Tartarian honeysuckle is a scent that some cats respond to in the same euphoric way they do catnip. Not all cats respond to all scents so it is worthwhile to try them all.
atlanta cat behavior
Zinnia
The very first Fundamentally Feline profile pic was this beautiful girl!
Professional photo shoot was a challenge because she was shy.
She freaked out in the trap! Hardcore. Again, not knowing then what I do now, Jake and I were freaked out too. She thrashed around in the trap, bloodied her nose, we were afraid to open it because she was like a wild animal. But we couldn’t possible leave her in that trap all night, or could we? No. So we let her out in a bathroom, instinctually I have always been super paranoid about disease and fleas, etc. (perhaps a precursor sign that I was born to work in feline medicine!) She bolted around in there, but calmed down considerably quickly. Insanely, I gave her a bath, because that seemed like a swell idea at the time! We made an appointment at what was soon to be my future employer and brought her up to be tested for the communicable feline disease, treated for fleas, spayed etc.
Zinnia is the reason I am here, or Z, as we have affectionately called her for years. She started it all. Sure, I had cats before Zinnia came along, but she is what gave me my start. She presented challenges that forced me to learn more about cats and their behavior; she provided circumstances I had never dealt with before, she got me my job at my first feline veterinary practice, she was the first face of Fundamentally Feline and here is her story.
We were still living in our apartment at the time we started seeing her outside our window. All too commonly people move and just leave their cats behind. It was always dark when we would see her and we were novices, so we though she was huge, likely male and maybe even a long hair. I called the vet practice where we already took our 4 cats and they allowed us to borrow a humane trap. They taught us how to use it, suggested what to bait it with, and emphasized patience, that apparently some cats are “trap smart” and it could take weeks to catch her. Well, turns out she was pretty hungry because we laid a trail of canned food and had her in 15minutes!
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I got the call that she was all done, got through surgery fine and was ready for pick up. When I go to pick up I was informed that she was pregnant but not too far along, so they spayed her anyway. Given my beliefs and the homeless pet population, I was fine with this. I was surprised at how very routine it was to do so, and how nonchalant everyone was about it though. I later learned how commonplace pregnant spays were and how necessary.
As I was returning the trap, discussing post op protocols and her follow up vaccines visit, the office manager turns to me and says, “you want a job?” I said, “are you kidding I have wanted to work here for years!” I had no experience and was about to graduate from art school, and here I am considering a job as a vet tech. So, we set up an observation day so I could see what I was getting myself into and I guess the rest is history! (I met cat #6 on my observation day, but that is another story!)
Kitchen and dining area was her headquarters.
Supervised outside time towards the end of life.
So then it was integration time. We had 4 male cats already, two pairs of brothers. So Zinnia was the “odd man out”. She was pretty “pissy” but all and all the intro went ok. Knowing what I know now I feel certain that Zinnia was likely someone’s only kitten, and was what we call poorly socialized. She likely grew up isolated from her our species and did not understand all of the social cues that most kittens learn from their litter mates in the first few formative weeks of life. I have always been a believer in adopting in pairs, just because it seemed like the right thing to do, but Z confirmed this! So she coped.
Then we moved. Shortly after Zinnia settled in we bought our first house, our only house thus far, and the house that has landed us on Animal Planet and in magazines for the feline accommodations we have made for it. It was good at first, more space for successful avoidance with the boys. When #6 came along that wasn’t so bad either, that was Peaches and she loved everyone. But by now I had started my job at the clinic; in fact, I started there the day after we moved into the house. The influx of stray and down on their luck cats in need of homes, blew me away. I set out to save the world, and well, adopted way too many cats too quickly.
So, within two months we went from 4 cats to 5, to 6 to eleven! In came Mamma and her babies. Our first foster failures and Zinnia was pissed. I do not know if there was any psychological impact on her having recently aborted her kittens, or if I just had a few too many bitchy females. Regardless, I had two females that hated each other (Mammas and Z) and some males that were happy to join in the fun, and some kittens who were about to grow up to be little hoodlums! Well, actually, they were amazing, but Zinnia never did take too kindly to them. The trouble shooting began.
As time passed by I somehow thought it was a good idea to have even more cats. And, well, it was! In fact, it was the best experience of our lives, except for poor Zinnia. You see, she was really the only one that wasn’t having a good time. It became imperative that food, water, litter, vertical space was provided in every room of the house, but most especially in Z’s favorite places. Everyone would come to use everything, but it had to be right for her. You see, successful avoidance became the goal. I didn’t need her to be cuddled up on an armchair grooming one of the kittens, but I needed her to be able to get to all of her basic needs without being attacked in the litter box, kicked off the top of a cat condo, etc. I think that is the big take home message. When you have cats that do not love each other, why do we make it so hard for them? They should not have to share a food dish in the kitchen or one hooded litter box in the laundry room, through a cat flap! It is ridiculous the obstacles we humans make these cats cope with and then we get upset when they don’t comply!
Zinnia, taught me about what I now call Tarzan syndrome or only child syndrome. Cats learn the majority of their social skills with other cats by 9-12 weeks of age and if not around other cats during that formative time, they tend to be aggressive with their own species. Zinnia was defensively aggressive towards the other cats and often provoked the fights she was in due to her lack of confidence around them. She taught me that sometimes you have to adopt cats for your cats and not cats just because YOU want them. She taught me about providing an environment of plenty so we make successful avoidance feasible. Z is extremely senior now and my number one priority. No other animals will come into this house to stress her out. I am rooting for her to outlive just as many as she can so she can enjoy herself. She is a happy cat, but I think she could have been happier had I known then what I know now. Hindsight is always 20/20 isn’t it? I am better for it now and better equipped to help others with cats just like Zinnia who have found themselves in this situation. Thank you Z.
I quickly had to take a much deeper interest into how to properly meet the needs of a multi-cat household. This wasn’t about filling the food bowls and scooping boxes anymore. Thanks to Zinnia’s poor feline socialization skills and my overzealous need to save every cat on earth I developed a profound interest in environmental enrichment. This wasn’t really what I was hearing it be called at the time. Life became all about increasing the vertical space in our home to increase square footage and giving the cats lots of cool stuff to do. I later learned that was all called EE or Environmental enrichment!
A very senior lady, about 17, enjoying the fire.
Lynx
Lynx was Shadow's brother and my first experience with a "lynx point siamese" (mix). He was one crazy looking little kitten. I couldn't tell what he was going to turn into, he was kinda buff, kinda organgy, a black tail, I thought he was a little mess! Boy, was I wrong! He turned out to be such a handsome cat and now, I must say, that the lynx point color pattern has now become one of my absolute favorite coat patterns in cats.
Quite quickly our household of two boys became four boys. It was so easy! Now as a cat behaviorist I can appreciate why. Once we got some opinionated ladies in the mix that is when the trouble started.
When they were wee
Smaller than the shoe!
Would you look at him? SQUEE!
They slept this way their whole lives.
I just cannot get enough of these baby pics.
One of my favorite things that Lynx used to do was come up and "rabbit kick" our feet using his hind feet but in a standing position. He did this so very gently, like he was kicking the air, it was so freaking cute. I wish we had smart phones back then or I would absolutely have video of this behavior. I have yet to have another cat who does this behavior which is a reminder to capture all of the memories while you can.
Lynx was only 12 when he left us and as I shared when I told Shadow's story they were both diabetic, hyperthyroid and later developed liver disease, IBD and pancreatitis, triaditis. They acquired these diseases in a different order but they had all the same genetic issues. The benefit of adopting related cats is they are instant friends for life and have a playmate in each other, the downside is the host of medical issues and losing them close together.
This cat loved our hammock swing! Got "stuck" but not really, just playing.
Foraging, the early years.
My first food puzzles were old water bottles.
He too, had so many nicknames, Lynxy dinxy do's was one. I know, we are crazy. It should be noted that when I first implemented foraging toys we had 16 cats, Shadow and Lynx were the ONLY TWO cats that would use the toys, at first. They were my little super stars. They taught the rest of the crew how it is done, and my foraging crusade began. Lynx, thank you for the memories and for foraging. Your interest in food puzzles changed my whole world and I am so grateful to you boys for teaching me.
An old man long before his time.
Shortly before we said goodbye for the last time.
So handsome.
Shadow
A fave candid of us. He loved to ride on our shoulders.
This is Shadow. We adopted Shadow and his brother, Lynx when they were only one month old. Shadow weighed one pound and Lynx was only ¾ of a pound! It was my absolute dream to have “Siamese” cats and I quickly learned how easy it was to adopt cats with this “look” without having to buy and contribute to the homeless cat crisis.
Shadow was the love of my life (sorry, Jake, but he totally understands!) This cat was amazing, and we were very bonded. I loved how he would sit on my left hip and suckle on my ear lobe. He was like an infant and would ask to be picked up. His favorite toy was a lightweight jingly ball. He would bat them around everywhere and would carry them and call. He would leave them in my purse and in my shoes, so cute!
When they were wee
Squee, OMG!
They were naughty little tots (which we enjoyed)!
Q-tips and plastic milk jug rings were a hit with these two trouble makers as was toilet paper and "foraging" in the kitchen cabinets which quickly earned them child safety locks. These were the early years, before food puzzle toys.
His lanky teenage stage!
It is difficult to talk about those who were so special to you, it can be hard to summarize their life in a just a few paragraphs. I used to joke that I couldn’t have loved him more if I gave birth to him myself, now I feel that way about Hitch, but I suppose it is ok to share that feeling with others.
Shadow left us at only 14 years, not even close to long enough. He and his brother both were diabetic and hyperthyroid. They both also later developed liver disease, IBD and pancreatitis (otherwise known as “triaditis”). They acquired these diseases in a different order, but they had all the same genetic issues. The benefit of adopting related cats is they are instant friends for life and have a playmate in each other, the downside is the host of medical issues and losing them close together.
From our professional photo shoot. So glad he was still with us for this special day.
Always adopt littermates, keep family together, this is how cats thrive.
We used to call him Shadow Dancin’ after that 70’s song, which later morphed into “Deathwish Dancin’” because he did a lot of daredevil things and often injured himself! All of our pets have a ridiculous number of nicknames so far removed from their original name it only makes sense to us! We miss this boy so much, but it feels good to look back on who we have called family and all they have taught us.
We are the lucky ones.
Our first stroller. These two really enjoyed strollin'.
HIs signature. He could not get enogh of the left hip.
Jake tells me he was looking at me, "blowing bubble hearts" in this pic.
Look at those tootsies!
With all my heart.
Mercury
Complete with catnip froggy on his head.
First week home, 9 months old!
Mercury and Festus were brothers. It is always advised to adopt related cats and keep feline families together. This helps to ensure harmony and a bond. Re, as we often called him (or Re Re) was the more bold of the pair and I distinctly remember him playing with the strings on my backpack in the adoption room where we met.
Mercury was also the most insulted when I decided I was going to save the world, one cat at a time, and continue to grow our feline and canine family. Mercury was the very first cat in my personal life that started spraying! He even sprayed me once while I was sitting on the couch in my scrubs, needless to say I started changing immediately after arriving home after that. Behavior slowly became my focus, but initially it was so that I could better understand my own household.
Enjoying the nip. Mercury was a violent drunk on the nip.
Mercury very slowly became paralyzed his last year of life. We never got an official diagnosis but we managed his care and he became our SECOND paralyzed cat at the time requiring bladder expression as well as defecating help. These were the only two cats that never got to forage. I learned about that just after losing them. It’s sad the regrets one has of those who came earlier, before I knew as much as I do know, hoping I gave them a good enough life.
We love and miss you boys.
A youthful, barely year old, Re.
He often laid with his legs stretched out like this and dangling off the cat condos.
A two-headed tabby monster.
Always together. Bonded pairs are ideal to adopt.
Multiple cats enjoying the first version of our "treehouse".
Our Mercury.
Tabby Tusslin’ (raw and uncut)
This video depicts a very rough play session between two bonded male cats. This video is play and NOT aggression. I create these to educate cat parents who might otherwise think their cats are fighting. Male cats like to engage in rough play well into their senior years, females do not engage like this nearly as much. Always good to adopt a pair of bonded males so that they can enjoy each other and have an outlet for this style of play.
