I wanted to see what Sammie would do if I gave her a cuddle buddy

She is very funny with stuffed animals… I caught her grooming a few of them the other morning!

Who says cats won’t walk on a leash?!

Squishy couch + Walgreens fleece pet blanket = blissful sleep!

Oooo, so long without an update :(  I have lots of pictures to post, but never seem to find the time…

Sammie experienced her first move with us as we changed to a much bigger apartment.  She started to act very sad as stuff was being moved out of the old one, especially her condo.  Moving into the new place has been a good transition.  Thanks to a tip from bengalcatforums.com, I picked up some Comfort Zone Feliway spray and a room diffuser.  These contain synthetic cat cheek pheromones that help comfort, relieve stress, and stop marking and scratching.  I put a spray in her carrier before bringing her over, and Sammie meowed a lot less in the car then she usually does.  Then I had the diffuser (which is kind of like a Glade plug in without the fragrance) plugged in for about a day before her arrival.

Sammie was apprehensive of her new home, of course.  Lots of sniffing to do!  First time I brought her to her food bowl she hissed and ran away.  But like the good kitty she is, she quickly learned where the litter box was and has been using it appropriately.  New oddities she’s picked up during/since the move:

-Loves receipts.  LOVES them.  Sammie will find a receipt and carry it around with her.

-Will not sleep in her box bed anymore, much to my sadness.  I always enjoyed waking up with her by my side in her box.  Every time I try putting her in there now she jumps immediately out and won’t go near it otherwise.  I think I might try putting it on the floor to see if she likes it better down there

-Hides/sleeps under the bed.  Hopefully she gets over this.

-New interest in going outside, so patio door must be guarded when open.  Once I get her leash out, I will take her out on the patio to sniff around, something we couldn’t do in the old apartment really.

I think she’s still getting use to the new place and new smells and all our stuffs being in disarray, as it hasn’t even been a week yet.  So hopefully she’ll become less high strung and more like the old Sammie.

As a departing gesture, here’s a picture I took awhile back of Sammie posing next to some canned kitty food that I’ve been meaning to send off to the Belleglen Sanctuary in California.  Sammie is not a fan of canned food, and I didn’t want to see these cans go to waste, so once the hecticness of the move goes away, I will be sending these off to some deserving kitties.  Only 8 cans, but hopefully it will still help out.

the love between a kitty and her lime green ponyring!

Sammie actually stole it out of the bathroom, it was one of mine, until she “adopted” it.  I had never seen Sammie play catch before she got ahold of this particular ponyring.  She not only loves fetch with it, but I’d often see her just carrying it around with her for whatever reason.

Unfortunately Sammie manage to lose this particular one.  She actually seemed quite stressed about it, and would look to me as if she wanted to say “Mommy, throw my green thingy!  I know you have it and I wanna play!”  I felt really bad, so after a few weeks I managed to find a pack of ponyrings at WalMart that had some lime green ones in it, since I couldn’t seem to interest Sammie with any of mine that were of another color.

She’s already lost one or two of the new ones.  I think she must be stashing them somewhere, maybe for a rainy day?

Wayyy back last fall we took the plunge and got Sammie a fountain. There was no reason necessarily, except for the fact I thought it was cool. Well, it’s been nothing but a big hit for Sammie, and I do think she keeps hydrated better since she can drink the running water that cats love so much.

We got her the Drinkwell fountain. It is a great little fountain, and is very quiet, which was one of my concerns originally. Sammie pretty much exclusively drinks from the waterfall part

Of course, the day I try to take some pictures, she decided to drink out of the pool part! Such a little brat Sammie can be! I did manage to catch some good tongue pictures, so I guess it was not hopeless

The water is filtered before the waterfall, which is great for keeping cat hair out of the water, along with whatever other nasty stuff that is in there.

On to other Sammie news… last week she went in for her shots. Of course she is just such an angry furball when it comes to the vet, and this time was do different except for the fact she SCREAMED in the car like she was getting tortured. Her vet, Dr. Campbell at the Feline Medical Center in Lincoft, NJ, just moved to a new location (beautiful new office by the way) and there was heavy road construction going on outside which made Sammie even more nervous.

Being the angry Bengal that Sammie is, she immediately had to start hissing and growling at everyone and everything. She was even growling at some kittens! I told Sammie to be nice since they were just babies, but I don’t think she got the message. Fortunately she managed to receive her two vaccinations, rabies and feline distemper (parvovirus), without any injuries to the doctor and staff. She weighed in at 12.06 pounds, which is up from her weight during her last exam in September. Dr. Campbell says Sammie is a very big, strong, muscular girl and is in great health! Always good to hear!

One of the office cats tried to make friends, and Sammie was very rude.  So I “cheated” on her with the office cats, lol.

http://www.mdstreetscene.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15536

Cliffs: kid tries passing off expensive Mercedes as his own on a forum, real owner shows up, and the innanet pwning begins!

And Sammie just couldn’t resist giving the fail “two paws up!”

First step:  Dust the tops of the cupboards!

“what are these doing up here?!  must knock them down!”

“this thing still working?”

“meow mommy, meow!”

“you want a cup of tea?”

“any dust bunnies?”

nap time

“ok, done up here”

“oh noes, i gotta do the dishes!”

“everything loaded right?”

That’s what my little monster was up to in the kitchen.  Luckily that is the last time I have seen her up on the cupboards.  I figure between me chasing her back and forth on a ladder and yelling at her she got the point that she is not allowed on the cupboards

Anyways, expect updates more often now, as I am a full time Sammie-mum now!

It is a pretty well known that Bengals are “fond” of water, or will at least tolerate it. There’s stories all over about people’s Bengals jumping in the shower with their owners, or playing in their water bowls.

And then there’s Sammie… not too fond of playing in her water bowl, and I don’t think she’s quite figured out what we humans are doing in the shower. But when it comes to bath time, she does NOT behave like a cat!

That’s right, Sammie tolerates taking a bath, just like a good Bengal would be expected to. No body armor needed, no scratching, or hissing, or fearing for my life. Once she’s in she just takes it for what it’s for. It’s after she gets out that she gets a little angry, mostly because she’ll have to spend the next 6 hours arranging her furs how she sees fit.

We use Hertz hairball shampoo on her, and scrunch her all up. I am sad I don’t have pictures of a soapy kitty I will have to get some in the future. Sammie gets a bath at least once a month, or perhaps a bit for often for entertainment purposes. Baths keep her nice and fluffy!

Tonight I had a huge breakthrough with Sammie and I am so proud of her! In the 5 months she’s been with us she’s never shown any interest in having a treat, or eating when she does not feel it’s her mealtime. Well, tonight I bought her some Feline Greenies to replace the treats I just bought but lost (dammit).

I sat on the kitchen floor, shook the pouch and asked Sammie to come over. When I ripped it open she came over and I asked “Sammie want a treat?” (Yes, I talk to her with the expectation she knows English, haha) and held out one piece. She sniffed it, gave it a few licks, and then ate it! I was beyond excited!

I decided to see if she would do it again, so I got out another one and left it in my palm to see if she would take it out of my palm (she ate the last one off of the floor). And she did!

Before this I just put a few treats in with her normal food to eat because she would not eat unless it was time for her to eat, and she only showed a liking to her dry food only. I know she couldn’t have been hungry tonight because there was food in her bowl and it wasn’t her normal dinner time, so I think she really just ate a treat from me!

So as a reward for finally showing a bit of “normal” in her, she got lots of playtime with Da Bird, which she got yesterday!

I just hope this is the beginning of a future of positive behavior improvement in Sammie. It saddens me a bit that I basically have to give her the proper socialization at age 2, that her original owners should’ve done as a kitten, but I am so happy that I am making some breakthroughs, especially when in the near future we are considering adding another furbaby to our family, but don’t want it until Sammie is a bit more socialized and less aggressive.