Playing Drs. Doolittle - Part 1

So, for the past 10 days, Brian and I have been entrusted with the care, love and affection of my cousin Josh's, and my cousin-in-law Ashley's, two cats, Leo and Sadie, as well as their bird Kiwi and our own feline bundle of love, Cleo.  Josh and Ashley skipped town to Mexico, where they got married in a small ceremony on the beach there (Congrats, guys!!).

At the same time, my parents went on vacation and left us with the responsibility of caring for my mom's three dogs, Stanley, Henry and George, as well as our own geriatric labrador, Q.

That's right, 4 dogs, 3 cats and 1 bird, at two different houses, for a period of 14 days.  In this post I'll let you get to know our feline/avian charges, and then follow with a further post regarding the pooches.

So anyhoo, let us meet our players...

Kiwi

Leo

Cleo

Sadie

Kiwi is an itty bitty little bird with attitude and a big voice.  He chirps pretty much all day long, and then tries to intimidate us when we change his water and food by puffing out his little chest and running headfirst at our hands.  It's actually quite cute, but you can tell he's defending his turf pretty seriously.  Perhaps he doesn't like us because we laugh at him...

Leo is a playful, young dude kitty that LOVES attention, getting petted and chasing stuff.  He particularly loves to annoy the crap out of Sadie (it is not rare to hear Sadie's squealing rage in attempt to drive Leo away...) and provoke boxing matches with Cleo.  One of Leo's favourite games, however, is to eat all of the other cats' food.  Last time we babysat Leo and Sadie, Leo ate all of Sadie's food and got pretty pudgy whilst doing it.  This time we're a lot more watchful, poor Sadie girl!

Cleo is our cat, and Josh and Ashley have so awesomely agreed to be her foster parents while we're on our Scottish adventure.  We already miss her, so we're super glad to be able to see her everyday while they're marrying and honeymooning :).  It's a win-win situation, really.  Anyway, when we got Cleo we were told by her prior mom that Cleo was prone to getting beat up by other cats and that she should likely be in a one-cat household in order to be happy...  Well, we're thinking that's a fib of sorts because Cleo seems to dominate the taller, more agile Leo, and she takes quiet pleasure in pestering Sadie as well.  Last night Cleo just had to glare at Leo to get him to back off from trying to play with her, it was hilarious.

Sadie is Ashley's cat, and she was adopted after having grown up in an abusive household.  As a result, Sadie is VERY skittish and watchful when strangers are around.  In fact, we had  never properly laid eyes on Sadie until last week when she came out to eat her dinner.  Seemingly she didn't want to get ripped off by Leo anymore either :).  We have been making great leaps and strides in fostering trust with Sadie these past few days, with Brian even being able to pick her up now, something which we were advised not to even try lest we wish to see our eyeballs ripped out by an enraged cat.  So, we're very pleased whenever we're able to give Sadie a good pet or help her drink from the bathroom sink tap :).

I've never had the opportunity to spend much time around multiple cats at once, so for me it's been very entertaining to watch them play, fight, and assert their own little dominions of control in various ways.  Plus, there's not too much you need to do in order to look after them.  We feed them breakfast and dinner, give lots of pets and scratches, throw catnip mice and swing a feather on a hook for exercise, and provide ample snuggle space should they need a little extra love.  It's AWESOME.  If any of your friends ask you to babysit a house load of cats (and possibly a bird), go for it! 

Om nom nom... :)