More Than You Have Ever Wanted to Know About My Cats

This will be my only post about my cats, I promise.

When we were preparing for our move to Caracas, Venezuela, I decided to find a new home for my 2 Ragdoll cats. Tiramisu, Misu for short, was my female Mitted Seal Tortie with a Blaze (or so said her papers, the blaze being the stripe down her nose) and Biscotti, Bisco for short, was my male Seal Colorpoint (Seal being the dark brown color)


Tiramisu



Biscotti

My reason for wanting to find them a new home rather than take them with us was my fear that we would be evacuated and I wouldn't be able to take them out of the country with me. (What foresight eh?) I also knew that in order to take them out of the country back to the US, the paperwork alone would cost close to $1000 for each (veterinarians were known to charge quite a bit for needed paperwork down in Caracas).


Yes there are 2 cats in this picture!

I interviewed several families until I found the perfect guy for my cats. His parents both had Ragdolls so he was familiar with the breed's needs. Bisco and Misu went to their new home and I was pretty devestated for several months. I never thought I could get so upset about my cats but I did.

Fast forward one year later. We are now in Mexico. We did leave Caracas pretty quickly and had I brought Bisco and Misu with me it would have been a disaster. In September of this year I started looking for 2 new Ragdolls. There are no Ragdoll breeders in Mexico so I looked in the US. During my search I came across the RagaMuffin breed which is an offshoot of the Ragdoll breed, same body size (these are huge cats 15-20 lbs full grown), same temperment (great with kids, docile, go limp when you pick them up hence the name Ragdoll), same ultra soft fur (like a rabbit's), and same mane of fur surrounding the head when mature (like a lion's mane!).

The difference is, while Ragdolls only have blue eyes and come in 6 colors (seal, blue, chocolate, lilac, red and cream) with specific patterns (such as colorpoint, tortie or lynx), RagaMuffins come in all eye colors, fur colors and patterns. Basically, RagaMuffins are all the colors and patterns the Ragdoll breeders didn't want. They have just recently been recognized as a distinct breed which also means they haven't been inbred to the point of genetic defects similar to what many pure bred dogs and cats suffer from. Being a new breed, it is also difficult to find breeders and they are expensive.

I found a breeder in Dallas, Texas. Another consideration was the breeder had to be in an area where direct flights from Mexico City were offered, the shorter the better. This was just my own personal desire because I didn't want to have the kittens on a flight any longer than needed.

On the cattery's website (http://www.abundantlyblessedcattery.com) I chose two kittens, a brother and sister:

Born August 9th, they were ready to be picked up on November 1st so without delay, I flew to Dallas on Nov. 1st and was met by the breeder who handed me my kittens. I learned there would be another bonus for flying to Dallas. Just a few days earlier I was talking to my dad on the phone who said that he would be in Dallas that week. I said "HEY! I'm going to be in Dallas on Saturday!" So from his hotel he took a train and then a bus all the way to the Dallas/Ft Worth airport just for me. It was too short of a visit. Had I known earlier that he would be there I would have stayed overnight. He's not fond of cats (one of THOSE dog people) but he did say they were pretty good looking but I'm sure he still can't figure out why cats would be worth the trouble and money.

I picked them up myself because my plane ticket was more than half the cost of shipping them via cargo. I treated the day as a relaxing "Mommy's Day Out" with a new Daniel Baldacci book I actually finished on the flight home. I can't remember the last time I had so much time to read and it was wonderful. I left for the airport around 6am and was back home by 8:30pm.







As for names, that's sort of a funny thing right now. The Calico is a female and we have named her Cricket. The Classic Red Tabby is a male (classic being the type of Tabby pattern) and is another story. The boys call him "Cheddar", Kris calls him "Poopy Pete", and I have yet to choose his official name. The only name I've really liked is Basco, short for Tabasco (Yea, we are a family that buys Tabasco in the Costco size) but everyone else in the family thinks it's stupid and too much like "Bisco". Nothing else has struck my fancy so it's probably going to be "Basco"...my cat, my right to pick a stupid name. Kris and the boys never called Bisco by his name. They renamed him Toonces (you know, SNL's The Driving Cat) so Basco will have several names I guess.


If you enlarge this picture you can see his "m" marking on his forehead which is pretty distinct. He is a Classic Tabby which means he has swirled stripes in a "bull's eye" pattern on his sides.

Cricket is a Calico and her clear pattern and coloring is more rare in the RagaMuffin breed. Muddied Calicos are more common where the colors bleed together without obvious borders.

They don't really look anything like what they will look like when they are all grown up but here are two RagaMuffins with the same colors and patterns as my guys:

So these are my cats, I am so happy to have cats in the house again. It does my soul good and Kris said he noticed an immediate change in me when I brought them home. He said I became so much more relaxed almost overnight (hmmm, furry Prozac?). I hadn't noticed. I've heard about people who have that sort of response to animals so maybe I'm one of them. Weston, Braedon and Jamison have sure enjoyed them as well. Braedon is especially fond of Cheddar/Poopy Pete/Basco, he is quite the cuddler while Cricket and Weston just chase each other around the house. She likes to jump on his head from behind the couch while he's sitting on the couch. If Jamison has a blanket on his feet, she'll attack his feet which he sometimes likes, other times he gets pretty upset with her. They both follow Kris everywhere, sit at the door when they hear the gate open when Kris comes home and have to be in the room with all of us. Cricket also likes to steal potato chips, cereal and ice cream from boys who are not paying attention...she is more like a dog I think.