vampyrichamster (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
vampyrichamster) wrote2022-04-30 07:05 pm
vampyrichamster) wrote2022-04-30 07:05 pm
Living the Moggie life
Moggie's colouration continues to fascinate me. We've taken to calling him Nigiri Cat, partly because he's mackerel (tabby) on top and rice white on the bottom. Frankly, when he rolls over on his back, the snow white plushness is kind of overwhelming. It's really like rubbing the tummy of a moogle. The soft, fluffy marshmallow fur looks pure white all over, but it's not totally white. He has a faint brown stain on his chest and the underside of his front feet look a bit like he stepped in some tea and it somehow dried into these silky ivory toe furs. On top, of course, he is a grey and black mackerel tabby with a big white patch in the centre of his back. The top half of his face is pale brown with black stripes and he has wedges of pale brown with black stripes on the inside of his back thighs.
Shortly before we got him, I was reading on how white cats happen, a process that's actually quite cool. As I understand it, all cats are formed sort of "pre-printed" with a non-white pattern, whether that's a single colour or multiple colours, i.e. spots, stripes and socks. Whether these colours manifest when a cat is born depends on how much melanin makes it to different parts of their coat. Think of it like one of those children's colouring books where you paint water on what seems to be a white page with an uncoloured drawing on it, and the water triggers chemical reactions that create colours when it touches the right parts of the paper. In this case, the water acts like the melanin. Fully white cats have a gene that masks their real pre-printed colour (a dry page in our analogy). Spotted white cats have less melanin on some parts of their coat that "hides" their real pre-printed colour in those places (the kid got bored halfway through painting).
Looking at Moggie, he was originally meant to be a grey and black mackerel tabby with a pale brown striped face and underside. White spotting instead resulted in the world's first spotted moogle! Incidentally, the presence or absence of melanin also determines whether the cat's skin is pink (none) or some other colour. Moggie's nose is pink, but his toe beans are a mix of white and black.
In explaining how our cat is both short-haired and fluffy, I had to explain to my spouse what a medium pile carpet is. I refer to him as our luxury barn cat model because he has the build and athleticism of a barn cat, but the plushness and disposition of an expensive soft toy. His ears have these amusing wee black tufts on the very tips, like he was supposed to be a longer-furred cat but didn't quite make it. My goal is to kiss him on the head and hug him so often he gains enough human hand oils to become velvety soft all over.
Because his fur is thick, he has chubby cherub cheeks. They're not fat, they're fur!
Seth: *squish* *squish* Nope, they're chubby cheeks.
Moggie is now suffiiently settled in with us to have developed some annoying habits. He has attachment issues, so he gets really upset if something, such as a door, blocks access to either of us. When we first got him, it was so bad neither one of us could cook in the kitchen peacefully because he wants to help but can't. He still lets me cook only about fifty percent of the time and will definitely get mad if one of my ingredients is something he finds tasty. When I shower, he loses his mind because he thinks I'm being tortured. We tried leaving the bathroom door ajar once when I was showering. He came in a few times, stared at me telling him I was okay and when I was done he ran away squealing even more traumatised than before. This is clearly a long term project.
I can't do anything in the backyard without also letting him join me. It doesn't count if I'm just three feet away on the porch and he can see me through the window. When he can't see me it's even worse. The last time I took out the recycling, he started wailing I was dead. I've taken to leaving the back door ajar so he can come out and sniff things while I garden. We'd really rather not have an indoor/outdoor cat this time around, but his idea of a tantrum—scrabbling pitifully at our back window and door—depletes our sanity faster than chores. Having said that, he's good about amusing himself without our help. He likes playing with us more than alone, but he won't demand it. Unlike Dorian, when he loses a toy under furniture, he makes an effort to retrieve it himself before asking for assistance. We appreciate the independence since we're both lazy gamer types who insufficiently play with our cats. My favourite game is making bed mousies for him. It's easy because I can do it while sleeping in. All I have to do is wriggle my toes under the blanket so he can do bunny hops and chase them around. True, this has ill-thought repercussions, namely that he now thinks all toes are potential mousies whether or not they're protected. On the other hand, it's clearly his favourite game too. I have learned it takes two reasonably thick blankets to be a safe chew toy. Anything less and it will be a test of my pain tolerance vs. the fact my cat is being cute. We both agree there isn't a mean bone in Moggie's body, but he is easily excitable. And surprisingly bitey.
Again, he's not mean. He just has a poor understanding of his actual strength, since he thinks he's still a three pound kitten. Early on, I posited that he chews things for the same reasons a puppy (or toddler) might. It's his way of understanding the world. When he bites us, he usually licks us afterwards. He does have an "attention please" nip he reserves for half-asleep humans late in serving him breakfast, but his bites are mostly play. Thankfully, he doesn't drool on us. I test all cats before taking them home for drooliness first. Drooliness is a no.
Seth: Okay, so why is our cat chomping on my arm?!
Me: He looks adorable doing it!
Moggie prefers toys that closely resemble his prey and seems especially partial to soft toys. The hedgehog and baby possum are good toys. The cat toys that look like flattened voodoo dolls are not. (To be fair, I also wonder why anyone makes cat toys that resemble flattened people.) His favourite toy of all is a plush that looks remarkably like a juvenile rat. Rattie (yes, I named it) is the Best Toy. It is the one toy to rule them all. Moggie carries Rattie to bed so he can sleep next to it. He carries it around the house so he can make up little scenarios to catch Rattie in, like tuck it under the fridge so he can dig it out, or hide it in Seth's shoe so he can pounce on the shoes and everything else in between him and the front door.
When Rattie is lost, the humans take 5 sanity damage and continuously lose sanity at a rate of 2 per turn until we find it again. That scrabbling at the window because he's bored and nothing works is a huge motivator. There is no cut scene nor boss fight important enough to sit there and take the damage. If he does this late enough at night, I flee to bed, and I'm horrible at sleeping at night. He also throws tantrums if we don't go to bed on time. I suffer for my cat.
He's got a good hunting instinct all told. I trust that when faced with a real rat, he will know what to do. There's also a good chance he'll bring it to bed so he can sleep next to it with us. Mind you, I'm not bothered by dead rodents. What gets me is the potential boiling all my bedclothes will need afterwards. We already both agree he is the best bug catcher of any cat we've met. After the first two or three insects, catching bugs was beneath Dorian's station. Moggie is a good lad who loves an ambulatory protein snack. Seth once saw him crocodile chomp a fly in mid-air. He usually finds bugs before I can even think of them.
Right now, the cat is stretched out beside me on the most important part of the couch. He likes that too, still-warm recently occupied seats that his humans might want back. This is a cat who will gladly steal the master's chair. My current job is to kiss him on the head every day and cover him with hand oils until he is velvety all over. Someday, he will be like hugging a cloud. He deserves no less.
Shortly before we got him, I was reading on how white cats happen, a process that's actually quite cool. As I understand it, all cats are formed sort of "pre-printed" with a non-white pattern, whether that's a single colour or multiple colours, i.e. spots, stripes and socks. Whether these colours manifest when a cat is born depends on how much melanin makes it to different parts of their coat. Think of it like one of those children's colouring books where you paint water on what seems to be a white page with an uncoloured drawing on it, and the water triggers chemical reactions that create colours when it touches the right parts of the paper. In this case, the water acts like the melanin. Fully white cats have a gene that masks their real pre-printed colour (a dry page in our analogy). Spotted white cats have less melanin on some parts of their coat that "hides" their real pre-printed colour in those places (the kid got bored halfway through painting).
Looking at Moggie, he was originally meant to be a grey and black mackerel tabby with a pale brown striped face and underside. White spotting instead resulted in the world's first spotted moogle! Incidentally, the presence or absence of melanin also determines whether the cat's skin is pink (none) or some other colour. Moggie's nose is pink, but his toe beans are a mix of white and black.
In explaining how our cat is both short-haired and fluffy, I had to explain to my spouse what a medium pile carpet is. I refer to him as our luxury barn cat model because he has the build and athleticism of a barn cat, but the plushness and disposition of an expensive soft toy. His ears have these amusing wee black tufts on the very tips, like he was supposed to be a longer-furred cat but didn't quite make it. My goal is to kiss him on the head and hug him so often he gains enough human hand oils to become velvety soft all over.
Because his fur is thick, he has chubby cherub cheeks. They're not fat, they're fur!
Seth: *squish* *squish* Nope, they're chubby cheeks.
Moggie is now suffiiently settled in with us to have developed some annoying habits. He has attachment issues, so he gets really upset if something, such as a door, blocks access to either of us. When we first got him, it was so bad neither one of us could cook in the kitchen peacefully because he wants to help but can't. He still lets me cook only about fifty percent of the time and will definitely get mad if one of my ingredients is something he finds tasty. When I shower, he loses his mind because he thinks I'm being tortured. We tried leaving the bathroom door ajar once when I was showering. He came in a few times, stared at me telling him I was okay and when I was done he ran away squealing even more traumatised than before. This is clearly a long term project.
I can't do anything in the backyard without also letting him join me. It doesn't count if I'm just three feet away on the porch and he can see me through the window. When he can't see me it's even worse. The last time I took out the recycling, he started wailing I was dead. I've taken to leaving the back door ajar so he can come out and sniff things while I garden. We'd really rather not have an indoor/outdoor cat this time around, but his idea of a tantrum—scrabbling pitifully at our back window and door—depletes our sanity faster than chores. Having said that, he's good about amusing himself without our help. He likes playing with us more than alone, but he won't demand it. Unlike Dorian, when he loses a toy under furniture, he makes an effort to retrieve it himself before asking for assistance. We appreciate the independence since we're both lazy gamer types who insufficiently play with our cats. My favourite game is making bed mousies for him. It's easy because I can do it while sleeping in. All I have to do is wriggle my toes under the blanket so he can do bunny hops and chase them around. True, this has ill-thought repercussions, namely that he now thinks all toes are potential mousies whether or not they're protected. On the other hand, it's clearly his favourite game too. I have learned it takes two reasonably thick blankets to be a safe chew toy. Anything less and it will be a test of my pain tolerance vs. the fact my cat is being cute. We both agree there isn't a mean bone in Moggie's body, but he is easily excitable. And surprisingly bitey.
Again, he's not mean. He just has a poor understanding of his actual strength, since he thinks he's still a three pound kitten. Early on, I posited that he chews things for the same reasons a puppy (or toddler) might. It's his way of understanding the world. When he bites us, he usually licks us afterwards. He does have an "attention please" nip he reserves for half-asleep humans late in serving him breakfast, but his bites are mostly play. Thankfully, he doesn't drool on us. I test all cats before taking them home for drooliness first. Drooliness is a no.
Seth: Okay, so why is our cat chomping on my arm?!
Me: He looks adorable doing it!
Moggie prefers toys that closely resemble his prey and seems especially partial to soft toys. The hedgehog and baby possum are good toys. The cat toys that look like flattened voodoo dolls are not. (To be fair, I also wonder why anyone makes cat toys that resemble flattened people.) His favourite toy of all is a plush that looks remarkably like a juvenile rat. Rattie (yes, I named it) is the Best Toy. It is the one toy to rule them all. Moggie carries Rattie to bed so he can sleep next to it. He carries it around the house so he can make up little scenarios to catch Rattie in, like tuck it under the fridge so he can dig it out, or hide it in Seth's shoe so he can pounce on the shoes and everything else in between him and the front door.
When Rattie is lost, the humans take 5 sanity damage and continuously lose sanity at a rate of 2 per turn until we find it again. That scrabbling at the window because he's bored and nothing works is a huge motivator. There is no cut scene nor boss fight important enough to sit there and take the damage. If he does this late enough at night, I flee to bed, and I'm horrible at sleeping at night. He also throws tantrums if we don't go to bed on time. I suffer for my cat.
He's got a good hunting instinct all told. I trust that when faced with a real rat, he will know what to do. There's also a good chance he'll bring it to bed so he can sleep next to it with us. Mind you, I'm not bothered by dead rodents. What gets me is the potential boiling all my bedclothes will need afterwards. We already both agree he is the best bug catcher of any cat we've met. After the first two or three insects, catching bugs was beneath Dorian's station. Moggie is a good lad who loves an ambulatory protein snack. Seth once saw him crocodile chomp a fly in mid-air. He usually finds bugs before I can even think of them.
Right now, the cat is stretched out beside me on the most important part of the couch. He likes that too, still-warm recently occupied seats that his humans might want back. This is a cat who will gladly steal the master's chair. My current job is to kiss him on the head every day and cover him with hand oils until he is velvety all over. Someday, he will be like hugging a cloud. He deserves no less.
no subject
...we're only here for the cats, but I'm glad their people are in good shape too.
no subject
Moggie continues to be traumatised by my showering. I tried leaving the door ajar so he could come in and he wailed sadly under the old-fashioned claw tub, which has just enough space for a cat to be sad in but not wet. No amount of talking to him helped. Coming out of the shower didn't seem to help, since he once more ran squealing out of the bathroom in horror. I guess he likes me and wants to protect me?