Happy Whisker Wednesday! It’s been just over three months since my last update on Floofenstein, and A LOT has happened. The main takeaways are that he’s healthy, he’s incredibly loving, calling him a rockstar was appropriate, his relationships with the boys have improved, and his relationship with Athena is heading in a new direction. Now let’s dive into the details.
Household Integration
Floofenstein is completely integrated in the household now, and has been since the end of July. We were very careful with his “autonomy” — time off of his leash — after the bumpy bit where he insisted on pouncing on people. Thankfully, Floof is smart and learned quickly that pouncing was not acceptable.
His intelligence was also in clear evidence in how quickly he learned that he isn’t allowed on counters. My only rule for the cats — in relation to where they can and can’t go — is “no ground paws on food surfaces.” It only took a few times of him jumping up on a counter and being told “no” to learn not to do so.
However, his belly will override his intelligence. Despite knowing he’s not allowed on kitchen counters or the dining room table, he regularly puts his paws on the table when we’re eating in an attempt to get closer to the food. I assume he would steal it if given half a chance. So far, he has loved every food he’s tried except Envy apples. If he were human, he’d be very healthy, because he loves veggies. And don’t worry, I only give him a small bite or two of permissible foods at any given meal, so he isn’t overeating, and he definitely isn’t filling up on human or junk food.
While we’re on the topic of food, we’re still working on teaching him that he may only eat out of his own food bowl. He’s basically figured this out for their daily wet food meal — he no longer tries to nose Ritz or Dante out of the way to finish their food — but we’re still working on it for their dry food meals. Floofenstein’s bowl is still in his bathroom, because I don’t trust him not to migrate over to someone else’s bowl the moment he finishes.
To help with stealing, Floof gets one serving at the same time as everyone else — we have automatic feeders — and one serving a minute later to keep him at his bowl longer while the others finish. Up until last week, his servings were a minute early and on time to make sure he went to his bowl, but the other boys found that incredibly distressing. So, I’m working on aligning Floof’s meals better.
Clowder Integration
Floofenstein’s integration into our clowders is not going anywhere near as smoothly. He’s at different points in his relationship with each Athena, Dante, and Ritz. Interestingly, though, he seems to have taken it upon himself to be the clowder peacekeeper. He’ll break up Ritz and Dante if one of them starts complaining that their playfighting is getting too rough. And he’s been protecting Athena.
Athena
Recently, Athena has become marginally more accepting of Floofers. She will generally still growl if he gets too close, but I think she’s starting to understand that he wants to protect her. In the past few weeks, Floof has:
- Bitten me when he thought I was harming Athena — she was just being overly dramatic while I checked a healing scratch.
- Chased off Ritz when he was bothering Athena.
- Sat outside the bathroom door, meowing in clear distress while we bathed Athena — she was complaining vociferously.
- Sat by the cat room door while Athena is using the litterbox to keep the other boys from “potty pouncing.”
- Sat by her cat house to keep the boys from ambushing her.
I wonder how many instances of protection she’ll require before he decides he’s friendly.
Dante
Dante has a weird relationship with Floof, giving him a lot of mixed signals. One moment, he’s nuzzling Floof, wanting attention, the next he’s hissing and/or growling at him. I don’t understand.
It all came to a head a couple of weeks ago. Floofenstein and Dante were both lounging on our bed with Jim when Floof started trying to play with Dante’s tail. He caught it and nommed, and Dante reacted poorly. In the blink of an eye — according to Jim — there was a raging ball of cat with fur flying everywhere — I was in the dining room at the time. I was able to separate the two of them, and there were no signs of major injury, although Floof had several scratches.
I was sure that was the end of any chance of them having a good relationship. Instead, it’s made things better. Dante is more likely to be loving, now, than abrasive.
When he’s being loving, I’ve seen Dante nuzzle and body bonk Floofenstein. I’ve also seen them play chase. But I’ve also seen Dante growl and hiss when he feels Floof is too close to him. Thankfully, since their tussle, Floofenstein no longer seems to take it personally.
I have high hopes that their relationship will continue to improve as time goes on, especially since Ritz is getting on with Floof.
Ritz
Floofenstein’s relationship with Ritz has completely shifted. They’re buds now. There are still times when Floof will startle Ritz, but they’re OK, or better than OK, about 95% of the time.
Somehow, Floofers has convinced Ritz to take a submissive role. Ritz will come over and nuzzle Floofenstein, asking for grooming, kind of like he used to do with Bumbledore. I’ve seen it three times now. The most recent time, Ritz nuzzled Floof’s chin, and in response, Floof threw his left front leg over Ritz’s shoulders and started licking behind his ear. It was adorable.
They don’t mind sharing with each other, I can pick them both up together, and even squish them together, and they don’t complain at all.
I’m hoping that, as time goes on, Dante will pick up on the improved relationship and get more friendly with Floofenstein as well.
Health and Grooming
There’s a lot to go over here.
Health
We had a stint where all of the cats got eye infections, and Floofenstein was no exception. We didn’t figure out what caused it, but they’ve all gotten over it now, thankfully.
Floofers also managed to injure his back left leg. He was limping for a couple of days, and the vet prescribed him some anti-inflammatory medicine which helped him heal.
We’ve switched him to Zyrtec from Chlorpheniramine, and it’s made a significant different with his allergies. His eyes still get a teeny bit goopy some days, but otherwise he doesn’t have any problems.
His scar continues to be an issue, though, and likely will for the rest of his life. Because of its location, he often catches the area with his claws when he’s scratching himself. There isn’t any fur there to protect the skin. I apply an ointment every day to help keep it moisturized — and, by extension, less itchy. The vet has also suggested we clean his ears regularly in case part of the reason he’s itching is waxiness in his ears.
It doesn’t help that his scar has significantly expanded since healing fully. Whereas when he first healed, it was around the size of a half dollar, it has now expanded to encompass the entire area where he was first injured.
Show scar images
He’s doing very well with toothbrushing, except for the inner sides of his teeth. One vet said he just has to deal with the discomfort, another said we don’t have to worry about the inner sides. Guess whose advice I’m taking this time?
Finally, his FIV has not shown any sign of advancing, thankfully. He’ll have biannual vet visits for the rest of his life — unless they need to be more frequent — to keep an eye on his immune levels.
Grooming
I make sure to brush Floofenstein regularly — which he adores — even though he’s shown no sign of actually requiring it. I’m guessing that’s the Ragdoll/Ragamuffin in him, since their fur is supposed to be pretty resistant to matting.
Because Floof is long-haired, his fur sticks out between his toes. When he runs around, that fur results in him sliding around, and I worry that he may slide off the landing and fall down the stairs. So, we have the bottom of his paws trimmed regularly.
Unfortunately, Floofenstein hasn’t done well with me or Jim touching his paws, so we’ve had to take him to the vet to get it done. I’m working on it, though. He actually let me trim the claws on all four paws last night!
His fur is also longer around his back legs — he has fluffy “pantaloons.” So, we have also have his sanitary area trimmed. Because of the sensitive bits, I think I’ll always let the vet’s office do that work.
And speaking of his sensitive bits, Jim and I unlocked a new cat parent achievement not too long ago. Floof jumped up on the chair beside me and I was hit with the stench of poop. I lifted his tail and saw that he had a half-pooped turd stuck. So, I enlisted Jim’s help. I held a very unhappy and struggling Floofenstein while Jim tried to get the poop loose. He succeeded, but when he pulled it loose, it made a pop sound like a quiet champagne cork. The poo was half fur, which explains why it was stuck. Jim and I switched jobs to clean Floof’s butt. Neither of us need to do that again.
Play and Cuddles
It’s been delightful watching Floofenstein’s personality blossom. He was incredibly mellow when we first brought him in, but he’s started playing more. He really enjoys small toys he can bat around, and will chase after them for a significant amount of time.
He also adores Mr. Rope. I’ll pull the rope along the floor behind me as I scurry around the house, and Floof will race after it, skidding around corners and pouncing when he gets close enough. Once he has his teeth on Mr. Rope, though, you have to be patient, because he won’t give it back.
He will play with Mr. Red Dot for a little bit, but he loses interest quickly. Having been an outdoor cat, I think he finds it pointless to chase something that he can’t actually catch.
He isn’t much less cuddly, though. He still adores being near his humans. He doesn’t like being on us as much as Bumbledore did, but he does love to be with us. If I hold him, then lay down on the sofa while holding him, he’ll lay on my chest for a while before jumping off to relax elsewhere. But, I can’t just pick him up and plop him on me while I lay down. He doesn’t like that.
When we give him bed cuddles, he much prefers us to lie down next to him than for either of us to put him on our chest or stomach. His favorite, though, is when I sit with my legs folded into a diamond to make a little “nest” for him. He enjoys using my feet as a pillow.
And the big heart-melter: I took him downstairs with me for game time and plopped him on my lap, turned to face me. I didn’t realize until a bit later that his bottom half was still belly up. He ended up snoozing like that, and it was the most heartwarming moment.
Whether it’s because he’s healed or because we’ve given him a reason, he purrs now. They aren’t the typical rumbling purr I’m used to from cats. It’s usually fairly quiet. But, it’s there. And sometimes you can hear him clearly — usually when he’s really happy.
He still flicks the tip of his tail, and he regularly makes large, slow biscuits. Floofenstein isn’t shy about letting us know he’s content.
He’s also gotten pretty good about coming when I make kissy noises, which is cute.
Rock Star
I said in a previous post that calling him a rock star suited him because he likes to sing the songs of his people. While he’s become a bit less vocal now that he’s fully integrated into the household, we’ve found another reason, too; he makes fans everywhere he goes.
Making Fans
Every time he goes to the vet, he charms everyone in the waiting area and continues his charm offensive on the vet office staff. He’s also a ladies’ man; he’s yet to meet a feminine-presenting person he doesn’t like, but masculine-presenting people are hit or miss.
Since healing, he’s also won over every vet who has seen him. The second time I took him for paw and tush trimming, I was talking to the vet when he was brought back out, and he walked right over to her and asked for pets. He kept nuzzling her hand every time she stopped petting him, and she mentioned how soft he is. With a small smile, she told him, “you aren’t supposed to want me to pet you.”
During a later appointment, I had him on the front desk counter and was rubbing his belly to distract him from the big dogs in the waiting area. Per usual, he was completely flopped on his back, giving me full access to his curly belly. The vet who had seen him was walking by, so I invited her to get in on the belly action. I think she was about ready to steal him, she liked him so much.
A bunch of the vet staff have also had a chance to hold him on his back like a baby. He actually enjoys that, and seems to prefer it to being held “regularly” when at the vet. Although, perhaps that’s just because everyone who gets to hold him that way coos at him and tells him how wonderful he is.
Traveling Cat
All good rock stars have to travel, and should enjoy traveling. Floofenstein is no different.
Since he was having trouble with carriers — he didn’t understand that walking back and forth inside was causing the rocking that he didn’t like — I got Floof a cat backpack. He loved it. And that got me thinking, between his love of attention and comfort in the backpack, he should travel.
A couple of weekends ago, he had his first non-vet travel experience; we took him to PetSmart. He loved the car ride and was consistently standing up as tall as possible in his backpack to look out the windows at everything passing by.
When we got to PetSmart, he was a bit overwhelmed at first, but he quickly settled in, especially once I moved his backpack to the main section of the cart, rather than the baby seat.
Unfortunately, because he was in the basket, he wasn’t as visible as if he were up in the seat, which meant not many people noticed him. And it didn’t help that PetSmart wasn’t particularly busy. But, he did happily soak up the attention that he got.
Since he did so well at PetSmart, we decided to take him to Starbucks and get him a tiny bit of whipped cream. The lady at the register gave me more than I asked for, so I didn’t let Floof finish it, but he ADORED the bit I let him have.
As he was gulping it down, a lady was watching him with a smile, so I invited her to come over and pet him, which she happily did.
Once we got our drinks, Jim decided to sit outside, which eliminated any chance of Floof getting more attention, but he did enjoy sticking his head out of the side zip pocket and watching people and birds go by.
This won’t be his last traveling cat experience.
Name Acceptance
The one issue we’re having with Floofenstein is that he doesn’t want to accept his name. Whether it’s because he doesn’t want a name or doesn’t want this name, I don’t know, but I’m determined to outlast his stubbornness. I feel Floofenstein suits him perfectly, so Floofenstein he is.
Phew!!! That was a looooooooong one. If you’re still here, thanks for reading to the end, and your reward is more adorable Floofenstein pictures!
Which photo of Floofenstein was your favorite? And is there anything else you want to know about him? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear from you.
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