All About: BUDDY [IMAGES]

cirque

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Although I have posted a bit already I have not yet introduced our cats. Let me take a moment to tell you about the newest addition to our home, Buddy.

Buddy came to us from our very own front door. My long time girlfriend found him hungry, cold and lonely wandering outside our home. He was very thin, affecitionate and I ended up getting a phone call telling me of the find. Of course all the reasons not to have another cat came to mind: we have a small apartment, my limited income and two wonderful cats already, one of our cats being extreamly ill, we have no idea about the health of this feline, it might be someone elses lost cat.

After some discussion we very sadly made the decision that this cat just could not fit into our home at this time. My girlfriend checked and one of the nice local shelters was still open and I urged her to take him there where he could get any medical treatment needed, a warm bed and warm meals until he could find a home with people that would love him. I am sure her heart was breaking as she left him there and not knowing if he would truely find a good home or not. I still had not yet seen this cat as I was not home at the time, I just knew in her opinion he was sweet and a "lover".

Take a look at this face:


Later that night we talked about the cat she had found, how much she had wanted to keep him and how sweet he was. Of course, how sad she was that we could not have him with our current situation. I agreed and voiced the same concerns and made up my mind there just was no way this cat could fit in here and although hated knowing he was at a shelter instead of a home, resigned myself to that just being the way life is and at least he was not out on the street starving and freezing anymore.

As the days went by I continued to hear and see how sad my girlfriend was. Although I had never seen the cat and was not in the slightest bit attached to him, I thought to myself that maybe there would be a way to make this work and started to entertain the idea that maybe we could have a new cat. Of course I started to list all the things that had to be "right" about this cat before I would accept him and even truely consider having him here. He had to be declawed already, neutered already, absoutly had to be a friendly snuggly holdable cat, and he must not have any health concerns as we can't afford expensive vet bills even though we some how do if they are necessary.

We arrived to the shelter just before closing, with what we thought was enough time to visit with the cat and see how he was doing. If everything was "right" then I had agreed we could bring him home and give him a try. To our shock and dismay there was a sign that said the adoption desk was now closed and they were not doing any more adoptions that night. That crushed my girlfriend a bit, she really wanted to bring this little guy home with us but now it looked like that just would not be possible.


He remembers being at the shelter:


Well there was still a bit of time left, maybe we could just visit with him and see if he was doing ok? Mentioning that she brought him to the shelter in the first place and already knew him, my girlfriend asked and sure enough they would bring him out to see us in a small room. The attentendent went and got someone to bring him to us after showing us to a waiting room and soon we were visiting with the stray who had shown up at our door. The young lady that brought him to us informed us his name was Elliot and she absoutly loved him, even if he did not like his claws clipped in the slightest and he put up quite a fight about it.

Claws? He has claws? Oh... What a shame. We have a small female at home who does not have claws, I would hate for there to be any problems. Although our oldest cat Elmer does have his claws still, so at least he can protect himself if he needs to until they sort things out. Hum.. well he seems like a nice enough cat, not exactly what I had in mind at all.. claws, not some super fancy breed, just a stray, not a kitten that would be easier to introduce and I did not really get to pick him out with my girlfriend like I had wanted. Oh well! Lets take him home anyways. So we asked and explained we had found him and brought him in, could we just take him home with us tonight?

Apparently we could!! Even though the desk was closed, apparently we had chanced upon the proper person that was incharge of doing the adoptions, or maybe it was just because we brought him in. Either way, we ended up taking him home that night.


Of course they took me home, there was never any doubt:


After stopping to pick up a new litter box and stuff, we made it home with our new addition. We have a small apartment and he was lucky enough to be spending his time in the room we have the computer in, which is where I spend most of my time. This means I had to have a litter box in here.. yuck! But it really was not to bad. He was a fairly friendly cat and I like that, and he was also young, perhaps 2 years old so he was still playful which is also good. Over the next week Buddy proved to be a very affectionate and curious friendly cat that wanted to explore the house and meet our other cats. Not yet having found this website and only having read the basic instructions that came with adopting a cat, we felt it was worth a try and let the new cat eat near the door and see that we had other cats by opening the door just a couple of inches. We also would shut the cats into the bedroom and then let the new friend get a run through the house to explore. After a few times of doing this we felt they were familiar with each other a bit and would not freak out, especially since we never knew how to introduce cats in the past and had done so without any major issues.

I think it took a few days or a week but about the same time he started to explore the house I had picked out a new name for him: Buddy. He was just that, my new Buddy. After spending so much time with me while I was on the computer all day every day (or night), he had bonded with me and looks to me for food and affection as well as playful diversions. We recently took Elmer to vet and had to let him go, so now we are down to only KC and Buddy. He has already found love in my heart I did not know I had and I am very glad we were able to open our home to him. The thought of him outside alone, cold and hungry still makes me sad and I am so glad he ended up testing healthy without any major problems.

Although he puked a lot for the first week, we think due to worms, and he has a broken tooth we have to watch and eventually have removed if it becomes abssed, he is a joy to have around. He is litterbox trained, loves to lay on my lap often enough and sleep and even lets me trim a claw or two here and there if I am nice about it and catch him in a good mood. He continues to gobble his food to fast and eat anything in sight which is making feeding KC extreamly tough because she is very scared of Buddy still, but there have not been any serious altercations that I know of between them yet.

Buddy has that youthful curiosity and misbelief everyone wants to be his friend and KC is terrified at the new big cat in her home. Elmer had to instruct Buddy with a couple nose swipes that his playfulness is not always appreciated, as evident by those healing scratches. This will take a bit of work I can see, but today I had KC and Buddy playing next to each other briefly with strings and it went ok until Buddy thought he should try to play with KC directly. That was just a bit to much for her, it ended later with him chasing her behind a chair in his attempts to play and her hiding in the couch again as he got a timeout in the bathroom.

Hopefully we will be able to get them both to be loving friends soon enough using various tactics mentioned within these forums and tips from others in similar situations. I hope you enjoyed Buddy's story and I will continue to update this thread if he does something wacky, interesting or I get any more fun pictures. Buddy would say hi, but hes to busy napping on the other chair in this room. Since I can only take pictures with my terrible webcam if there is a LOT of light in the room, I cant take a picture right now, but heres one more:



Thank you to everyone who has been so kind in other threads such as the one about Elmer and our Car Wreck, we appreciate all the kind words, thoughts, prayers and helpful tips. I am very happy to have found TheCatSite and all the nice cat people that reside here.


- Cirque
 

flisssweetpea

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Aww he's lovely. Hard as it was to take him to the shelter - it gave you time to make sure this was the right thing for you and Elliot. Nice to know that you're all happy together.
 

sanctie

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I am so pleased that you are enjoying TCS!!! We all love it here and I am so happy that Buddy is turning out to be a good addition to your home!! I am sure he likes it alot better than the snow!!! He is lucky to have found you guys, and dont worry, I am sure Miss KC will adjust slowly but surely!!!! Buddy is just probably too much of a handful for her right now!!LOL!!
BTW-I am Stevie, my cat's name is Conner ( he is a persian siamese mix and my precious baby!)

Again...WELCOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-Stevie
 
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cirque

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Originally Posted by captiva

I loved Buddy's story and pictures. Maybe you could connect your link to the Cat Bio thread... He has that cute nose - like Tina's Princess and Gordo kitties.

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...light=cat+bios
Thanks for the idea, I just did that.
Right now Buddy is to distracted to say hello, he is busy pushing his food can around telling me that he is hungry. I keep trying to explain he needs to wait till mommy gets up though so he can get a routine established but he does not quite seem to understand that. Woops there he goes off to explore the house to look for food.
 
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cirque

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Buddy seems to think it is time for lunch at 10am. Can someone please explain he can not eat 8 meals a day? It just is not healthy for him.

 

rosiemac

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Sophie would eat for England if she could!


I normally give both her and Rosie a small amount of wet food for breakfast then the same when i get in at night, but while i'm at work i leave them a bowl of kibbles, but i know she could eat more she could
 
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cirque

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I eventually decided to try Buddy on "free feeding" hoping what I heard about cats not eating like dogs do was true.. he ate a lot, no question about it. He even kept it all down which was great because he was throwing up a lot when we first got him after eating to much to fast and because of worms. But I think it finally kicked in that "Hey I aint going to starve here.., I dont have to be a freaking pig quite so much" and he is not just trying to eat everything in sight.

He does appear to like wet food a LOT now though after getting some of KC's and now I have to give them both wet food. That actually works out well because I can leave the dry out for both all day and give them wet in the morning and night seperatly so they both are sure to get some food. KC is so scared I worry about her hiding so much she wont get to eat so its nice to distract Buddy for awhile.. who also eventually gets any scraps she leaves.

Heres another picture set of Buddy and you can even see his broken top right front tooth:
 

leosmum

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I LIKE Buddy!!!!
He's very very pretty.. how can you say 'No' to such a sweet face like that.. awww,- just wanna kiss him!!!
Im so glad you had a change of heart and took Buddy home!
 

pinkdaisy226

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What a great story of how Buddy came to live with you guys! I'm glad everything worked out and I love seeing pictures of him - he's so handsome!
 
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cirque

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Update:

He still continues to chase KC around to the point of her being hounded into a cornor or under a piece of furniture. Sometimes hes perfectly fine with her sitting around, other times he just goes right after her over and over. I have tried various "tips" with only limited success.

I am starting to think its time to find Buddy a new home so that KC can have a peaceful life. This does not seem fair to her in the least and it surely is not bringing me any peace either. The only one who doesn't seem to mind the arrangement much is Buddy unless I am trying to keep him seperated so KC can eat or with me so he doesn't chase her over and over.

I am very attached to him of course but I can not stop thinking about KC who is such a timid creature being terrorized each day. When I read stories here I try to tell myself its all normal and fine and they will work it out, and I have hope again.. and then out of the blue Buddy decides he has to start up again. I even feel that its wrong of me to want to find him a better home, like I am giving up on him but I am not sure myself or KC can deal with this little spazzoid.
 
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