Monday, September 18, 2006

The Life of Ginger, My Little Lion Cat

I got Ginger when she was just 3 months old. I did not really mean to get another cat, was just looking around, and thinking whether I should get another friend for Shadow. Too bad Shadow was lost when Ginger was just about 4 months old.


One day, as I was having my facial at Uptown, I went to the pet shop I always visit around that area and saw her. She responded right away when I went near her cage. And when I held her in my arms, she licked my face. It was then I decided that she will be mine. Ginger was very active, naughty and rebellious when she came to my house. It was a nightmare to feed her deworming tablets. She hated it so much and made sure I know it. The number of scratches she gave me was countless.


Ginger when she was just 3 months old.


Ginger's favorite pasttime is to climb the window in my room.


Oh dear, it is kinda high up, isnt it.


As she grew up, she matured into a quiet and lazy cat. She spends most of her time sleeping and lazing around the house. When I call her, she will lift her head, look at me for 3 seconds and went back to sleep. Even during mealtime, she is not bothered as she knows that there is always plenty of food lying around. She is extremely afraid of strangers too. Everytime there is a visitor in my house, she would run and hide under the sofa. Only until she gets to know you better, will she look up and acknowledge you, and went back to sleep. I now let the pet shop or vet feed her the deworming tablets, because she is always timid and quiet when she is at a strange place.

She is not a manja cat. When she is not in the mood, she does not want to be touched. And she merajuk all the time. Everytime I bath her, she will merajuk for 2 whole days. What does she do when she merajuk? Well, she wont look up when you call her name, when you go near her, she will just stand up and walk away, and she will not come upstairs to greet me in the morning. Oh yeah, she and Garlic, without fail, will raced upstairs every morning when I opened the door to let them in the room. They will then sit and looked up at me, waiting for me to pick them up for their morning cuddle. I cuddle Ginger first, and then Garlic. Sometimes when Ginger felt that the cuddle is too short, she will follow me around the room and make her ‘I want another cuddle’ sound.



She tried to bluff you with her non-sleeping position on my bed, but if you look closely, she is actually snoring.


The famous pig pose.


Almost falling asleep.


Sleeping and showing off her fluffy fur.


Finally! A photo when she is NOT sleeping.


Recently, the shedding has become extremely serious. I have to vacumn almost everyday and yet there is fur everywhere. Everytime I come back from gym and give them all a cuddle, I have to vacumn myself before I go into my room. Someone from a www.vet.com.my had the same problem and she sent her cat for a ‘lion cut’ (Thanks Tiara!). So I decided to give it a try. I was a bit concerned at first. So I asked around and did some research on the internet. So far, all the cat owners commented that they did not see a major difference in their cats character and no skin diseases or irritation.

So on Saturday morning, Ginger went to the pet shop. I specifically told them NOT to shave her but to leave her body fur at least ½ inches long. This is so that she wont feel too weird and also there are still fur on her body in case she is cold. The hair cut cost me RM70 (more expensive than my own haircut!).

When she came back, Garlic and Pepper was very curious about her new look. Garlic followed her around the house and Pepper kept chasing after her lion tail. At one point, Ginger got so annoyed at Pepper that she gave Pepper a smack on the face. I gave all of them some new treats I bought from the pet shop. Threw their favorite ping pong ball on the floor and Ginger came chasing after it.

At night, she stayed in my room. At first, I was a bit worried that she would be cold (I have air-con in my room) but I was wrong. She still takes her spot right underneath where the air blew straight at her. Once a while she would walk up to me and licked me. She even climbed on top of me while I was watching TV to lick me on my face! When I switched off the light to sleep, she came up and slept on the same pillow. Only at about 4am, she woke me up by licking my face. So I let her out of the room. She came back upstairs at 7am to give me a wake up call. She has not done that for about 2 months now.

Below is how she looks now.



The fur is left about 1/2 inches long on her body. It feels like carpet when you run your hand through it. I am surprised on how thick her fur actually is.


Her lovely lion tail.


Her lion head. Not furry enough to look like a real lion though.


My little Lion Cat.


Ginger looking up at me when I called her.


Sleeping again. So what's new?


Sesame is curious about his big sister's new look.


Mmmmm.....she smells really nice too.


With her new cut, she is now the same size as Garlic!



Back View.


Sleeping at her position on the end of my bed, where the air-con blows directly to her.


Sleeping so soundly that she did not realize I am actually taking photo.


Snuggled in my laundry. Normally I do not let them do this as fur will be all over my clothes. But having come out of the shower and see her in this position, I grab my camera and snap snap.



14 comments:

boo_licious said...

Awww, so cute esp the lion tail. I love the sleeping poses too.

J said...

Awwww... so cute!!!
:)

You cat seems to sleep a LOT tho.

Anonymous said...

Hahaha... Ginger looks so cute after get his 'hair' done.

I think this is the time whereby longhair cats tend to shed a lot. Like my lil Speed (a mix Persian) had been shedding tremendously nowadays. daily combing for loose fur is the solution for me to avoid them flying around the house n to avoid Speed licking n swallow them (cause of hairballs).

can't imagine my Speed's looks if he got his fur cut short.. hehehehe

Just Sharlene and the Spice Cats said...

Boo and J, she is a darling despite her 'princess-like' behaviour. And yes, she does sleep a lot. Normal cats sleepy about 18 hours a day. I think she sleeps about 22 hours a day. Haha...

Rick, you got 7 cats. How do you manage with all the fur? I have 4 cats and its driving me crazy! I brush them everyday (Ginger hates it, that is why I took her for the hair cut.). And I also vacumn every other day. And yet.... fur is still everywhere!

Bonnie Loves Cats =^..^= said...

I love Ginger, and she looks great with her haircut. That long fur is pretty, but hard to brush and gives cats lots of hair balls to cough up. There are 2 other Cat Blogs from your country: http://niduk.blogdrive.com/archive/ and http://masak-masak.blogspot.com/2006/09/weekend-cat-blogging-wcb-67.html.
Hope you will join us next time at Weekend Cat Blogging.
Bonnie in Virginia, USA

Anonymous said...

Whoa so horned to see my name mentioned. Did I say how much I love reading your blog? Can’t get enough of your beautiful babies.

Hey my groomer charged me double of your price. For rm60 they only provide nails clipping, ear cleaning, bathing and blow dry, no cutting. Hm…got ripped off.

I like the pig pose and her hanging in between the window grill. So hilarious.

Just Sharlene and the Spice Cats said...

Bonnie, thanks for the compliment. Loves your blog too, lots of cute kitties. Is Purrin like SPCA? Also what is Weekend Cat Blogging?

Tiara, next time bring your Hugo to my groomer. They only charge about RM70 for bathing, nails clipping, ear cleaning, blow dry plus cutting. The only thing is you need to leave Hugo there for about 4-5 hours, depending on the queue. They do not open on Sunday so a lot of people go on Saturday.

viv said...

cute! cute! me like ginger... after his lion cut...

Anonymous said...

To Sharlene:Not difficult at all. I only resort vacuum n mopping the floor once a weekend but i do 'dry-mop' everyday. so less fur everyday. Anyway, i have 1 Longhair, 1 semi-long & 5 shorthairs.

To Bonnie:U forgot 1 more blog which is New cats on the Blog. Juz click my nick n u'll b there.

Anonymous said...

I grind the deworm medicine into powder form between 2 metal spoons and put the medicine inside bits of prawns to feed my cat. My cat doesn't like chicken or other meat.
Mother cat will lick her kitties backside to clean up as long as they are on breast milk only. Once the kitties are on solid food, she will not clean up the faeces

Just Sharlene and the Spice Cats said...

Rick, I vacumn every other day. Dry-mopping does not help much. Maybe its because I now have 4 furry persian-mix. But with Ginger's new hair, there is less fur in the house :) And she is allowed to sleep with me now :)

Haw Ying, you are right. After I feed Sesame the wet canned food, he started doing this business on his own. And wow... there is quite a lot of small poo-poo in the litter box.

burekaboy — said...

sharlene!! that is THE funniest thing i have ever seen! your own personal little lion. :-} too bad my little boy is short haired!

Just Sharlene and the Spice Cats said...

burekaboy - , Hehe..it is funny and cute at the same time. But her fur is now growing back. Soon I will have my orginal ginger cat back!

Anonymous said...

how does ginger felt about the shaving? lols resented it or love it? did her fur friends made fun of her? ginger is just soooooooo cute & cuddddlllyyyyy!!