Hello. I’m Diann, a woman in Connecticut who lives with five cats. One of these, Rory, a shorthaired tuxedo cat just got a new lease on life with a forearm amputation due to an aggressive “benign” tumor in his left forelimb. As I type, it’s two days past his surgery, and I’ve just brought him home, after making some adaptations for him in the house.
Rory and CeeCee are fraternal twins born on the Fourth of July, 2005, according to their previous owners, who had acquired them at a pound. When they went into foreclosure, they contacted me to take their cats. I already had/still have three others. Serenity (currently age 13, a ragdoll) and Obi-Wan and Orion, age eight. The three original cats and the two more recent additions never got along, so they’ve been housed separately when I am not at home. Upstairs/Downstairs…
Rory came into this house weighing nearly 18 pounds. After a year of this, watching his belly drag on the ground (no, it wasn’t muscle weight), I put him on a diet. My cats now get grain-free kibble — yes, yes, I know, I should be feeding them raw flesh, but I don’t have the time for it… both he and CeeCee did lose their extra weight. It’s better than what they HAD been eating. He weighed 11.5 pounds at the time of surgery. He was highly energetic.
When I first brought Rory in here, he was simply “Big Lug”. He never did anything. If CeeCee pestered him enough, his main form of excercize was to chase after her and slam her down by sheer body weight. Eventually, I figured out she was the instigator. About a year ago he’d lost enough of that excess weight that he was willing to move around and be delightfully personable. Unlike her, he’s mellow and easy going. And without that weight, he’s active and loving.
CeeCee’s bright — the two nights Rory was away, she kept trying to use doornobs to get into rooms. She knows what they’re for, but she’s not built to operate them. She was lonely, and vocalized a lot. But as noted, since she does like to instigate things, she’s now being boarded for a few days so I can go to work and not worry about them interacting.