opens, I think he's afraid of getting lost again.

Taryn

He has to get his rabies shot since he hasn't had one yet. I also need to get him his FeLV shot(I don't think I'll ever repeat it unless he's a door dasher, the FeLV is outside. Now that I know he is declawed I'm not even going to see if he takes to a leash and harness, not that he'd ever be on the ground outside around here, even if I was going to try it.) I will have them fully check out his microchip to see if any info comes from it. He was a 'free' cat(the owner of the rescue is good friends with our neighbor Mitzi and when she heard of Nuts' death she offerred to give us a cat for free. It's the same rescue we go Dexter from.) They knew enough to scan him which tell me that I think they checked everything out since they didn't bother to scan Dexter because they knew he wasn't chipped.

He hissed at Dexter and growled slightly at him(Dexter was going overboard trying to entice him to play he really wants to play with the cat), Mr. Black then figured he had told the dog how it was going to be so he laid down and went straight to sleep. They will lay on either side of me if I'm on the couch or bed with their backs to each other and have since we got Mr. Black home. Mr. Black also slept with me last night on the couch. They can be close to each other without any problems.

He's going to be named Sirius Black, but we're going to call him Mr. Black. I got what I wanted and I saved him from being named Sylvester and being called Sly. That could still change, we'll see, but I think he is going to be named Sirius Black and called Mr. Black. I might refer to him as Sirius(or switch back and forth) here because it's easier than typing out Mr. Black. I know I need to change my signature but I don't want to remove my current one, I don't want to leave out Attitude and Nuts on my signature.

He has pawed(and would have scratched) the couch and my computer chair(neither of which matter to me he could reduce them to timber and I wouldn't care as long as I can still sit on them, neither is worth crap) so I'm thinking I know why he was declawed. I don't agree with what they did, there are better ways to deal with it, but it looks like they had their reasons and it wasn't just an automatic thing. It gives me some kind of relief that they didn't just hack off his claws just 'because.' Not much though, poor baby.

I do think we would have had to think about it a lot more closely if we knew he was declawed because I'd be worried about him being able to 'defend' himself against the dog. I will say Nuts never used his claws against Dexter, a hiss, growl, half hearted swipe or smack from a cat, is effective to tell Dexter he's being a pest and to knock it off.

There are also people who fully know what a declawing is and do it anyways(Mitzi for one, she calmed me down when I started ranting and raving about it when I walking Dexter.) Like I said the rescue didn't say he was declawed so I expected claws and was just shocked when I went to clip them and didn't find any. Paul and I had to hold him down(not hard, just to keep him from flipping over, he didn't really fight us) to clip his back claws, they were way overgrown and sticking out of his back paws. Hopefully I never have to clip them again, I rarely had to do Attitude or Nuts' back claws(usually only if I got scratched up when they jumped on or off me) and they needed front clips every week or two depending on how often they were using their scratching posts(more use meant sharper claws.) He doesn't seem to care that he doesn't have his claws, I'm thinking he was done when he was chipped and neutered.

I'm not sure he can actually(physically) jump up on the counter. When I put fresh canned food in his bowl(he gets one can a day, I'm doing it the same way I did with Nuts) and he started meowing(he has a LOUD meow, just like his LOUD purr) and pawing at the cabinets. I took him to the other side of the counter and put him on the TV tray I put next to the counter and had him climb onto the counter on his own. I'm trying to teach him to use the TV tray to get on the counter in case he can't jump from the ground yet. If Dexter wasn't as clever as he is I'd just use the TV tray to hold Sirius' food. I'm honestly not even sure if he can jump onto the TV tray but I have no idea how he couldn't it isn't much higher than the bed or couch. I don't want him to think that he will always get a free ride up on the counter, but I can't let him go hungry if he really can't do it or doesn't think he's allowed. He's just so skinny. The dog got upset when Sirius sniffed his bowl, he immediatly went over after Siruis was done sniffing and licked his(already empty bowl) 'clean.' Dex isn't food agressive or protective of his bowl, even when Nuts once ate out of his bowl he just looked at me like, 'could you please ask the cat to not eat my food?' I think Sirius was fed from the floor in his past life since he seems to check out Dexter's bowl on a regular basis. The dog's bowl gets filled with 1/2 cup of food twice a day and that disappears quickly, Dex never leaves his food lying around, he eats it. He immediatly went back to wolfing down his food and acting less depressed when he saw he had a new cat(I had told him we were trying to find him a new friend.) He still misses Nuts but I think he's less 'lonely' having another cat here. He isn't alllowed to be protective of his bowl(and never has been) anyways since the community water bowl(we also have one on the counter for the cat and another community one in the bathroom) in the living room is right next to his food bowl so he is used to having a cat around his bowl. I have seen Sirius drink from the community bowl in the living room so he is drinking which is comforting and he's using the litter box fine so he is getting enough to eat, even though it seems like he isn't eating much.

He seemed uncomfortable trying to climb onto Paul's recliner from the couch last night with encouragement(Nuts favorite past time using the recliner to get on and off the counter because he knew it annoyed Paul even though he could jump from the ground), don't blame him, he has no way to hold on if he slips or grib so he doesn't slip.

Like I said it almost seems like this is going too good. I also hope he cleans out whatever they were feeding him at the shelter(which was whatever they could get) because his litterbox is making my bathroom smell like an outhouse(and Paul is cleaning it everytime he sees something in it.) I think we'll have to add some Citrus Fresh litter box deodorizer(not much, I forgot to add some before I added litter to the box) the next time the box is scooped. We used it when we changed out the litter on Nuts' box, it was put in the bottom of the box it helped keep the clumps from sticking to the bottom of the box since Nuts(and Attitude) liked to the dig to China, Sirius doesn't seem like much of a digger, digging might not feel good to him since he's missng his toes.

He is such a sweetheart. I think I found the 'perfect' cat.

Taryn

I forgot to add, he snores. I was worried because he was making noises like Attitude did when she was first starting to get her last URI. Keep in mind I've lost 3 cats to URIs(Attitude, Runt and Half-Tail) so I am a little freaky about URIs. Then I noticed he only made it when he was asleep, so he snores. I will have the vet check him out about it to make sure all is ok, but it's so cute.

He is the greatest cat. I mean he's not Attitude but she was a once in a lifetime cat and no one could ever be her. Sirius is his own cat and I don't want, nor would I want him to be like Attitude, Nuts or any other cat.

Taryn

Rabies shots are required by law. Also, the vet said since we still have FeLV outside he should be vaccinated in case he were to get out, as you know FeLV is highly contagious.

The scratching posts are staying and I don't care if he scratches the furniture since he isn't hurting anything. My cat Spaz was declawed, so I have lived with a declawed cat before. Some cat never notice they are missing their claws(Spaz never noticed she was missing her claws) and I'm glad Sirius doesn't seem to miss them either, but I have also seen cats who do miss their claws and their personality is wrecked because of it, they start biting and/or they no longer are willing to use their litter box. I know no special care is required for a declawed cat once they're healed and since he has obviously been declawed for some time I know he doesn't need anything special over what I would do for a clawed cat.

I forgot to add he came to the rescue with a sore on his belly. It is healed but he still has a bald spot. Something happened while he was on his own outside. Poor big guy.

I think Dexter and Sirius will become friends since they already can occupy the couch together. Dexter laid right in front of Sirius on the couch earlier and all was good.

I'm glad we didn't know Sirius was declawed until we got him home, because we might have ruled him out and that would have been a massive loss on our part and Dexter's part. I know it doesn't matter if he does or doesn't have claws, he is who he is and I'm glad we are a part of his life.

As far as his microchip, the rescue doesn't know if they contacted anyone over his chip or not. I'm thinking they did since they knew he was already chipped. They are so full of cats they are bursting at the seams and they are just so busy.

Taryn

He jumps straight off the counter with no issue, so I'm assuming it doesn't hurt him since he has a TV tray that he could get on to get down(I'm trying to see if I can get him to use that to get on the counter, it gets old picking him up and putting him on the counter in case he wants to eat, he seems to get heavier every time I pick him up.) He just doesn't seem to be getting it yet.

He has a nice case of the 'squirts', most likely because the rescue dewormed him right before sending him home with us(they said they were getting him up to date with his vaccines except for obviously rabies.) Wish they had said they were going to deworm him, I would have told them not to, that I could have the vet do it when I took him in for his rabies(and FeLV vaccine after the FeLV/FIV test because they can't remember if he was tested or not when he came to the rescue: . Do I need to wait on the shots now? I can't remember, I haven't had a healthy cat in so long that I don't know what to do with a healthy cat that has the squirts, if I need to take him to the vet or just wait(remember he's 12 lbs and around 2 years old so he isn't a little guy.) I started giving him some Forti-Flora I had left over from Attitude so that might help firm him up again.

OK, I haven't slept yet and I need to(while both Sirius and Dexter are asleep), will check in later.

Taryn