July 1, 2011

• 31 Things About… Mouthy

  1. Mouthy was meant to be the first of ten cats picked in a TNR campaign through Animals Taiwan.  She avoided capture for over three months and was #35.
  2. When Mouthy was captured, she went into the trap to eat the food (the first time into the trap) and the trap would not go off as she was so light.  It only went off when she picked up the whole chunk of food in her mouth.
  3. I named her Mouthy the first night I met her when she was a baby kitten.  She talked to me from the top of a set of steps, but would not let me tough her.
  4. Mouthy has a Time Machine which is a large washing machine box which sits under the balcony window.  From there she can spend/waste time in the sun, watching the neighborhood cats and talking to the golden retriever on the rooftop across the alleyway.
  5. The orange parts of her body are actually Orange Tabby markings.  The mix of pure black, orange tabby and white stomach and paws make her look like four cats chopped up and put back together.
  6. Mouthy’s right ear was half removed by the vet who ‘fixed’ her in the TNR.  Usually they only take a small nick off the end of the ear to let people know they have been fixed, but they took half her ear!
  7. Mouthy loves rough, bumpy bathmats.  We now have four in the house now.  When they come in from the wash she goes to each one and rubs her face and body into them to feel the texture on her face.
  8. Mouthy’s mother, Toughy, was born at the Bitan Bridge and has lived there for more than eight years now.  The life expectancy of most street cats is about two to three years.
  9. Mouthy was part of a litter of three or four kittens.  When she was small, Toughy and Mamacat took care of the group of them.  There were two calico’s like Mouthy, an orange and white kitten and a black and white kitten.  Only the orange and white kitten is gone after three years.  Her sisters, Crazy and Calico still live by the river.
  10. Mouthy steals hair elastics, then shoots them around the apartment with her mouth and paw.
  11. You can hear Mouthy calling from the sixth floor window if you are down on the street.
  12. Mouthy is scared of the sound of a plastic bag.
  13. She loves cardboard boxes and will squeeze herself into any sized one.  OF course then she has to destroy it from the inside out ripping at the edges and leaving pieces everywhere.
  14. Mouthy was fixed and returned to the street, but she was found a month later with a very bad flu where her eyes and nose were so clogged she could not see or barely breathe.  When the vet cleared her eyes out, they found her left eye had been damaged by a severe cut.  The vet thinks she may have done it herself trying to clear the gunk out of her eyes.  After attempts to let the eye heal, it was found that the damage was to severe so the eye was removed.
  15. One of Mouthy’s nicknames is Goonie… this is because her favorite pirate is One Eyed Willie.
  16. Mouthy loves to pub her face into my chin and really dig into my beard.  She loves anything rough on her face.
  17. She is not very scared of the vacuum, but she is terrified of brooms.
  18. The day I agreed to foster her at my house I picked her up from Animals Taiwan, about 40 minutes from my house.  I drove her home in a carrier on my scooter.  I got lost, ended up across a river and could not find my way home.  Her first scooter trip with me ended up taking almost four hours.
  19. Mouthy lived for almost four months with a cone on her head so she could not touch her damaged eye.
  20. She loves to touch nose to nose with people as if giving them a kiss.
  21. One night while trying to catch her for the TNR she finally let me scratch her on the bum.  I thought that meant she trusted me so I tried to grab her.  She was eating beside a fountain and ended up diving into the water to avoid me.  The second she hit the water, she turned on me and jumped right at me, soaking me in the process.  When is was all over, I was soaked, the ground looked like a tidal wave had hit and there was a trail of wet cat prints off into the distance.
  22. Mouthy is the best cockroach and spider catching cat I know.
  23. If you are reading a book, she will place herself in between you and the book, but looking at the book as if she wants to read it first.
  24. She likes to have conversations with me while I am in the shower, but will not come into the bathroom to do so.  She calls to me from the living room.
  25. When she is very scared of something she will go on the balcony and hide behind the washing machine. 
  26. The balcony has interlocking foam squares on the floor that I put there for her when she first came to live with me and she only stayed on the balcony (the balcony is approx. 7’x30’).  She has always used these to pick at and sharpen her claws on.  Even now, she never picks at the furniture, only the foams mats.  I have to replace them every few months and find little foam pieces everywhere in the apartment.
  27. She likes to chew on bubble wrap.
  28. When she sleeps in her favorite chair she is most comfortable when sleeping completely upside down like roadkill.
  29. When Mouthy lived on the street she was the only female in a large group of streetcats that lived by a set of stairs near the Bitan Bridge.  Her best friends were Moustache, Wrong Place, Baby, Big Orange, Princess (male), Kangaroo and Wulai.  Toughy was never part of the group, but always came to the territory to visit and eat.
  30. Mouthy loves to lay beside the computer when I am using it.  She usually goes to sleep, but always hits the keyboard with her tail when she wants attention.  She can hit it hard enough that it types things.
  31. The first time I met Mouthy I said that she was so cute and friendly that I would love to have her live with me if I was going to get a cat.  Just over three years later, she’s laying beside my laptop as I write her ’31 Things…’ like she’s the queen of this house and I am just here to feed her, clean her litter and talk to her when she is bored…

  

  

  • 1:46 pm
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