Hullo, I'm new here. Well, I'm a new member, but I've been owned by cats most of my life. Most recently, I'm the proud mama of Spike and Oz (yeah, they're named for the "Buffy" characters ... I'm also a geek!
), two handsome tabbies adopted from the local Humane Society. I found this site while trying to do research on brain-damaged cats, because we believe (and the vet agrees) that Spike is mildly brain-damaged and I'd like to know more about what we can expect, what to look out for, and how to cope with it. For the most part, Spike simply doesn't retain information well; you can tell him again and again and again not to get up onto the counter, and each time seems like the first time for him. He also seems to be a bit of a perma-kitten: not only does he still resemble a kitten (albeit a large, 10-lb kitten), he still behaves like one, and he's more than two years old. (I realise that's still young, but other cats TREAT him like a kitten as well, with the same kind of tolerance towards bad behaviour, food-stealing and other bad habits of kitten-hood.) He is otherwise very sweet, extremely affectionate and eager to please, almost puppy-like in nature; in many ways, he's similar to Down Syndrome children I've worked with in the past, in that he's basically happy, he likes routine (more so even than other cats!) and he's intent upon making other people happy, too. (Actually, if I'd realised this sooner, I would have looked into training him as a therapy cat, because he certainly helps ME out!)
(Just so you don't think I neglect him in favour of his special brother, Oz is also a perfectly wonderful cat. He's a bit overweight--used to be a stray, had this absolutely nasty coat and was so skinny you could count his ribs, but now he's fat and glossy-coated and happy, but he can't be free-fed because he doesn't understand that we will always ensure that he has food. When there's food in his bowl, he eats it all up, in case there isn't more later. The thing is, I don't need to look up helpful hints on how to cope with Oz's behaviour, because he ISN'T brain-damaged. I'm an experienced cat-owner; I "get" Oz, whereas Spike has some behavioural problems that, well, I could stand to have some advice on!
)
Well, this is me. My original post was going to be much longer than this (I'm a writer), but I trimmed it down to the bare basics just so you don't all think I'm completely insane!
Cheerio,
Mirinae
(Just so you don't think I neglect him in favour of his special brother, Oz is also a perfectly wonderful cat. He's a bit overweight--used to be a stray, had this absolutely nasty coat and was so skinny you could count his ribs, but now he's fat and glossy-coated and happy, but he can't be free-fed because he doesn't understand that we will always ensure that he has food. When there's food in his bowl, he eats it all up, in case there isn't more later. The thing is, I don't need to look up helpful hints on how to cope with Oz's behaviour, because he ISN'T brain-damaged. I'm an experienced cat-owner; I "get" Oz, whereas Spike has some behavioural problems that, well, I could stand to have some advice on!
Well, this is me. My original post was going to be much longer than this (I'm a writer), but I trimmed it down to the bare basics just so you don't all think I'm completely insane!
Cheerio,
Mirinae
