Saturday, March 04, 2006

Top Cat

Our "baby" cat, Mischa, is turning into the largest cat we've ever owned! (That's her in front in the photo to the left; Anna, her older "sister," is behind her; Anna's actually her aunt, but we keep it a secret from them.... *shhhh!*)

When we got Mischa a year ago, she was a tiny 4 1/2 pound six-month-old relatively short-haired girl. The photo over there doesn't do her justice in her current glory; she's now turned into a 12 pound girl, long and muscular with a phenomenally thick coat, a virtual mane of hair around her neck, and enormous feet. Anna, meanwhile, has held her size at about 8 1/2 to 9 pounds, so Mischa has shot past her in size. Thankfully, Mischa doesn't seem to realize that Anna is actually only 3/4 her size; Anna, being the older of the two, still maintains some order and decorum.

Of course, the true elder in our cat family is Tisha, not pictured; she turns 17 next month, and while she's a bit grayer than she used to be and a little less active, she's still doing quite well for herself. After resolving the gall bladder problems that threatened her life last fall, we've been able to entice her to eat heartily, and she's back up to her normal 7 1/2 to 8 pound weight. She sleeps more than she used to, but she's also a good bit older than the other girls (and she is, in fact, the oldest cat we've ever had--and we've had her since she was barely seven weeks old, so we've seen her flourish and thrive for many wonderful years). While Anna and Mischa will try from time to time to play with Tisha, they generally give her the respect that is her due.

Surprisingly, we go through no more canned cat food with the three of them than we did with Asia and Tisha when Asia was still with us; the difference, though, is that both Anna and Mischa eat a lot more dry food. I would love to see Anna eat even more and put on a bit more weight, but I don't think it's going to happen; I think her body size and shape has pretty much been established by now (today's her second birthday), so it looks like she'll remain the long, lean, lanky sort.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was searching for info on my grandfathers old shop in Rome called the Liberty hatworks and newstand. I left a post before and was hoping to get a response from you so that i could get some info on how the store used to be. unfournately it is now a snow cone shop and i don't believe any of the "orginal" stuff from his store is there... I was told stories of his shop when i was too young to appreciate them now i'm wishing i could find out more about him and his shop. I thought it was neat to see that his store was that rememorable from years ago

cliff said...

Hi, Meagan!

Check my post entitled "Give Me Liberty" and you'll find a lot more info regarding Liberty, its layout, etc. I didn't have an e-mail address for you, so I didn't know how to let you know I had posted further memories of Liberty. Please check it out and see if that helps!