We have.  Why?  Honestly, Leecy started the whole thing when I went on vacation.  You may recall that I went to the Texas Hill Country and took Sascha (German Shepherd) with me.  At the time I forgot to bring Sascha’s crate with me.

Well guess what?  When I returned Leecy had converted Sascha’s crate to Delilah’s crate.  Now why this kitten needed the largest crate in the house I have no idea.

So anyway, since Delilah seemed to be enjoying the new crate so much, I went out and bought Sascha a new crate.

There’s another reason why this crate training a cat thing isn’t such a bad idea.  You see, Delilah is very much a mixed breed kitten, compared to Chloe who is also a mixed breed (both are rescues) but likely has some Birman in her.  Delilah loves to run around the house, jump all over things, and chase the dogs and Chloe.  She also tends to stare at Coco (our African Grey Parrot) in a way that makes me a little insecure about leaving them alone.

Thus, during the day we put the dogs and Delilah in their crates.  Our cats tend to just sleep in the afternoon anyway, so I don’t Delilah cares in the least.  I also have a feeling (though I can’t prove it) that Delilah feels like Sascha and Maggie are part of her clan or pack (or maybe it’s the other way around).

Oh, Chloe seems to appreciate it during the night as she gets to continue to sleep on our bed and not worry about harassment from Delilah.

Chloe On Bed

Obviously Chloe is quite content at night (although Leecy may not be once she finds out that I took this picture while she was sleeping).

Sascha, Maggie, and Delilah In Crates

Here’s the rest of the pack.  Maggie (Golden Retriever) appears quite content (sleeping upside down), Sascha is happy to pose for me (although she’s so black you can’t really see her in the picture), and Delilah is on her little cat bed, completely relaxed.

All in all, everyone appears to be quite happy.

One more thing if you’re interested.  Sascha and Delilah tend to be best buddies (Sascha is very gentle with her and Delilah loves to play with Sascha’s tail), Maggie just wants attention from Leecy or myself, and Chloe tends to just not care who’s around as long as it’s relatively calm.

She and Chloe get along great, as well as her and the dogs.  In fact, her favorite playmate (other than Chloe) seems to be Sascha, my German Shepherd.

We also got her a new toy today.  I think she likes it.  She carries it around the house.

Delilah Jumping After Toy

Delilah Jumping But Misses Toy

I didn’t mention it before, but Leecy and I took Chloe and Maggie to the vet the same day Madison was put down just to make sure everything was okay.  As it turned out, Maggie had two lumps on her back, one was a fatty deposit, the other was unknown.  So Maggie went in for surgery today.   The big lump was just cut out, whereas the smaller lump has to be sent to pathology.  I’m trying to stay mentally neutral about what this may indicate.

Tonight Maggie is very groggy and has two large holes on the side of her body.  The good news is that she doesn’t seem to be experiencing significant pain.  I’ll try and take some pictures tomorrow of her war wounds.

Not an inexpensive week in terms of pet care.  I think were shooting right 800+ for this week alone.

Although we aren’t actively looking for another cat just yet, we previously talked about a Birman or a Ragdoll.  If anyone knows any reputable breeders in Houston, let us know.

Leecy would like to type her own words about Madison.

Hi. Madison & I were buddies…it only took about a year for her to get use to me being here, but she did finally come around once she realized I was the one feeding her.   I would sit upstairs on my computer & she would come around and stand on her back legs and tap me so daintily with her front paw “meow” wanting to come up on my lap. Once on my lap she would come up, I would hold her paw, which wasn’t any bigger than my fingerprint, and she would bend her toes around my finger–like we were holding hands…  She would come sit on my lap while I would be at my craft table. I could still do alot with a 4lb cat on my lap, poor Chloe won’t be able to do that with me.

In Madison’s ‘bedroom’, my daybed is in there, and she would lay on that to look outside into the backyard rose garden, pool, bird feeders. One time I noticed when I changed the sheets there was a ‘pee-spot’…uh oh…kitty has a bladder problem..getting old… so I put a vinyl table cloth on the mattress to protect it and put her blankets over it so it was still snuggly for her.  On that bed is a mountain of pillows. I threw a blanket over them & she just seemed to love the height & comfy-ness of her ‘mountain’. We’d always find her up there so cozy.

Chloe went upstairs with me today and I showed her the window sill Madison would sit on to soak up the sunshine or watch the neighbor’s dogs. She was instantly spread out & purring on the sill. I noticed her front paw kneading on the sill. I have NEVER seen her do that, so I wonder if she knew this was Madison’s special place.    Chloe has claimed Madison’s tree also, which is coated in her smell & fur still. Maybe its a sense of her mother figure is still around.

The good thing about all of our pets is they are very well taken care of.  The bad thing is that none of them know who their normal natural enemies would be in the wild.

First Chloe has to get a close up view of a newly hatched Monarch.

Then she has to endure staring at a newly hatched Eastern Black Swallowtail.