More About The Family

When I first shared my life with Liora she was initially disconnected in so many ways.  Having lived with a hoarder for most of her life, it was understandable.  Thankfully my dog is a gentle soul and gave Liora the space she needed.

As the days and weeks passed, Liora was more accepting of affection and began acclimating well to her new environment.  It took months before she actually sought out to connect with me and over a year later she is the first one to try and claim my lap when I settle in to read a book.

After four months a peculiar behavior developed.  She would walk about wailing - hard to describe it.  Once I ruled out any physiological problem I wondered if it wasn't time for some feline friendship.

With her social skills lacking I talked with several professionals and the theme ran true that going with an older kitten would probably make life easier for her.  If she could develop communication with a kitty that was learning the ropes themselves things would be smoother.

I went to a local shelter and fell in love with a 5 month old orange tabby.  His brother had already been adopted out (bummer, but not the end of that story!) and he hadn't been introduced into a colony there yet, so the timing seemed perfect to bring him into my family.

Dear Mazel.  He is such a gentleman of a cat, almost an old soul you might say.  Liora and he took to each other immediately.  I'm sure he was missing the company of his brother and Liora seemed glad for the companionship.  I did let the shelter know that if his brother was returned for any reason that I'd like to adopt him too.

Mazel is a gentle giant; not just 'large boned' but LARGE and not fat.  He is always up for a good love time and enjoys being brushed, even tolerating having his nails trimmed.

Whenever possible I try to trim nails when a friend is over to visit so there is some love distraction going on.  He is so cute!  Any more he just burrows his head and tucks into me, almost like he's saying, "Ok you can do this, but I don't want to watch!!"

While Sawyer is definitely the 'brains' in the family, Mazel has developed his own game with the copy machine in my office.  He has figured out how to push the buttons with his front feet to make a copy, leaning over and watching intensely as the paper shoots out.  Sometimes he'll ferret into that covey and muck around until he's knocked the paper to the floor.  This is a daily occurrence now and wasn't a one time fluke :)