Lola was born in Seal Beach, CA, along with about 4 other siblings. She and her sister Lucy Madison came to live with me later that summer, via a NWA flight and a sympathetic co-worker who happen to live in Pasadena and was returning to town. I'm pretty sure that the trauma she experienced was my undoing...while her sister became the official "lap cat"....Lola took on a much more stoic existence. Her un-official name is "Don'tTouchMe"...she refused to be held or sit in my lap UNLESS it was her decision. And only if I did not "touch her". Once I did, game change, she would up and leave. She fought every attempt to hold her, so I gave up, the skin can only be shredded so much. On June 14th, she and her sister Lucy Madison will celebrate their 13th birthday.
Flash forward to year 10 and a new and improved Lola. She now will sit on my lap, in fact looks for the lap to be sat in. She will allow the occasional pick-up and hold, but escapes when she is ready....usually 30 sec in - but it is progress. She still absolutely refuses to allow me to clip her toenails....OUCH! But all is not golden with Ms. Lola....her lifes' purpose falls under these categories:
1) she refuses to drink out of her automatic water dispenser. When someone is in the house that is.
2) she will sit on the bathroom counter and meow, incessantly, until the humans come and run tap water into the basin. The meowing has now grown to a YOWL. In other words, a demand.
3) she likes photographs and will lick them. Yes, I said lick them. She has gone so far as to hunt for them on my desk and to uncover them if hidden.
4) to gather attention she head butts me. this is notification that she wants her ears "scrunched"! she wants it continuously and if you stop, you are rewarded with a head butt until you resume. Sometimes it is just plain annoying. For a long time I thought she had ear mites, nope - vet checks every year. She just likes it.
5) she has yet been un-trainable to hurl her hair balls up on the linoleum. She has recently began a low kaling and pacing to inform me that she is about to hurl....on the carpet of course. The miniature rug shampooer has paid for itself many times over...
6) and as much as we do discourage the dining table top sitting, she at least does it only if there is a newspaper or book on which to sit. (Had to remind my guy that "when we aren't here - they are everyway that we don't want them to be, including the dining room table, kitchen counters - cuz; the window is there- don't ya know, etc.")
7) she is sometimes a bully with her sister...to the point that Lucy, at times, avoids her. If Lola wants in my lap, Lola will be in my lap regardless of what/who is in my lap. Even needlepoint is to be removed to allow for sitting. This from a cat that refused the lap years earlier. Go figure.
The good news is she no longer removes her collar. Fat lot of good it will do her to do so...we had the vet implant a gps bug into her back last Fall. And she has become quite the little RV'er. Even an indoor cat will escape given the opportunity to do so...as I have discovered her in the backyard facing down the squirrels and staring at the bird feeders.
She is a good kitty. I just wish she wouldn't glare at me. Or eat the plants...
~Ciao
p.s. Cats lose 1/2 of their daily body hydration from cleaning themselves ~ hence the need to hydrate. I rarely see this cat clean herself (although she is clean) as she sleeps all day and much of the night. (Sigh.)
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