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Once upon a time (on April 15, 2006, to be exact), a Mama kitty had six adorable little kittens. They were born right here in our dining room. One of them was a little tortie with the cutest little set of orange stripes on one side of her tail. She had real character from the time that she started moving around the bed. This is the story of Avis - the one and only Woozie. God has blessed us with 16 wonderful cats since 2005, but Avis is one of my very special babies.
Avis is really a once-in-a-lifetime cat. When we first started looking at cats, I thought that torties looked dirty and I didn't like them. However, we soon had three and they have become my favorites. Avis has the most orange on her of our three Torties. She has a big patch of pale orange above her right eye and one buff-coloured toe. We always joke that she was made with all the leftover parts. Nothing seems to match - Her body is big and football shaped, her legs are really thin and it looks like she has sticks with toes, her tail is pencil-thin with a crook in the middle, her ears have the start of lynx tips, her face is very square, she has on eye that is slightly crossed and she has a little goatee beard (one of her outstanding features!). When put together and looked at through the eyes of love . . . I think she is beautiful!
When it comes to personality, she has all the normal characteristics of a tortie - high strung, not overly affectionate, tends to dash away and hide from things, the "bounce-off-the-walls" type. As with all the kittens, she has a bit of the "forever kitten" qualities. She was a Mama's girl in a big way and wherever Olivia was . . . Avis was usually right next to her. Manly, Frodo and the Woozie always seemed to be bundled around Olivia. Avis would knead on Olivia's side for ages, her head flat and huge Mama purrs and Olivia never seemed to mind! Avis does not like company. Strangers are very stressful and she tends to run and hide. Sometimes it can last for a couple days after they leave. You'll just see her dash into a room and it is hard to find where she actually goes! After she lost her Mama, she kind of adopted me. So I became her "Mother". Most times when I sit and sew in the back room upstairs, she comes right up on my chair and I have to give her enough space to lie down next to me. She drapes her front paws over my lap and will knead and give me big Mama purrs. Eventually she will fall asleep draped over my lap. If I am busy sewing and she wants to be petted, she'll reach up and touch my arm until I pay attention to her. Then I get those big lover eyes staring at me. Of course, it is really distracting as I tend to want to watch her instead of sew! Sometimes I sit on the front edge of the chair and she curls up behind me. Sometimes she sits on my lap or curls up on my chest during movies at night. She's even slept through "The Hobbit" several times!
Avis is really a once-in-a-lifetime cat. When we first started looking at cats, I thought that torties looked dirty and I didn't like them. However, we soon had three and they have become my favorites. Avis has the most orange on her of our three Torties. She has a big patch of pale orange above her right eye and one buff-coloured toe. We always joke that she was made with all the leftover parts. Nothing seems to match - Her body is big and football shaped, her legs are really thin and it looks like she has sticks with toes, her tail is pencil-thin with a crook in the middle, her ears have the start of lynx tips, her face is very square, she has on eye that is slightly crossed and she has a little goatee beard (one of her outstanding features!). When put together and looked at through the eyes of love . . . I think she is beautiful!
When it comes to personality, she has all the normal characteristics of a tortie - high strung, not overly affectionate, tends to dash away and hide from things, the "bounce-off-the-walls" type. As with all the kittens, she has a bit of the "forever kitten" qualities. She was a Mama's girl in a big way and wherever Olivia was . . . Avis was usually right next to her. Manly, Frodo and the Woozie always seemed to be bundled around Olivia. Avis would knead on Olivia's side for ages, her head flat and huge Mama purrs and Olivia never seemed to mind! Avis does not like company. Strangers are very stressful and she tends to run and hide. Sometimes it can last for a couple days after they leave. You'll just see her dash into a room and it is hard to find where she actually goes! After she lost her Mama, she kind of adopted me. So I became her "Mother". Most times when I sit and sew in the back room upstairs, she comes right up on my chair and I have to give her enough space to lie down next to me. She drapes her front paws over my lap and will knead and give me big Mama purrs. Eventually she will fall asleep draped over my lap. If I am busy sewing and she wants to be petted, she'll reach up and touch my arm until I pay attention to her. Then I get those big lover eyes staring at me. Of course, it is really distracting as I tend to want to watch her instead of sew! Sometimes I sit on the front edge of the chair and she curls up behind me. Sometimes she sits on my lap or curls up on my chest during movies at night. She's even slept through "The Hobbit" several times!
As a little kitten, Avis was very adventurous. She loved climbing! She would climb anything really. The curtains, the kitty condo, the orange chair . . . even the book shelves! She was absolutely the funniest thing to watch when she would be playing. She would arch her little back and bounce sideways on her toes, then spring straight up in the air and start climbing whatever it was she had chosen. She also had this odd enjoyment in climbing onto curtain rods. She would leap up and perch on the curtain rods in the living room. The day after we brought her home from getting fixed, she scrambled up the kitty tree house in the back room pstiars and went right up onto the curtain rod! She outgrew that phase once she got a bit older and larger, and even though it was cute while it lasted, we all breathed a sigh of relief! She still gets the energy up sometimes when you play with her or she gets wild manzies. I've seen her climb to the top story of the tree house by climbing up the wooden scratching pole. She also can clamber all over it if you happen to be dangling their leather thong. She likes to play with the lazer toy, and is one of the only cats who will chase it up the walls. She inherited her Mama's lightening-fast one-paw-grab method and you better watch out if you get too close while she is chasing a toy! Catnip brings out their inner personality and with the Woozie --- well, it makes her even woozier and just crazy! She kicks the toys with her back feet and her ears will be back and her head will be flat and her eyes will be open wide. If there is a sudden noise, she can flip herself upright with a super-fast twist and will sit there with her ears back and a crazy look on her face. Sweetie!
Avis has a set of favorite toys. One Christmas, we bought some pet stockings at PetSmart when they were on clearance. Usually have really cheap toys in them, but it is nice to fill out the collection for catnip time. One of the stockings was brown and all the toys in it were brown. There were three padded brown felt toys - one shaped like a Christmas ball, one like a candy can and one like a stocking. The Christmas ball wins hands down, but the other two run a close second when the ball is not at hand. Actually, just a few months ago, she finally wore through the back of the ball and I have it waiting so I can make a pattern of it. She just has a wild time with it! She'll wrestle and bat and bite it. She'll grab it with her front paws and kick it with her back feet. She carries it and she hides it. She likes them in the back room upstairs, so we usually keep them in the tunnel of the kitty tree house. She also loves Sammy's pipecleaners. In the afternoon, you'll hear a few howls from upstairs and if you run up there . . . there will almost always be a pipecleaner in the water bowl up there. I've seen her actually do it before and she will carry the pipecleaner in and drop it in the bowl, then try and drink with her nose against the pipecleaner. Sometimes you have to wonder what exactly she thinks she is doing!
Water --- that is one of the Woozie's loves. She loves playing in it. In the Summer, when they were kittens, we would put down pans of cold water with ping-pong balls floating in them. The idea was that they would bat at the balls and the cold water would cool their paw pads down. Most of them thought that it was a silly idea, but Avis and Iveta really loved it. Avis would spread her toes out as wide as she could and splash and splash. Sometimes it would be running across the kitchen floor! Actually, I think that it led to their love of the shower and bathroom sinks. When they were still able to jump onto the sinks, they would sit and drink from a drip in the faucet. Avis even figured out that if she walked behind the knob on our sink that it would turn the water on. You would hear water running and know that someone had been there before! They also love for you to pour a bowl or glass of water in the shower and they drink from the running river. We always say that they would love one of those decorative fountains! In the Summer, Avis sleeps in the corner of the walk-in shower. Then she comes out and her fur is all damp! We had a live Christmas tree for the first couple of years and you would hear a little lapping sound. You'd look under the tree and see glowing golden eyes. Iveta, Avis, Aramintie and Olivia succeeded in always drinking the water in the tree base to the point where the tree died very quickly. It took us several weeks to figure out how the tree kept taking in so much water each day! They don't enjoy the artificial trees as much. However, their love of H2O makes them unafraid of being squirted with water when they do something naughty!
Avis has a set of favorite toys. One Christmas, we bought some pet stockings at PetSmart when they were on clearance. Usually have really cheap toys in them, but it is nice to fill out the collection for catnip time. One of the stockings was brown and all the toys in it were brown. There were three padded brown felt toys - one shaped like a Christmas ball, one like a candy can and one like a stocking. The Christmas ball wins hands down, but the other two run a close second when the ball is not at hand. Actually, just a few months ago, she finally wore through the back of the ball and I have it waiting so I can make a pattern of it. She just has a wild time with it! She'll wrestle and bat and bite it. She'll grab it with her front paws and kick it with her back feet. She carries it and she hides it. She likes them in the back room upstairs, so we usually keep them in the tunnel of the kitty tree house. She also loves Sammy's pipecleaners. In the afternoon, you'll hear a few howls from upstairs and if you run up there . . . there will almost always be a pipecleaner in the water bowl up there. I've seen her actually do it before and she will carry the pipecleaner in and drop it in the bowl, then try and drink with her nose against the pipecleaner. Sometimes you have to wonder what exactly she thinks she is doing!
Water --- that is one of the Woozie's loves. She loves playing in it. In the Summer, when they were kittens, we would put down pans of cold water with ping-pong balls floating in them. The idea was that they would bat at the balls and the cold water would cool their paw pads down. Most of them thought that it was a silly idea, but Avis and Iveta really loved it. Avis would spread her toes out as wide as she could and splash and splash. Sometimes it would be running across the kitchen floor! Actually, I think that it led to their love of the shower and bathroom sinks. When they were still able to jump onto the sinks, they would sit and drink from a drip in the faucet. Avis even figured out that if she walked behind the knob on our sink that it would turn the water on. You would hear water running and know that someone had been there before! They also love for you to pour a bowl or glass of water in the shower and they drink from the running river. We always say that they would love one of those decorative fountains! In the Summer, Avis sleeps in the corner of the walk-in shower. Then she comes out and her fur is all damp! We had a live Christmas tree for the first couple of years and you would hear a little lapping sound. You'd look under the tree and see glowing golden eyes. Iveta, Avis, Aramintie and Olivia succeeded in always drinking the water in the tree base to the point where the tree died very quickly. It took us several weeks to figure out how the tree kept taking in so much water each day! They don't enjoy the artificial trees as much. However, their love of H2O makes them unafraid of being squirted with water when they do something naughty!
Over the years I have let her sleep on my bed a few times. She is really the most darling thing ever! She curls up against my shins and she gives herself a huge bath before tucking her paws in for a nice nap. The funny thing is that whenever she moves or turns over, she has to bathe all over again! We call her "Mrs. Clean", as she is the cleanest cat ever! She gives herself the biggest baths and at the slightest provocation! Sometimes in the morning she will dash in and cuddle with me. Sarah opens the bedroom door and you hear these loud, really fast dashing paws on the floor. Wait a few seconds and then she pops up onto the bed looking expectantly at me with big yellow eyes. She comes right up to my pillow and then I have to lift the blankets up so that she can go under and curl up against my tummy. She purrs and purrs and kneads and kneads. Sometimes she falls asleep for a while, sometimes just sits and cuddles. When she is ready to leave, it is one second to the next. One moment she is all cuddly and the next she is darting out from underneath the covers. She will stretch out along my stomach and cuddle on the outside of the covers, too. If she is sleeping on any of the beds, she also likes super love and I can lie down next to her and put my head on her side. What is the cutest is putting my face next to hers on the bed and she will stretch out alongside of me and her front paws will reach over and knead on my shoulder. When she is really happy, she likes to touch my face. Only the kittens liked to do it. Even when she sits on my lap in the backroom, she'll reach up that cute little paw and touch my face. The only downfall . . . her claws are always out! But, it is such a darling thing that I don't mind it ever. She also burrows herself under covers during the day. You'll find her peaking out from under the bedding or you just see a lump under a blanket. We put fleecie pieces on the beds (on top of the cat sheets) so that they have a cuddly place to sleep. She often goes under the fleece and just curls up for the afternoon. All that tells you where she is is the breathing lump under the blanket! She has very wiry hair and not much undercoat, and we always joke that she has a 2 degree comfort zone. She is hot in the Summer and cold in the Winter. Poor baby! But she really loves to cuddle. Loves to cuddle with feline friends, too!
When it comes to food, The Woozie has some definite ideas. She is mostly a dry food girlie, but does like wet food. When they were about a year old, we gave them raw chicken livers. We would go to Smithheisler's in Mount Vernon and buy these frozen containers of livers. Once they were thawed, we would cut a few up on a plate and let the kitties eat them. Only Little Joe, Max and Avis liked them. Actually, they loved them! We called them "Mow-Mows" because when you would be cutting them up, all three babies would be saying "mow-mow" and rubbing all over your legs. Well, it was a labor of love as they were pretty disgusting and smelled terrible. They loved them, though. After a couple of years, Avis developed a terrible skin condition where it felt like she had scabs all over. Took her to the vet and long story short --- the livers had to go. So, no more mow-mows and Avis' skin condition cleared up. Now, years later, you still can't cut anything up on a glass plate without Avis coming and wanting livers! Another oddity in the Woozie diet is her love of Goldfish crackers. She is a positive nut about Xtreme Cheddar Goldfish. She can hear the bag crinkle rooms away and there is her little face staring up at you as you munch on crackers. Once she ate four of them in a row! She'll eat normal Goldfish, but her favorite are the Xtreme Cheddar ones. Sometimes she'll find a Cheez-It crumb and try it. OK, but not Goldfish! Greens are another thing that have attracted her before. Once when she was a young cat, we picked a whole laundry basket full of lettuce from our garden. Brought it inside and set it on the floor for a few minutes. All of a sudden we hear this munching sound. There is Avis, sitting in the basket on the lettuce leaves, just gobbling away! Guess she was craving some salad!
When it comes to food, The Woozie has some definite ideas. She is mostly a dry food girlie, but does like wet food. When they were about a year old, we gave them raw chicken livers. We would go to Smithheisler's in Mount Vernon and buy these frozen containers of livers. Once they were thawed, we would cut a few up on a plate and let the kitties eat them. Only Little Joe, Max and Avis liked them. Actually, they loved them! We called them "Mow-Mows" because when you would be cutting them up, all three babies would be saying "mow-mow" and rubbing all over your legs. Well, it was a labor of love as they were pretty disgusting and smelled terrible. They loved them, though. After a couple of years, Avis developed a terrible skin condition where it felt like she had scabs all over. Took her to the vet and long story short --- the livers had to go. So, no more mow-mows and Avis' skin condition cleared up. Now, years later, you still can't cut anything up on a glass plate without Avis coming and wanting livers! Another oddity in the Woozie diet is her love of Goldfish crackers. She is a positive nut about Xtreme Cheddar Goldfish. She can hear the bag crinkle rooms away and there is her little face staring up at you as you munch on crackers. Once she ate four of them in a row! She'll eat normal Goldfish, but her favorite are the Xtreme Cheddar ones. Sometimes she'll find a Cheez-It crumb and try it. OK, but not Goldfish! Greens are another thing that have attracted her before. Once when she was a young cat, we picked a whole laundry basket full of lettuce from our garden. Brought it inside and set it on the floor for a few minutes. All of a sudden we hear this munching sound. There is Avis, sitting in the basket on the lettuce leaves, just gobbling away! Guess she was craving some salad!
Once she had a grand adventure. Actually, she and Frodo had a somewhat unexpected and (for us) unpleasant escapade. One evening, when they were about two years old, we had just finished a movie and were heading to bed when Mom gave a shriek from her room and we all went running to see what was the matter. All she kept screaming was "Avis is looking in the window!" Well, it seems that Frodo and Avis had been sitting in the front window in our room and the screen fell out. They must have fallen out onto the roof and then Little Joe followed (he always wished he could have been an outside cat!). Well, Avis obviously didn't find much pleasure in the great outdoors and she was plastered to Mom and Dad's window with a face that looked like "Let me in!". I climbed through the open window and got The Woozie back in, chased Little Joe inside and then had to struggle with Frodo (who didn't let me near him at that point in his life) who ended up practically getting swung in by his tail, leaving me with a bit of a scar to prove the event really happened! After that, we had Dad install security clips on the screens, so that they won't fall out when the kitties lean on them. Happily, it only happened once and noone ended up jumping into the close branches of the ash tree! Remembering it makes us laugh, as poor Avis' face was so funny! I guess the great outdoors wasn't all that it looked like from the inside of the windows. No fluffy beds, no cans of food with that comforting pop-top sound, no kibbles, and beds to hide under!
The only other "adventure" that was out of the ordinary was the time that a live bird fell down the chimney and was hopping around our stove (this was in June 2010, so all that was in the stove was a cold bed of ash. We found out because Beatrice was glued to the stove window and we kept wondering what she was doing. Then we saw it. Dad came home and Mom went outside. Sis and I tried to hold a sheet over the stove door while Dad opened it, but the bird flew through the side. It tried every window in the living room and then the kitchen. Then Sis and I got the screen off of one in the living room and it flew out. But, the cats were the funniest thing! We thought that they would try and hunt it. Oh, were we wrong! It scared Oliver and he ran into the back room until it was over. Beatrice just ran in circles next to the stove and The Woozie ran in constant circles over the Victrola, onto the rocking chair, back to the Victrola, and so forth! They went crazy!
So . . . this should give a bit of a picture of life with The Woozie!
The only other "adventure" that was out of the ordinary was the time that a live bird fell down the chimney and was hopping around our stove (this was in June 2010, so all that was in the stove was a cold bed of ash. We found out because Beatrice was glued to the stove window and we kept wondering what she was doing. Then we saw it. Dad came home and Mom went outside. Sis and I tried to hold a sheet over the stove door while Dad opened it, but the bird flew through the side. It tried every window in the living room and then the kitchen. Then Sis and I got the screen off of one in the living room and it flew out. But, the cats were the funniest thing! We thought that they would try and hunt it. Oh, were we wrong! It scared Oliver and he ran into the back room until it was over. Beatrice just ran in circles next to the stove and The Woozie ran in constant circles over the Victrola, onto the rocking chair, back to the Victrola, and so forth! They went crazy!
So . . . this should give a bit of a picture of life with The Woozie!