It’s been over a month since the last blog entry – oops.
First, I’d like to report that my best cat friend, Bucky Bloo passed away. He was my mom’s first cat, a very special cat to her. He was the only cat in the household that would play with me, and I miss him very much.
Here is a little something my mom wrote about Bucky Bloo:
Bucky Bloo was an all black cat, short hair, probably mixed with some Siamese somewhere in his gene pool. He was very outgoing, very loquacious, very gregarious, life of the party type cat.
I adopted Bucky Bloo from Animal Control. I went there to adopt a small dog, but there weren’t any small scruffy ones. As I was walking out I saw this cat (from the corner of my eye) waving at me. I walked over to look at him and he became panicked, trying to get my attention. I asked to see him and they took the cat out of the cage and put him in my arms, he melted. I said I would take him. I gave it no thought. I paid $60 and walked out with the cat in a card board carrier. No adoption counseling whatsoever. When I got into the car I realized, I have no supplies, I have nothing for a cat. I was prepared to adopt a dog, not a cat. I had a leash and some bowls….yup, no cat supplies.
I treated Bucky Bloo like a dog for a long time. I bought him a walking jacket/harness and we would take walks in the park. I clicker trained him. Him having some Siamese in him really helped him seem like a dog trapped in a cats body. If someone knocked on the door, he would run to the door growling!
I often joke that Bucky Bloo thought of Frank as the “other man”. When I first adopted Bucky Bloo he was not happy about Frank’s visits. One time when Frank was over I banged my toe on the coffee table and started scream crying and Bucky Bloo puffed up, ran and attacked Frank. Frank ran into my bedroom and shut the door, Bucky Bloo was trying to reach him from the gap under the door, Bucky Bloo blamed Frank and was ready to kill him. Thankfully that didn’t scare Frank away, though he got to see how protective my cat was of me. It took Bucky Bloo a long time to warm up to Frank. In the end he loved him as much as he loved me.
The thing that sticks out most is that he was my first pet as an adult. I always loved dogs and pandas, but knew virtually nothing about cats. I had never known anything about cats until I got Bucky Bloo. Heck, I was scared of cats prior to him. I just didn’t know anything about them. He was a great first cat teacher. He was a really bad cat most of the time, he peed outside the box, loved jumping up high on to areas he shouldn’t have, loved knocking things off the table to see them crash and break on the floor below. Loved knocking over glasses filled with water!…but alas in the end I didn’t care. Mopping the bathroom floor of his pee “accidents” became a daily chore, I just
dealt with. Shortly after I adopted him he became very ill. After spending lots of money, I found out he had IBD. He needed to eat small frequent meals, and grain free. We adhered to this diet and routine for 11+ years. Bucky Bloo was a stinker, he needed to eat in a room alone or he would try and eat everyone else’s food. In our new home there weren’t “extra” rooms to feed him separately, so when it was time to eat, 3x’s a day we would stand guard watching him eat to make sure he didn’t eat Pixie’s food. This necessary routine made it difficult to travel and find pet sitters with reasonable rates.
Bucky Bloo terrorized many pet sitters. We had quite a few that would quit after one sitting. Bucky Bloo would destroy their belonging (scratching or peeing on them). He would panic when we’d leave town and try and run away, a couple times he was successful – as if he was running away to go look for us. It’s only in the last few years we found a petsitter who he adored, and she thought his antics were charming.
So much of our daily routine was based on Bucky Bloo. It’s little things like, never leave your shoes in Bucky Bloo’s area, he would pee in them. Never leave any totes or bags on the ground in Bucky Bloo’s area, he would go through them, steal any snacks/candy or gum, then pee on the bag. I remember we once had a visitor to the house who had a very fancy expensive Louis Vuitton bag, they put it on the floor and he peed on it. I was horrified, and I could not possibly afford to pay for the bag. We had to baby proof all cabinets, buy storage containers that he couldn’t open for the dog food, never leave any food out – he’d break into a box of crackers just to eat them.
Every cat is different and I learn something for them all, but I learned the most from Bucky Bloo. Sad isn’t a strong enough word to describe how I am feeling now. With every pet that dies (now my third) I mourn differently. They are each special to me in their own way…but Bucky Bloo was extremely special to me.
Next, I’d like to report that I have been going to school – A LOT! I’ve been a bit ornery and my mom and dad are determined to nip my behavior problems in the bud – this means a lot of training for me. I’m about to finish my class for “reactive dogs” with trainer Emily Stoddard and will start a new one soon.
Because some of my behavior problems includes aggression towards humans I have to wear this uniform when I am in public. I wear a Baskerville muzzle, an easy walk harness and a working dog vest from activedogs.com - this might seem like a lot of gear, but I don’t care and happily wear it. If I see my parents pulling out my gear that means we are going out and I love going out!!!! My mom says I am a really good dog, but I have a hard time letting others see that side of me because I always try and act like a “tough dog”.
Sorry for neglecting my blog – I will try and post more often with updates on my training and behavior.
