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| Name: |
Mary
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Age: |
Eleven years old
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| Gender: |
Female
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Kind: |
Cat
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| Home: |
Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA
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Hi.
Mary is eleven years old but we tell her she's only eight.
She's just a little domestic short hair who lives large in Florida. To
know what makes Mary special, one needs only to look at her. Truth be
told, I had to fight with myself which picture to send and while this
one shows our girl in a quieter, lovely light, others show off her
humor, love of sunbeams and patience at being my reluctant subject.
To start, Mary is a Gemini. She has a wicked temper (she bites!) but
also loves to make you laugh. I suppose you could say that she likes to
get "kittenish" and acts silly just to make her people laugh - she'll go
on for an hour or so. When content, she gets "googly-faced."
Mary hiccups when she gets upset (usually, when she's reprimanded for
bad behavior). She has a passion for anything fruit or fruit-flavored.
And she doesn't know that she's a cat. Honestly. Some examples:
- never climbed a tree. (got stared down by a descending squirrel once)
- never rubbed against her people - or anything, for that matter
- as a kitten, she stuck her paw into her food and fed herself paw to
mouth - she always watched her humans and imitated them frequently.
- she buries her face in my throat when we go to the doctor and "hugs"
me around the neck - no cat carrier.
- while not overtly affectionate, she is extremely social and often
caterwauls for her people's company when we are dispersed in other
rooms. She prefers quality family time every day and will get very blue
and moody if she doesn't get to sit in the middle of a room where her
family gathers and listen to them talking.
- her food bowl used to be the place she kept all her treasures (now
it's her bed). There, in the kibble, would be my hair elastics, wadded
up gift wrap that she made off with when no one was looking, a piece of
pine straw (batting toy), one of her soft balls - any and all things of
value got plopped into her food bowl.
- when alarmed - emotional, a noise, etc. - she "puffs up." Usually it
is an aggression response, Mary has always confused it with
shock/surprise.
Back when she was younger, she was an amazing athlete- catching flies in
mid-air, leaping five, six feet in the air to play "string," but those
things, like Mary, have slowed a bit.
I'd like to think my girl should be Cat of the Day for many reasons.
She's gone to tremendous efforts to control her temper (gives herself
timeouts - I swear!), she's adapted to and accepted all sorts of changes
in her world with grace and good humor, and she shows her people every
day how much she loves them. Mary recently lost a member of her family.
It has been very difficult for her. This family member was singled out
by Mary at a very early age for "special time." During these occasions,
Mary would get held and sung to. Unlike most everything else I've
mentioned, these times continued right until the end.
Mary is a very special girl.
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