Thursday, October 14, 2010

Yearning for Yoda

Since the character Yoda from the Star Wars movie was in my very first post, you may think that's who I'm talking about.  Oh, contrare!  If you thought that, you'd be wrong because Yoda is also the name of one of my cats.


I named her that because when she was little her ears were too big for her head.  Name a girl Yoda?.  Yes, there's absolutely no reason SHE can't be a Jedi Master too.  Once she grew up I thought the name didn't fit her any more, but she is a little strange.  As long as I've had her (over 9 years) she still hasn't really connected with me, or I with her.  She goes through stages.  She'll come up to me and want to be petted and act like we're buddies, and then all of sudden she won't want to have anything to do with me again.  Who knows what's really on her mind.  But all cats act like that you might say.  Yes, but with Yoda it's over the top, and her mood lasts for weeks.  And she doesn't just ignore me, she avoids me. (Forget trying to clip her nails, and putting flea meds on her is a total struggle.)   I haven't been able to figure out an obvious event (like a trip to the vet) that causes her to change her mind.  About the only time Yoda REALLY likes me is when we're AT the vet's office.  Then she'll try to hide her face in the crook of my arm, act like I'm her best friend in the world and doesn't want me to leave her sight.  I'm good for comfort when she's scared, but the rest of the time she doesn't have much use for me.  And it's not just me.  With total strangers she's much worse and will hide under the bed covers until they leave.  The only way you know she's there is because of a big lump in the bed.  (That's why the above photo is a little blurry - I caught her just as she was coming out from under the covers.)


I have seven cats.  I intend to have seven cats; it just sort of happened.  Yoda was the next to last of my 'acquisitions'.  When I lived in Georgia, I lived in an apartment complex towards the back.  There were lots of stray and feral cats because people would drive to the back of the complex, drop off their pets and drive away.  Most were not spayed, so several cats became many cats.  Of the seven cats I have, four were taken in as strays or ferals there (one had two kittens that I kept and I've taken in one more since I moved to Rhode Island).  When Yoda was a kitten, I saw her one day with a huge abscess behind her ear.  I took her to the vet, got medicine and treated her thinking I would just let her go back outside when she was well.  Obviously that didn't happen.


Right now Yoda's in her 'I think I like you' phase, so I told her she could be the first one of my cats to appear on the blog.  I don't know how long it's going to last, but will enjoy it as long as it does.  No matter what, she's still my little bunny.

Update:  6/25/2015  I was with my little bunny when she crossed over the Rainbow Bridge today.  She had bad arthritis, a bone spur in her hip and heart disease.  She wasn't eating hardly anything and just lay under my bed.  I didn't want her to just waste away.  She's now with my kitty Cookie, playing in the fields chasing butterflies and grasshoppers, feeling great and not in pain.

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