Poor Apollo. He is now presiding over the fifth fur-monster to infiltrate his quiet life. Perhaps there is some secret camaraderie amongst our shadow-shaded friends, or maybe we just got lucky, but this is the easiest doggie transition we’ve had yet. Kiki/Koa/Ricola is pretty ambivalent about him. I now have TWO pets exceedingly difficult to photograph. That’s OK. It’s a throwdown challenge for my husband to work with the infamous photographic challenge.
I work with a cat lady. I don’t mean this as a pejorative- she really does love and adore cats and is a tremendous resource for all things feline. Yes, she has 13 of her own, but they are all well taken care of, and many of them are cats given up by their owners for various reasons.
My point is, she knows all sorts of things about cats and cat breeds and loves to share trivia. When she met Apollo, she declared he was a black tabby with a touch of Bombay. “You do realize,” she said, “that black cats are actually dark brown tabbies?” And I did know this, but only after getting a black cat of my own. I’m still learning about different cat breeds. Working with her, seeing her enthusiasm, makes me more appreciative of the finer joys of living with cats. And she helps me be a better vet for it.
Instead of referring to him as the arm-humping jungle ocelot, I looked at Apollo through my co-worker’s eyes and saw the other side of him: regal, composed, and possessed of an old-Hollywood-like ability to find the perfect lighting:
I’m ready for my close-up.
Will you look at that- he is brown! And I do say so myself, perfectly photogenic.
And what a beauty he is! I see the same coloring in our two ninjas — usually black, but a deep dark chocolate brown when sunning!
I’ve seen him look brown before, but this was the first time I ever managed to capture it on film. Like Bigfoot. lol!
What a handsome boy! I, too, have a black/brown cat, so I’m partial. 🙂 Looks like Apollo is still enjoying the crater dot!
He does! It keeps disappearing- I think the kids whisk it away somewhere to play with it.
I’m a cat lady too (though I have only two, and so far have never had more than three at any one time), and I love these posts about Apollo.
What do you think about the handling of cats in your office? I took my 8yo Siamese in yesterday for her checkup/vaccinations. Like many Siamese cats, she has a Bad Attitude about the vet. Now I love my veterinarian, but I have one complaint about how the exam was handled. The vet tech just grabbed her and held her down, which pissed her off, which required him to hold her down even harder. In the end she lashed out and scratched me (and you must understand that she luurrrves me; she was just that mad and scared by this point) when she went back in the carrier, simply from the restraint. On the one hand I understand cats are fast and unpredictable when they lash out, and if they bite they can cause the kind of infection that can lead to amputation if not treated promptly. On the other hand, I don’t think she’d have gotten to that point (or would have gotten to it much later) if she hadn’t been held down like that. Being held down makes cats MAD, especially my Siamese. If you’ve read Temple Grandin’s books about the emotions of animals, you’ll know what I mean when I say her RAGE system was in overdrive with an unhealthy dose of FEAR thrown in.
As a vet who admits she’s more partial to goldenbeasts than to jungle ocelots, what’s your take?
I think a lot of people- even in the field- are understandably scared of cats. They can do a lot of damage, very quickly. I try really, really, really hard to minimize handling them- it definitely helps their stress level. Once they get worked up to a certain point, it’s truly impossible to get anything done safely. My preference is to handle them calmly, and if that is impossible, have the owners sedate them at home before bringing them in.
There are some cats that even with that, you can’t touch. My personal feeling is that those pets would probably do best with a home visit vet.
I feel sort of silly suggesting this, ’cause I half assume that you’re aware of it, but do you know about Dr Sophia Yin’s http://www.lowstresshandling.com/ book/dvd? I’ve been vaguely tempted by it but I don’t handle animals professionally so it’s a bit much to just get it out of interest.
He is beautiful! Some of my favorite pictures of my kitty were of her in the sunshine. I can’t wait to get a picture of Beau in the sun. It is really hard to find a vet that knows and cares as much about dogs as they do cats. Having worked for a vet before I know that when the cats come in it is usually a battle to get what you want from them and that is why dogs are usually prefered. After ten years with my kitty I finally found a vet that understood kitties and then I lost her. At least she was understanding in the end.
Anyway I really enjoy reading your blog everyday. Come by and check out the Bennett blog sometime of you get a chance. There are some pretty interesting things that happen in a house full of boxers and a fiesty orange kitten.
I will definitely swing by!
There’s a small but growing number of “feline only” practices out there, with vets who are well versed in feline medicine and environments that are much lower stress for the pets (ie dog free lobbies! 😀 )
I’m pretty sure it was Temple Grandin in her book “Animals Make Us Human” that claimed black cats were genetically predisposed to be friendlier than all other cats. I’m a believer. My Deets might give Apollo a run for his money for “coolest cat on the internet” – you can check out his calm, assertive energy as he leads my burro and horse around the corral in my post today.
Oh wow- Apollo is many things but I’m not sure calm or assertive are one of them! lol.
Such a gorgeous kitty!
It’s funny – I just realized that our black and white tuxedo boy is actually brown about a week ago! He was in a sunbeam (rare sun on the Oregon coast!) I was surprised to see how brown he looked!
It’s shocking the first time you see it!
i never knew that about black cats. i should have realized it as sometimes you see a black cat in the sun and see markings on them. another piece of animal trivia for me to awe people with…ha ha!
“Useless Trivia 101” courtesy of pawcurious. 😀
What a beautiful , handsome , gorgeous , adorable kitty. Apollo is truly regal and totally photogenic, and brown… who’d a thunk it. A sweety – pie indeed.
He’s a cool cat. I wish more people would take a chance on a black cat. Or should I say “black” cat. 😉
That is such a good picture of Apollo!! I love that you wrote about him!
I feel like he gets overlooked a lot. :/
Hi Dr. V,
I found your blog a couple of weeks ago, and enjoy it very much. I am happy to see an Apollo post, as I am owned by three black cats (each one adopted me rather accidentally– I certainly didn’t go looking for a matched set), and have been completely brainwashed by them. I’m a sucker for black cats! And you can bet they know it.
Three black cats! How cool! You should send in pics!
I’m an equal opportunity animal lover, but I do have a bit of a soft spot for cats. We always had one dog and up to 3 cats when I was growing up, and I bonded with my cats like crazy. I used to dress my mom’s cat, Shadow (looked a lot like Apollo) in doll clothes, and she just took it because she treated my sister and I like her kittens. She’d watch us like a hawk when we were playing outside, and she’d clean our hair at bedtime. I miss Shadow, she was a wonderful cat.
My mom got her when her and my dad were living int heir first apartment together, in the early 70s. They had their window open above their bed one night because it was a pretty brutal summer, and they couldn’t afford AC. Well, my mom woke up the next morning to this black cat curled up next to her pillow.
They decided to call her Shadow, and she never left my mom’s side after that. A few years later, when they were moving into a house, one of their neighbours from across the street pointed out that their cat, Shadow, belonged to them and her name was Charisma. My mom offered to give her back, but the guy held up his hands and said, “She chose you.” And that was that.
Shadow died when I was 6 in 1992, she was at home on her favourite bed, surrounded by people who loved her. She led a very good life.
Aw, I love that story. Shadow sounds like a true once in a lifetime sort of kitty.