Sister Callie Jo... An Update

Callie Jo...

She's so sweet..

Look at her... She looks like a little baby sleeping there.

Such a sweet girl...

Sweet Sister Callie Jo, with her baby soft kitten hair. Such a sweet little girl.

That is, until she wakes up...

And BAM... it's on. She is turned up, going from 0 to 100 in a matter of seconds.

She is a ball of energy.

"I don't know where you get all that energy from," I say as she runs back and forth. "But can I have a little of it?"

She's getting bigger and bigger. Look at my hand in comparison...

I'll take another picture like that in a few weeks just to see how big she gets.

All I know she is LONG. And she stands tall and strong!

I miss the little sweet girl she was, unable to jump up on stuff and unable to get down from anything.

Because now she is a straight up cat gymnast.

Lo and behold, to my complete horror, she has discovered the beams above the living room.

I happened to be upstairs and she was hanging by her paws off the ledge just beneath the upstairs railing. I had to lean over and snatch her to safety. I wouldn't haven't even noticed if she was screeching "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!"

I guess that is catspeak for "Help me Oldgirl! I'm bout to fall!"

She seems to know what she's doing now. At least I hope she does. I am not building any contraptions or putting up any gates to keep her from going upstairs. Nerp.

Oscar-Tyrone doesn't like her. She does a strange flying squirrel routine whenever he walks into the room, and lands square on his back. She attempts a choke hold and bites his neck.  He's already surly. Dude gets HOT over that. I wish I could catch it on video, but it all happens so fast. Once Oscar pins her to the floor and slaps her a few times, she leaves him alone.

Oscar is 17 years old. He's an old man. He likes calm activity like napping.

That's the only time he deals with her. And as you can see, he has his back to her. (And as you can also see, she is still on alert status).

Now, what's interesting is that she passed a tapeworm back in early June. This did not frighten me. I only pulled it off her butt and threw it in the garbage. And Oscar and Jeremy had tapeworms some 15 years ago.  That happened Thursday before last, and luckily she had a vet appointment already scheduled for that Saturday morning. I hadn't taken her sooner because I talked to them prior to get an idea of when she could get her shots, and it had to be at 8 weeks of age. She was only 5 weeks when I got her. No way I'm double paying for doctor's visits.

The main thing was to make sure she was feline HIV and leukemia free. That can be an issue with strays. The second thing was to take care of the tapeworm problem. That comes from ingesting fleas. So I also had to take care of her flea issue. Granted, I only had seen one flea on her at the time. But she still needed a treatment.

She HATES riding in the car. She screams the whole time. This is a might bit irritating.

Once we got there, she was still crying. But once she saw some dogs, she shut up. It's funny because it is so immediate.

And then she was all over the place.

It took a lot to get her attention. She even fell head first into the trash, which scared her something awful.

She kept diving in the sink.

And then she was trying to eat the cotton patches.

"Sister Callie," I hollered in a loud whisper. "Cut all that out! You're not suppose to do that. Stop it!"

She is like a dog. She likes to pick up random things at home and carry them around. Yesterday she was running with a Wal-Mart bag. O_o.

The vet visit was good. She is a very healthy kitten. No feline HIV. No leukemia. She received her first shots and will go back in a couple of weeks for boosters. I saw the tapeworm that one time, and haven't seen any since then. (I have been lifting Oscar-Tyrone's tail to check his butt, and he has this look that screams "NOW JUST WAIT A MINUTE NOW!" LOL)

Overall, she is a good kitten. She understands "NO!" very well and will immediately stop any of her shenanigans when I speak it, even softly. She is just now starting to respond to her name, but that is still a bit haphazard. For some bizarre reason she responds to:

"Yip-yip-yip-yip-yip-yip-yip-yip!!!!"

I am not sure what that's about. It will jump her from her little hiding places. And I have a bell around her neck so I can keep up with her. She's in a cage all day, but I let her stay out all night. And on Sunday, she was out for an extended time during the day when I wasn't around, and she did well with that.

I wake up some mornings and find her cuddled in my armpit or around my neck which is deeply disturbing.  Deeply.

But overall, she is a very good kitty. She is quite healthy. And that's all I ask for.