Missy Mae’s mom

I spoke to Missy Mae’s original caretaker on Sunday, and she sounds great.  Well, she sounds tired, but no worse than she sounded when I first started talking to her on the phone back in May.  She said her chemotherapy has been tough and draining, but it’s obviously keeping her alive and enjoying life.  She even hopes to be well enough to make a visit to Vegas in October, so we’ll try to get her together with Missy Mae for a little visit.  In the interim, I suppose I should really work on getting Missy Mae out of the bathroom.  I assure everyone reading this that she’s perfectly happy in the bathroom, and that the door is always open and she gets plenty of visitors (feline and human), but she seems to have no interest in leaving.  She’s just a few feet from the back patio where she could look out the door but no, she prefers the bathroom.  If I go sit on the floor next to her she’ll come over to me for pets, but unless I offer to brush her, she quickly loses interest and goes back into hiding again.  She truly does love to be brushed, so I guess someone took good care of her when she was younger.

I hope that over time she’ll become more comfortable visiting the kitchen, or even wandering upstairs, but I don’t want to push her.  When I’ve brought her upstairs in the past, she runs and hides in a closet (she opens the sliding door herself!), and I feel that she’s better in the open, well-lit bathroom where there’s lots of traffic, than hiding alone in a dark closet.  I don’t know what sort of life she had in the past, but her lumps and scars make it seem like recent elements of it were rough, so maybe she’s just content with peace and quiet (and the occasional flush).

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 09/05 at 01:06 PM

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  1. If it’s a comfort to you, the first 3 months we had George (very large solid black long-haired cat), he lived under our fridge. An apartment-sized tiny fridge. He only left for the litter box and food and water. We saw him once in a great while, and every now and again checked him with a flashlight. It wasn’t until we moved that he decided to come out and be social. But it was a *tiny* apartment with 5 other cats and 2 dogs, and he was scared of *everything*. We moved to a bigger apartment and saw him every night. There he lived under my computer desk which was a lot roomier, and he came out in the evening. I guess he could not get under that fridge. When we moved to the house, (by this time shrunk to 5 cats total and 1 dog), he was brave enough to live in plain sight. But this was about 2 years after he came to live with us. Unfortunately, he died a year later of unknown reasons, but I am so happy we got to watch him blossom, even if it did take years. He never was a lap cat, but that was okay with us.

    Pepe started by being a hiding cat- now he only hides around strangers. He’s much more social now. He lived in our downstairs bathroom for a month, then slowly grew his wandering territory. Now he’s our upstairs cat, that deigns to come down and visit us.

    Posted by Georg  on  09/05  at  03:45 PM

  2. Oh and George was never an outdoor cat. I have no idea what traumatized him so, other than the transferage of ownership. Dumped by his first owners to live with my parents, and the worst things they ever did to him was make him take long car rides and a *boat ride* every summer. He hated the boat. Then my parents dumped in the humane society, and the society called me, and I rescued them from there within 24 hours. I know his history from about 6 weeks old.

    Posted by Georg  on  09/05  at  03:48 PM

  3. Leigh-Ann, have you seen the video of the cat flushing the toilet over & over again? If not, I’ll email it to you - I don’t know how to put videos on my blog, but it’s pretty funny. Missy Mae your bathroom kitty reminded me…she sounds quite content, if not living a terribly stimulating life!
    That is great you are staying in touch with her previous humans, hope they get to visit.

    Posted by Carina  on  09/05  at  06:36 PM

  4. We had a cat named Anabelle for some time.  She preferred to stay in my bedroom behind my computer desk.

    After about a year she would venture out in the middle of the night to lie up on the bed, at the very foot of the bed. Any movement would send her back to her spot behind the desk.

    After a certain amount of bustle in life, especially if life wasn’t kind, I think some creatures, and people too, just prefer the quiet sanctity of a comfortable nook.

    Posted by prajantr  on  09/05  at  06:38 PM

  5. Our previous kitty, Bansai, spent a year in our bedroom/bathroom. She never left until we moved to a larger house. Funny cat.

    Posted by Diana  on  09/06  at  06:09 AM

  6. Wow, maybe we need support group for owners of relunctant cats (ORCs).  I didn’t realize the life-in-solitary thing was so common!

    Carina, I did see the flushing cat video when Susan posted it on the Wildrun blog.  Thank goodness Missy Mae doesn’t feel up to any activity in the bathroom (although maybe I could teach her to sweep the floor).

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  09/06  at  10:35 PM
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