Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen things about Gretchen

My Thirteen is going to be about my cat, Gretchen. She came to us 3 years ago today. She was born on May 1, 2004 but we took her into our hearts and home on June 13, 2004.

1. Gretchen was an answered prayer cat. See the whole story

here.

2. Gretchen is a soft as silk cat with pale tortoise markings, bib and booties. I wanted to name her Peaches because of her patches of peach fur, but it just didn't seem right. My husband insisted that we call her Gretchen and for some reason I gave in. I've never allowed him to name any of our cats before. I've usually named them, or the girls when they were home, and he'd approve because he was outnumbered. But when he said her name should be Gretchen, it just seemed like that had always been her name. It fit her.

3. Sometimes I call her Princes Gretchen because she's so picky about what she eats, where she eats, and when she eats. She has two feeding stations and prefers the toilet for her water bowl, even though I keep a clean bowl of fresh water on her place mat at all times.

4. Gretchen is an inside (apartment) only cat. When she was six months old we took her to the vet for the first time. She had all her shots, was spayed and had the front claws removed. I had that done to another one of my cats once (on all four paws), and swore I'd never do that again. Removing Gretchen's claws was a difficult decision. My husband is a Brittle Diabetic, that's the worst kind, and he can't afford to have scratches from the cat. I had just had a bilateral mastectomy and have no lymph nodes under my arms, so scratches were also bad for me. Plus, the apartment lease stated that all cats had to be de-clawed. I don't think that's necessarily true now, but when I first got her, it was stipulated that I comply. I had taken her to another town, all the towns pretty much run together around here, at the recommendation of a friend who had three cats and that's the only vet she liked. It was an awful experience for both Gretchen, my husband and I. She had to be taken in a cat box for a thirty-minute ride, she cried all the way. She had to be left overnight, that was horrible also, and she came home heavily infested with fleas. When the vet first examined her before they admitted her, she was clean as a whistle, and the vet even remarked on how clean she was. They denied the fact that she got the fleas from their clinic. I had to clean the house, wash all the bedding, clean the carpet, while we treated her with that Advantage? (I can't remember what the name for the cat stuff is, but it worked and we've never been infested with fleas since.)

5. To top it all off, within five months, the middle claw and dewclaw on her right paw grew back. At first the vet told me that they wouldn't fix it for free, but after I had given them a few well-placed words, not bad ones, mind you…just well placed, the vet relented and said they wouldn't charge me again. But then, my husband and I just couldn't put Gretchen through that awful experience again, and would never take her, or recommend any cat we knew of, to that clinic again. We decided that Gretchen wasn't bothered by the dewclaw. She was quite happy to have a tiny tool to rip things to shreds with, and the middle claw never stays long. It grows in soft and comes off regularly. We talked many times about having it removed by a vet here in town, but always talk ourselves out of it. We've decided that if it ever becomes a problem for her we'll have it removed. She's happy and we're happy, so all is well on that front.

6. Life for an apartment cat is not all that much fun sometimes. Gretchen has a great imagination and invents friends. The Sofa Bear Club are, or rather were, among her favorite friends. They have been removed now, put in the storage closet, at least for the summer. When the stuffed bears sat around since Christmas without their clothes, I said it was time for a change. They have sat on the back of the sofa for nearly ten years. (Six craft bears had a set of clothes that I changed regularly for years. Their place was on the back of the sofa. Gretchen often spent time with them there, blending in.)

7. Gretchen divides her time between her furry, stuffed mice, her pink, plastic golf balls, bird watching—sometimes visiting with a cat or two through the window screen, catloafing and sleeping. She loves to chase after bubbles. And will do anything for string. Getting the backscratcher out means we're going mouse hunting. Her furry little mice often disappear under the fridge, dresser and other tight places.

8. Eating, sleeping, and bathing occupy a good portion of the day. She has my husband and I well trained and uses us each in a different way. She sleeps with me, actually she sleeps on my hip (I'm a side sleeper). I find when she's actually standing on my shoulder staring at me that she wants me to lift the covers so she can climb under them. As soon as I depart the bed in the morning she is in my spot. She often sleeps until noon there. When hubby comes home, her routine changes and after a bit of attention from him, and a quick romp through the apartment, they both settle down for an afternoon nap, leaving me to myself, to write, garden, to blog.

9. When evening comes, dishes are done, she know it's time, whether I 'm ready or not, to sit in my lap. If I'm not sitting when she wants me to, she will whine and wind her way through my legs until I get the message. There are some days that she thinks I should be sitting in the afternoon and will follow me around demanding me to stop what I'm doing and sit. She's not at all happy when I'm at the computer a lot. Lately, she forces her way between the keyboard and my body, trying to get comfortable on my lap. I've finally figured out that this means time for a break.

10. Gretchen, like most cats seem to do, comes alive at night. After she's insisted that I'm tucked in bed and have fallen asleep; she starts me getting ready for bed around eleven o'clock at night. If I don't start shutting things down at eleven she starts her whining, sitting on the floor in front of me and staring routine. She'll follow me from room to room, and makes sure I've done everything right. Once I'm in bed and covers in place, she'll come and lay on my side until I fall asleep. After that she's does a series of window-to-window sorties. Especially when it's warm enough to have the windows open at night.

11. Gretchen's other favorite pastimes are tearing up Kleenex boxes, rustling around in tissue paper—she loves to shred it, trying to chew on plastic which I have to be very careful of, flopping on the floor in the middle of my path for an instant belly rub, and just being your ordinary, soft as a peach, cute as bug, loving, adorable cat.

12. Gretchen has participated in stories for Cat's on Tuesday with the pitiful, stuffed black cat we named Mike. Mike has strange eyes and sends us strange brainwaves. There are three other stuffed cats in the apartment, Beanie Kitty, Zoo Kitty, and White Kitten. They all lay in their places quietly like stuffed animals are supposed to do, however, you can never count on what Mike is going to do. In March of this year an aunt of mine died and I inherited some of her things, a white stuffed toy cat and a black one, whose fur melted in the dryer after I washed him. Gretchen and I have a lot of fun with the black lump of melted fur…we've now dubbed him Mike the Mysterious. To see Mike Stories click on the Mike the Mysterious button on the sidebar.

13. Lastly, I've written these thirteen things about Gretchen because of our anniversary, but also to tell you that she's going to have her own site. Hopefully it will be ready by this time next week and I will announce it. My daughter #3, the one who set up Scrungy's Creator for me and still does maintenance on it because I haven't learned yet quite how to do it, is letting me set up Gretchen's site all by myself. If I'm not successful, she'll fix it for me…wish me luck.

Gretchen on June 13, 2007

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