Hi, I'm new here.
Last week I adopted my first cat - a wonderful 15 year young pirate kitty named Salty. A friend of a friend passed away and we decided to take him in, because he had such a wonderful loving personality, no one else was interested in him, and it felt like the right thing to do. He's a very handsome gentleman. He looks like he's either part Maine Coone or Norwegien Forest cat (BIG with a magnificant tail), and his fur is longish black with fairly symmetrical white markings. He has a perfect white triangle that begins at his chin and ends at his forhead. It makes him look like he's wearing a tux with a hood.
When his owner first became terminally ill, he was intially adopted to someone else. Unfortunately, she didn't feed him well (I think she fed him Purina), and he kept throwing up. Then she called my friend who was in charge of finding homes for all the pets, and threatened to put him down if she didn't take him back. When my friend got him he was so skinny you could see his hips and he looked a bit like a muppet, but he was still an active sweet cat and I fell in love with him the instant I met him. She kept him a couple months and fed him Back to Basics before adopting him to me. He no longer throws up and he's gained a lot of weight (went from 9 pounds to 12 pounds). He had a perfect geriatric checkup, too. No kidney problems, no blood problems--just a small heart murmur (we're keeping an eye on that).
When she brought him over, it was so fun. He had been spending his time in a bedroom before he got here, because my friend had a cat-aggressive dog and had to keep Salty away from him. It was like Christmas for all of us. He instantly seemed to know he belonged here and rubbed against everything and everyone. He has a couple large cat trees, a mouse that spins in a circle, a couple rattling ping pong balls and a fluffy feather wand. We have two little pomeranian brothers who try to tease him or play with his toys, but he just ignores them (he was raised with Amstaffs). Now they accept him into "the pack" and I've even caught the alpha pom cleaning his face. He slept in the bed with us and the dogs from the very first night.
I know the vet initially pegged him as being 15 (this was before his last checkup), but sometimes I wonder if the vet made a mistake since Salty initially was suffering from nutritional deficiencies. If Salty is really that age, he's one amazing 15-year old cat. I know he does have to at least be ten (my friend knew of him for 10 years), but he really acts more like a 5-8 year old cat. If we only have him a couple more years I'm still happy we have him in our lives and let him retire here, but perhaps he'll be one of those amazing cats who lives to 25 or 30?
I love him very much, and I'm so happy I convinced my apprehensive fiance to take in a senior cat. He knew it was the right thing to do and now he can't imagine life without Salty.
Last week I adopted my first cat - a wonderful 15 year young pirate kitty named Salty. A friend of a friend passed away and we decided to take him in, because he had such a wonderful loving personality, no one else was interested in him, and it felt like the right thing to do. He's a very handsome gentleman. He looks like he's either part Maine Coone or Norwegien Forest cat (BIG with a magnificant tail), and his fur is longish black with fairly symmetrical white markings. He has a perfect white triangle that begins at his chin and ends at his forhead. It makes him look like he's wearing a tux with a hood.
When his owner first became terminally ill, he was intially adopted to someone else. Unfortunately, she didn't feed him well (I think she fed him Purina), and he kept throwing up. Then she called my friend who was in charge of finding homes for all the pets, and threatened to put him down if she didn't take him back. When my friend got him he was so skinny you could see his hips and he looked a bit like a muppet, but he was still an active sweet cat and I fell in love with him the instant I met him. She kept him a couple months and fed him Back to Basics before adopting him to me. He no longer throws up and he's gained a lot of weight (went from 9 pounds to 12 pounds). He had a perfect geriatric checkup, too. No kidney problems, no blood problems--just a small heart murmur (we're keeping an eye on that).
When she brought him over, it was so fun. He had been spending his time in a bedroom before he got here, because my friend had a cat-aggressive dog and had to keep Salty away from him. It was like Christmas for all of us. He instantly seemed to know he belonged here and rubbed against everything and everyone. He has a couple large cat trees, a mouse that spins in a circle, a couple rattling ping pong balls and a fluffy feather wand. We have two little pomeranian brothers who try to tease him or play with his toys, but he just ignores them (he was raised with Amstaffs). Now they accept him into "the pack" and I've even caught the alpha pom cleaning his face. He slept in the bed with us and the dogs from the very first night.
I know the vet initially pegged him as being 15 (this was before his last checkup), but sometimes I wonder if the vet made a mistake since Salty initially was suffering from nutritional deficiencies. If Salty is really that age, he's one amazing 15-year old cat. I know he does have to at least be ten (my friend knew of him for 10 years), but he really acts more like a 5-8 year old cat. If we only have him a couple more years I'm still happy we have him in our lives and let him retire here, but perhaps he'll be one of those amazing cats who lives to 25 or 30?
I love him very much, and I'm so happy I convinced my apprehensive fiance to take in a senior cat. He knew it was the right thing to do and now he can't imagine life without Salty.
