Lucy Turns Two!

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I usually don't do two cat posts in a row, but one of my blogging friends asked how Lucy is doing. Well, Lucy Maud is turning two years old. We don't know when her birthday really is (because she's a rescue kitty) but when we took her into the vet after she was found, the vet estimated that she was about 8-10 weeks old which means she's an October baby.

Some of you may not know the story of how Lucy came to live at Rosehaven Cottage. So here's her story in brief with links to the original posts in case you want to read more.

Lucy's first day with us was on Dec. 13, 2007 after she'd been found at 6:15 a.m. by one of my early-morning seminary students (back when I was teaching). Lucy was huddled out in the middle of the street freezing to death in the 30F (-1C) December air and suffering from a severe upper respiratory infection. My student didn't know what to do, but his first thought was that I would know what to do. So he bundled her in a fluffy bath-towel and brought her to class.

With a damp paper towel, I cleaned the caked mucus that covered her head and face and blocked her tiny little nostrils. She was a mess. But she was friendly and very grateful. I took her straight to the vet that morning and waited for the vet office to open. I had the vet run all the tests for feline AIDS and leukemia first and the tests came back negative. Lucy was given antibiotics, ear drops, and eye medicine for me to administer to get her well. My intention was to foster her until she was well so a no-kill shelter could take her to find a home for her. No shelter could take her until she was healthy, so I saw that was my No. 1 goal.

We've become a foster family
(Dec. 13, 2007)

I built a cage for Lucy out of storage cube panels and zip ties. I kept Lucy in isolation in my studio where it was warm and quiet. I put lots of fun things in her cage (including a small carpeted kitty condo).

Day 1
(Dec. 15, 2007)

As Lucy started to feel better, I would take her out more and more. I wanted to make sure that she was socialized properly for her future family (I was still in foster mode and we were calling her "Skate" as a temporary name). Look at that cute spotty tummy!

Day 4

(Dec. 18, 2007)

Day 9
(Dec. 22, 2007)

Day 15
("Skate" becomes Lucy Maud)

By Day 15, we decided that she needed a real name so she became Lucy Maud (named after one of my favorite authors, Lucy Maud Montgomery). I was still considering her to be a foster kitty at this point, but I think by that time Hubby was smitten and Lucy wasn't a "foster" in his mind.

By Day 33, Lucy's feet were getting humongous!

Even at Day 50 she could still squeeze into her little heated bed
(Feb. 22, 2008)

Lucy continued to grow but her upper respiratory infection persisted. She wasn't well enough to go to a shelter. It settled in her right inner ear and would flare up regularly causing her to be feverish and sluggish. Even at 6 months old when she showed signs of going into heat for the first time, Lucy wasn't completely well. We took her in to have her spayed despite her respiratory issues. It wasn't until she was finally seen by a different vet for a post-op "emergency" when her incision opened a bit, that she was given a mega-antibiotic (different from the one the other vet had been giving her) and the upper respiratory and ear infections finally left. But by then, Lucy was a part of our home and our family. Lucy was in love with Hubby (still is) and taking her to a shelter would have been cruel. So Rosehaven Cottage became Lucy's "forever home".

Here on the blog, I chronicled Lucy's many firsts, such as:

• Her first taste of kitty grass
• Her first diva-like behavior
• The first time she watched "kitty-vision"
  
• Lucy's first (and last) time going into heat
• Her first time seeing an iMac
• Picking a favorite napping spot
  
• First "fancy paws", lemon verbena, and "attitude"
• And Lucy's ongoing fascination with all things electronic, including her quest to get "The Thing" (the DVD player)
  

Lucy has been very different from the regular domestic short-hair tabbies in our home. Her energy level is much higher. She is much more dog-like (she even plays fetch). It wasn't until this summer when I was looking at one of my cat books, that I saw a cat that looked like Lucy. We realized that Lucy is an Oriental Shorthair "mutt" cat. It all made sense once we made that discovery. Her funny long toes, her super-short coat, her long nose, her petite but very muscular build, and her dog-like personality finally all made sense!

As Lucy turns two, she is rounding the bend and becoming quite the "little lady". In my experience, cats still have devilish little kitten tendencies until they are two years old. Lucy has been no exception. But we've noticed in the past month that she's mellowing and becoming quite proper in her observance of good "kitty etiquette" (the unspoken rules that all kitties follow when interacting with other kitties). We are very pleased with her progress and the loyal little companion she has become.

And finally, a recap of the little song we made up for Lucy (all our cats have at least one):

Lucy Maud Theme
(sung to modified tune of Casper the Friendly Ghost--lilting like a 50s TV commercial)

Lu-cy...
Lucy Maud...
Is the silliest cat we know...
With her curved "play tail"...
And her spotty fur...

And the longest toes that you've seen...

FOR SURE!!!

Lu-cy...
Lucy Maud...
Here comes Lucy Maud...

HERE'S LUCY!