Animal House Officers I

My Cats

President of Delta Tau Chi: MEGAN

In 1994 we bought our first house. I wanted a pet now that we didn't have to worry about finding apartments. I read many of books from the library on cats and started looking around. I considered a pure breed since I was concerned about how many people seem to have behavior problem cats. However it seemed like every breed had people who would extol all wonderful traits, but how could all 'x' breed cats be the same? A litter of 6 kittens must still have the bold ones and the shy ones? Plus you had to wait for a litter (in some cases for months) and I did not want to wait. I also answered a few classified ads, but was upset at the casual way the kittens were treated. These were not responsible people who were concerned with cat overpopulation, they were barn cats and unspayed pets producing kittens.

After visiting a local cat show we went to the Dane County Humane Society again and found Megan. She was with her 5 siblings. There were two blue¹ kittens and I really love grey/blue/silver cats. One seemed to have just the right attitude, so I was really upset when the people ahead of us grabbed her card! Luckily my husband calmed me and we waited in line. It turned out that those people were in an apartment that didn't allow pets! So we got our first kitten.

Megan was only 6 weeks old, we celebrate her birthday as 4/26/94, and adorable (as you can see here). Her mother was not with the kittens. Since they were strays we had to wait a week before picking her up. She got a really bad cold soon after and we had our first experience with trying to get a cat to eat.

Megan really taught us to love cats. We wanted a pet and knew a cat would work best, but little did we know how much we'd enjoy having cats in the house. She turned out to be shy and timid, and I'm afraid we didn't help her much, but we really love her the way she is and she got braver after we got Maubee. With us she is very friendly and demands lap time with me, but she takes a LONG time to get used to other cats and can still be nervous around strange people. I hoped to find her a feline friend (a better match than Maubee) while fostering, but she avoids contact with most every one, especially kittens. The funny thing is, even though she hated Maubee at first she actually sort of likes him now. She has also gotten to like our other cats, years after we adopted them. She'll play with Jadzia and sleep very near to all the other cats now. She is a happy well-adjusted cat these days.
Look for more pictures of Megan at the bottom of our Photo Album.

Treasurer: MAUBEE

We did not set out to get a companion for Megan. I knew she would probably not be happier with a second cat. We just loved having her so much that I wanted another cat in my house. I did research how to introduce a second cat and how to pick out a second cat, but didn't have great expectations. I started out looking at barn cats, etc. again since I was concerned about dealing with another URI. But I visited the shelter often too. I felt myself drawn to adult cats over and over even though everyone recommended a kitten for a second cat. Finally I fell in love with a brown tabby. My husband always liked brown tabbies, but I thought they were too ordinary. He convinced me to keep an open mind and look closer and we found this 6 month old kitten who was called 'Basil'. He had been fostered, the first time I really heard about fostering cats, but I thought that was a great plus since he wasn't likely to catch another URI. We took him home 10/23/96 (one day after the shelter neutered him) and renamed him Maubee after a character in the movie The Mighty Quinn.

Maubee was once very friendly with other cats, but is now less interested. He was a great big brother (and sometimes a little brother, though not as often) for our foster cats/kittens for a long time. Now he is curious about visitors, but cranky once he realizes t hat he doesn't know them.

Maubee and Megan took a LONG time to make peace - 10 months plus, but now they were finally able to live peaceably together, sharing the bed and greeting each other. They're still not always buddy-buddy, but as Maubee mellows out they are getting more and more alike and friendlier. He prefers her company to Mimosa and Jadzia most days and I think Meg enjoys having him around. I imagine they will be real friends someday, they are just on a real slow schedule. They seem to understand each others signals and moods well and compliment each other. Maubee's second favorite is Mimosa. He dislikes Jadzia and whines if she even looks at him, not giving her a break, he whines even if he comes near her by choice!

Maubee makes all our lives interesting. He became much more mellow in his second year and also more timid (his birthday was approx. 5/1/96) and remains a gentle wimp. He is a real joy to have around even thought he gets lonely easy. He needs lots of attention when we go away and leave him or get busy with projects around the house (or fosters). He loves warm weather when the windows can be open and we can let him out on the screen porch. He is pretty spoiled, but since we love him it's hard to say no.

URL: http://www.artfulbadger.net/animalhouse/mycats.htm