FireFly

Shouldn't be too long now.. I sent pics from my phone to my email and I am waiting for them to load since my phone isn't behaving properly.

Anywhoo.. My name is Laurena and the cat I am here about is FireFly (like the drink, it suits her personality to a T. Sweet and feisty at the same time)

There is kind of a long explination behind how I met this girl... BUT last time I tried to post it (about 5 mins ago), GoogleChrome told me thecatsite.com had timed out.

So I am going to skip it for now. Suffice it to say, she waltzed into our lives on Sunday... I have seen her around before but she's always been aloof.

However, for some reason on Sunday in stead of running like she normally does when I try to feed her, she walked right in the door like she owned the place.

I adore her. She is beautiful. I am not sure on a few things though, mainly her coat color and her age. Coat color has always been an issue for me when it comes to calico or tortie but she is.. well.. her back looks to me like the stereo-typical Tortie but her chest/underbelly looks more like what I always thought a calico would look like.

She is very talkative and super sweet. Very confident, not very independent really. Kinda wants to be right on top of me (and is complaining atm because I am not petting her). She comes to me if I call her w/ kissy noises, too, I thought calico/torties never came when called? (Again I could just be thinking stereo-typically)

She is insanely playful. I mean wow. She will lay on the couch and flick the end of her tail and then attack the flicking end if she notices she is flicking it (if that makes sense? lol)

So just hoping for some one to clear that stuff up for me, kill my curiosity, lol. So...  when the pics finally go through, where should I post them to ask about color pattern/age?

Thank you

We will be happy to look at your pictures and answer your questions.  Welcome to TCS. Yes, the stereotypical view of calico/torties is that they are more aloof and won't pay attention when called.  You ought to see my clowder when I call:  Cats, Cats, Cats  Gooshyfood, Gooshyfood   Brekkies (or Supper)

Welcome to the site!

I love torties and the name Firefly, so cute! I would love to see a picture of her.

Thank you guys for the warm welcome :-)

I did some research, turns out there is a term for cats who have tortie markings on their back/tail and calico markings on their chest/underbelly.. I had no idea, lol. They are apparently called Tortico and FireFly definitely fits that description. I am going to attempt pictures, hopefully this works

Ok so let me see if I can post her back story now without the forum timing out, lol.

I live in an apartment complex where feeding the strays/feral cats is against the rules. I, however, have always been a beacon to stray/feral cats for some reason.. I don't know why and the fact that all the one bedroom apartments in this complex are basement apartments doesn't help, lol. Even when I first moved in and was trying to fallow the rules, the stray/feral cats hung out on my patio. I eventually had to move to a diff apartment in the same complex (due to an upstairs neighbor falling asleep with his bath running and flooding my apartment) and the cats followed. Of course I ended up breaking down and feeding them, lol. I can't help it. I do try to keep a low profile about it though.

I currently have a small crew of four. Starting in December I would catch glimpses of this little kitty (who would be 5) coming every once in a while at odd hours to pick at scraps left behind by the others. However, if I tried to feed her, she'd run. On Sunday, surprisingly enough, when I saw her she didn't run. I opened the door to feed her and she came right inside, hopped on the couch and started rolling/rubbing all over it. We were scheduled to get snow that day so my fiancee and I decided to let her stay in as long as she wanted to stay warm. My fiancee isn't much of a cat person but he ended up liking her a lot and saying if she wanted she could stay permanently. We threw together a make-shift litter pan and set her up some food and water. She seemed really happy and even ran and hid if we opened the door for any reason, like she was afraid we'd put her outside.

All was well until the next morning, my fiancee always warms my car up for me and when he opened the door to do so, she booked it outside. I think she had to use the potty because she didn't go in (or outside of) the make shift litter pan. I worried about her all day but for no reason I guess because when I got home from work, there she was waiting to come inside. Again she stayed the night (didn't go potty) and booked it out the door at her first opportunity in the morning. Again, at night she would run and hide if we opened the door. If I try to call her (with kissy noises) out of hiding while the door is open, she won't come (though, to remind you, she normally comes immediately if I call her with kissy noises). So I definitely think her desire to get back outside in the mornings is based solely in her desire to go to the bathroom.

Two things I noticed last night: She sleeps in the make shift litter pan (I plan on getting her a real one today, and I'm worried she'll sleep in it).. The make shift litter pan is a plastic drawer from the organizer cabinet - thingies they sell at Walmart with shreded news paper in it. The first night it was just news paper but since she didn't use it, I thought shredding it might help. I wanted to search the site for recommended litter brands before I bought any. Hopefully that will help although since it seems like she's waiting till morning to go potty, I'm not sure adding litter will make the pan more appealing.

Thing two that I noticed is she seems to like wet food a lot but wants to eat a mouth full of wet and immediately follow it with a mouth full of dry (which she steals from the dog, lol. I'm going to get dry cat food tonight, I don't keep it in the house because the 4 I normally feed won't touch it). Also, at one point she was eating happily and then fiancee and I sat down to eat and she left her food immediately to try to steal from us... For all I care she can sit on the table while were eating but my fiancee isn't as laid back about it. Advice on what I can do to keep her from doing that again?

Hi there welcome along to TCS

FireFly is stunning!!

You will probably be better off asking in the Behaviour forum there are lots of people there and articles to help you

Thank you for welcoming us and for the advice :-)