Birthday boy.

Hello, hope you've had a good week. I haven't included a photo of QT for a while and as Monday was his birthday and Lee had asked after him, I thought he could have his own post. He was 17 years old, we averaged our family birth dates and came up with the 15th. He was chosen from the local animal sanctuary, described as a long haired tabby male 8 years. He'd been at the sanctuary twice as his previous 2 owners had both died. Unfortunately both his and and his sisters records were lost. We never got to see his sister but we fell in love with this, not so young man, the soon as we saw him. As we collected him a week later, we were informed about his feeding habits etc and told it's because he's a Maine Coon. Fearing this was an illness, I hastily asked questions, and was assured, it's his pedigree. Oh, a posh cat, we've never had a pedigree cat before.

After we registered his chip in our details, it seems he was actually not 8 but instead 14.5 years old. Though he was originally registered with pedigree status and birth date given in January 2001, strictly speaking as he has no papers now, he's just a moggy. He has fur between his toes and in his ears, he chirps like a coonie and has a fluffy mane and impressive fluffy tail which he won't let us touch.

This is my favourite photograph of him, he looks so happy and totally content with life. He's on the swing & slide playdeck, which has now 3 years later, been taken down. The teens understandably no longer use it and their friends don't usually bring younger siblings with them.

 

There's something about this bush, the sweet smell in springtime maybe, that attracts him to it. On a sunny day, he'll venture closer and lay almost under it, rolling side to side. Falling asleep in many spots around the garden including under a gooseberry bush, it's lovely to see him happy. We aren't sure about any of his past life, we think he went out but he certainly never learnt to use a cat flap. After M installed 2 cat flaps, we were disheartened by his lack of effort. He'll go through it if we hold it open but no amount of coaxing with treats, gentle pushing, or 'letting him get on with it' has worked.

QT's bush.

Watching

and listening

and lighting up our hearts.
  

I love my sofa - checking out the birds 

We love him dearly, he has us wrapped round his little paw, which incidentally he won't allow his feet to be touched. His poor right leg which sticks out in the previous photo, suffers with arthritis. Sadly it took the strain from a badly healed fracture in his left leg. When he had his teeth cleaned and a tooth removed we asked for an ex-ray which showed up his past trauma. 

He won't sit on us, neither will he play with cat toys. He'll only play with thread, yarn lengths or laces as long as nothing is tied on the ends. He's fussy with his food and has numerous beds all over the house. I do pick him up for a quick cuddle which he tolerates before wanting to get down. I like to think that he loves us all, as much as we love him. He probably wishes for more sleep than he gets. I've no idea how he sleeps in teen 2 bedroom when rock, progressive rock or xbox guitar hero music is blaring out. But if I pop in the room to put laundry in the airing cupboard, it seems to wake him up! 

With old age comes health issues for anyone and for him it's his thyroid, the vet is good but expensive. The meds have him stabilised and so far all is well. His colouring always reminds me of a mint humbug with his dark and light coloured stripes. Now we have the fire opened up through to the dining room, it's always quite alarming when he squeezes through the space on the hearth itself! 

Stay warm and have a good week.

QT x