Sybella Update

Yesterday morning, I was 90% convinced that Sybella has feline asthma. I found videos on YouTube showing cats coughing - cats who had asthma. They looked just like my Sybella.

However, I went home and an amazing thing happened: she didn't cough last night or this morning. Usually she coughs at least once or twice during that time. And I'm not talking a little cough; she crouches down, sticks out her neck and coughs for at least thirty seconds. That may not sound like long but, trust me, it is.

So now I have hope. I'm praying like crazy that she was allergic to the litter I was using before. I changed it out Tuesday night for The World's Best Cat Litter which is supposed to be one of the best litters for allergy-ridden cats. It is made of corn and is 99% dust-free. So far, so good! In fact, I think she's only coughed once since I changed it out - and that was a little cough. I'm almost too scared to hope she may be ok, especially after Louis' chronic problems.

Sybella and I are bonding as well. She hasn't really had any interest in being on my lap but last night I put her there and gave her ten minutes of chin scratching, which she loves. After that, she stayed put and took a bath.

This morning she did not awaken me with clawing. Instead, she came up and laid by my side, again taking a short bath. It was cute, especially when I couldn't get out of bed because she wouldn't move!

That's progress! I think we'll get along pretty good!

Meet Sybella

So it's been an interesting two evenings with this lady. I took a better look at her paperwork last night as I was filing it and it turns out she's not 1 1/2 - she was born 3/8/08! That explains why she has so much kitten in her. I thought about her all day yesterday as I worked and worried that she was lonely...and that she was destroying things. I came home and she was fine. The only thing she'd done was knock the stuff off the dryer - which ended up in her litterbox - the poor thing had to go pretty bad.

I brought home a scratching post for her and she went right up to it and did her thing which is encouraging - however I still need to discourage her from the couch etc. I played and played with her; Jake got here and he played with her; we both played with her. She continued to play while I went to bed. She finally settled down and slept on the bed for most of the night.


So it's going good. I think she's going to be fun. I need to clip her claws, however... I think she may have opened a door last night which could be an interesting facet. And she has spurts of utter madness which are funny to watch.

One thing that has earned my ire... Do you notice how one of her ear tips has been sliced off? Well, that's how they "brand" them once they're spayed/neutered. How awful is that? As if it's not bad enough to have your sexual organs taken away, they slice away at your ear as well??!! I really hope these are not the people who refuse to declaw - because they've just proved they're not the least bit humane!

Sybella

I ran with my heart last night and picked up a beautiful long-haired black and white kitty, who I named Sybella (she did not answer to her previous name). I have pictures ready to go but Blogger is not allowing me to upload them!

Sybella lived in a home with many other cats and actually had a litter about six months ago. Afterwards, her owner could not afford to have her spayed so a rescue group volunteered to that for her. After her procedure, Sybella's owner decided she had one too many cats and the rescue group took Sybella off her hands. She's only a year and a half old.

She arrived at my home around 5 pm yesterday and went immediately to exploring. Nothing was left undiscovered - even the fireplace! Sybella has quite a bit of kitten left in her which should be fun - though her claws less so. Louis was declawed in the front so I don't quite know how to handle a clawed kitty. Any suggestions? She doesn't seem overly destructive but she does smell where Louis used to scratch (without any damage) - and she's tempted to do the same (with damage).

I'm so glad I got this precious girl out of her cage. It was so cute watching her stare and chirp at the birds and squirrels yesterday. She was good when it came time to sleep; unfortunately, other factors kept me awake. Plus, I was nervous she would try to get into something. It's going to be a few days before we're adjusted to each other and I can't wait!

Oh - and about her name. The first Delphic oracle was a prophetess named Sibyll (in the Greek). Sybella is a Latinized version of this. There are several famous Sybellas - most notably during the Crusades. You may remember a Sybella from Eva Green's character (written poorly and extracted from history in an appalling manner) in THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, with Orlando Bloom. This was one famous Sybella.