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By Ms. G, March 14, 2018 11:22 am

It was exactly one year ago yesterday that Richard Parker joined us. Here we are again at the cottage with snow blustering around.

How has Richard changed?

He is definitely calmer. He was a ball of energy a year ago. He absolutely could not sit still except when he was sleeping. In the first few months of his arrival, none of us not got a lot of sleep. His most high-energy time of day was night, unfortunately for us and for Bailey. Richard seemed to think that Bailey existed to torture. He ran him up and down the stairs, into corners. It was sincerely hard to deal with. Though Val dealt with most of it, being the night-owl that he is, I often got up screaming at Richard to leave my poor frail Bailey alone! To no avail.

Richard is still very sweet. When he first arrived, he would often cuddle up and snooze with us. Though he’s older and more mature now (ha ha), he still loves a good cuddle. Especially, it seems, in the morning when I’m trying to put on my makeup. Just as I’m about to place a little wand close to my eyes he expects to be picked up and hugged. Yes, I have poked myself in the eye a few times.

Richard is still food crazy but he can be controlled now. If left to his own devices he would still eat everyone else’s food. If we left bread out on the counter, he would guzzle it. Sometimes now, especially at the cottage where he is generally calmer, he will sit and watch the other cats eating without making a move. At home, he still has to go for “timeouts” in the powder room to allow them to finish their meals in peace.

Most of all he’s a good boy – funny and charming, crazy and endearing. He’s a big ball full of personality. We’re all used to him in a good way.

But no more. We are full! We also need to sleep at night and not to worry about disasters every time we hear a noise!

Here are some of his greatest moments. All photos courtesy of Val Dodge.

Dec. 2017: Chair as jungle gym. He also does somersaults on the banister.

Jan. 2018: In the recycling bin. If he’s not in it he’s trying to lick all the cans in it.

March 2018: In a coveted bag. We always cut the handles so he doesn’t strangle himself.

Watching a squirrel take a nap outside the loft window.

RP and Val – friends forever.

Feb. 2018: Getting into trouble on the ‘jungle gym’ AKA the clothes dryer at the cottage.

March 2018: We’re so proud he loves laundry so much.

He also loves stairs. We’re less proud of this since we live in a four-storey house with several long drops from open stairs!

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By Ms. G, November 2, 2017 10:17 pm

We have four cats. Yes, we are crazy. But Richard, our newest, is crazier. He eats dry wall. He terrorizes one of our other cats, Bailey. He is OCD and ADHD.

To use up his energy, we got him a giant cat wheel. Basically it’s a hamster wheel writ large.

See Richard run!

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By Ms. G, April 1, 2017 6:44 pm

Richard Parker has been doing well so far in his new life. Sure, he gets a lot of corrections – “Richard, get out of there; Richard, stop that; Richard, calm down; Richard, don’t eat that!” But he’s very easy going. He has gained a lot of weight already, so much so that he’s not a super skinny guy anymore.

Yesterday he had surgery to “fix” him. We were hoping it would calm him down somewhat. When he came back from the vet last night, he was insanely hungry and tried to eat and lick everything. Today he’s taking it easier and napping a lot.

Bailey also had surgery yesterday, his to remove most of his horribly rotten teeth. He is not quite feeling better yet so no pictures.

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By Ms. G, March 19, 2017 7:19 pm

Oops, we got another cat. Well, really he adopted us. We found him wandering around at our cottage as the weather was getting colder and colder. Need I say more? Just look at him, scratching to get in. We did check with locals if they knew him. We did take him to the local vet to check for a micro-chip. He was a complete mystery.

So let me introduce Richard Parker, our newest addition. Fletch’s “mini-me.”    

Sweet and cuddly. Obsessive eater. I have never seen anything like his ability to vacuum up food. Even Val, the cat whisperer, has trouble keeping him contained during feeding time – he’s in everyone else’s food in a flash.

He’s only about one year old, so he has a lot of energy, followed by a lot of napping.     

We already love him very much.

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By Ms. G, January 24, 2015 3:13 pm

Just in anticipation of a new semester, and thus new readers who will be introduced to Fletch, Shadow and Bailey, I want to boil each cat down to its essence. I’m watching a cooking show right now so that’s where the boiling reference comes from.

Fletch is 15 years old. He has been a diabetic for nearly 10 years. Until recently, that is. He has not had any insulin shots for the last 3 weeks. However, what I have noticed is that he still craves the shot. Sometimes he’ll stand over his bowl waiting for it. The other day I had to simulate the shot by poking him to get him to eat. Therefore, Fletch’s characteristic is hypochondriac.

Shadow is about 5 years old. She pretty much sleeps all the time atop the heating grate. She is a playful if lazy cat who enjoys lying under a newspaper. As she gets bigger and lazier she has acquired her chief characteristic; I call it stop and drop. She will lie anywhere, at the drop of a hat.

Bailey, of unknown age but probably about 8 years old, is a timid guy. His only other trait of note is that he is major whiner. He is like an alarm clock – wakes me up if he is ready for his food and I’m not.

I love them all.

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By Ms. G, September 8, 2013 11:34 am

This is our new cat, Bailey. He, Fletch and Shadow are getting along fine. Being inside sure must beat living on the deck. Updates to follow.