OMG Is This A Pet Blog Now??

I’m still seriously missing the little guy. Thanks everyone for the nice comments and sympathy. He was just a little rabbit but at the same time he had a gigantic personality, and having him gone left a large void in my life.

My cat was grieving too, so I had to get a second cat. That’s the short version.

Here’s the (too) long version: rabbits bond strongly to other beings and have a hard time just sitting around being alone. Some beings are fine with sitting around being alone, such as myself. Of course, I can just get on the computer, if I want to talk to people. Animals, especially the needy bonding-prone variety, need constant social stimulation, and so I figured another needy animal would be a perfect bunny companion.

So I got a Ragdoll cat, after doing some breed research to find out what breed of cats have minimal prey drive. Absolute lack of agro was at the top of my list, followed by neediness, and Ragdoll DNA is rich in both. They also happen to be the largest breed of domestic cat, and are rumored to be part space alien.

I contacted the official breed organization, assuming they would point me toward people actually interested in furthering that particular breed, as opposed to being interested in trying to make a quick buck raising animals under heinous conditions. I could rant further, at the risk of turning this into one of those animal rights blogs, but if you’re getting an animal intentionally (as opposed to the regular way where you find one or somebody gives you one with no warning), please do some research.

Anyway I ended up with a little baby kitten, Tallulah, which I successfully introduced to the bunny. Theirs was a relatively smooth relationship. They never got to the public displays of affection bunnies go for, but they were fond of each other. The cat would hug the bunny, and swat him gently with her claws non-extended, and lick his cute little bunny face. They would eat blueberry yogurt together from the same dish. If it got really cold, they might curl up with their backs touching each other.

The bunny was mean and domineering and imperious to the cat, although he did like her in general. I went through this whole bunny-cat introduction process where I ceremoniously fed them on the same platform, except bunny’s was a little higher, and he got served first. That’s because bunnies are rule-worshipping, status-conscious little fascists, and need social recognition. And also because cats are lazy anarchist stoners who need constant repetition of a rule before they internalize it, and I wanted her to recognize him as alpha and not try to eat him.

She loved him despite all the torture, and never harmed him, even though she grew up to weigh 14 pounds to his 6. Once he started getting old and frail and had to live out the last of his days in a cage, Tallulah got more and more anxious. That bonding thing. Yowling, clinging, pacing in circles, losing weight.

So I started thinking about getting Tallulah a pet of her own, to keep her company. Not another rabbit, Varmint had an infectuous bunny thing (pasteurella) and the vet advised against getting a new bunny for a while, just to make sure it’s cleared up.
And not a dog, because I’m too lazy to walk one, plus they’re loud.

So another cat. Not only that, another cat with a complimentary personality. A cat that wouldn’t teach her how those front claws work. A needy, bonding cat. Another Ragdoll, and a male one, since Tallulah seems to prefer boy animals to girl ones, based on a limited number of introductions. But one from the shelter, a grownup one. Purebreds get surrendered too, and I wasn’t about to do the kitten thing again.

I wasn’t going to introduce another cat to stress Varm out during his last days. I figured I’d start looking while we were grieving and life was upside down anyway.

On his very last day, while fidgeting and waiting for the hour of death, i.e. vet appointment, to arrive, and feeding Varm his last meal of a strawberry cupcake with a side of banana walnut muffin, I went to petfinders.com, which is a database that lets you search for adoptable animals using all kinds of filters. People from shelters/rescues post there. I did a search for all the adult Ragdolls within 100 miles. Several popped up.

One caught my eye. Male, a year younger than Tallulah, looked exactly like her … except the same color scheme as the bunny. This cat looked like their mutant love child.

Not only that, but he happened to be declawed. I’ve never had a declawed cat before, and wouldn’t declaw one, since it’s mean, but somebody else already did the dirty deed. Here was a perfect match for my wimpy bunny-snuggling girl cat. And, y’know, if I decided to someday get another bunny, perhaps, he would be extra low risk.

So after the vet visit of doom, I cried and drank vodka and rearranged the furniture and contacted the rescue that had this cat and started pathetically begging for him, and a few days later I drove down to get him. He was even bigger than I expected. Nearly 18 pounds and fluffy. Tallulah’s a pretty big girl, weighing in around 14 pounds, but this guy is seriously large, with a personality not unlike Dude in The Big Lebowski. So I named him the big Kahuna.

I did an elaborate introduction process, starting with separate rooms, gradually getting them used to each other, complete with lava lamps, Barry White and cat pheromone dispensers. They’re doing pretty good, occasional cheek rubs and chasing, but no real agro. Tallulah’s a lot calmer. Kahuna’s got his own armchair next to my computer chair, because he doesn’t fit in my lap, and also this way I can pretend I’m Han Solo and tell him to fix the warp drive.

I had a lot of that creepy depressed heart-turned-to-cement bereavement thing going. Dunno if I’ll want to touch Medieval Sims again because I’ll always associate it with bunny hospice care, but I’ve been playing WoW again, sporadically, and I’ll write more about that later.