Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens...

 Whatever it is you celebrate, please have a pleasant, healthy, enjoyable holiday and let us hope for a better New Year!

One boy.....one special boy.....

 Ahhhhhh.....Percy.  Percy...Percy.  It has recently dawned on me that we have not even had this clown in the troupe for a year yet!  Such a newbie!  And yet....so ....comfortable.  BUT!  He has problems.  Percy has personal personality problems.  Percy is a nervous boy....when he isn't being a raving madman and big oafy lump.  He's a special boy.

Percy...after months and months of acclimating very nicely into the established "famiglia" started spraying out of the blue.  Except....it was right after Harry died.  And...it wasn't everywhere...it was only in my husband's chair.  Which is right under the front window, which looks out to the piazzetta....where the street cats are. We tried to put two and two together and come up with an answer that made sense.....Harry was his "rock"..his protector....and without him, the street cats were somehow threatening. 

I bought super duper extra strength Feliway....and we put it in two places around the house. I bought spray Feliway to spray the spot where Percy sprayed in order to deter him.  We have waterproof, quilted furniture covers, so that was not the problem...the problem was it was happening every day....lots of washes, lots of dryer loads....lots of trouble. 

Well, the weather got chilly and we naturally closed the windows.  That helped a bit but not entirely.  The front window also has an outdoor set of shutters.  Much to my chagrin....we closed them, too.  It means no sunlight in the living room.  No view.  No street noise.  No....life.  But!  It helped Percy.  He stopped spraying. 

While I am not happy with the shutters being closed, I can deal with it for the winter.  Come springtime will be a different story.  He may have to go on a program of Prozac at that time because I am not leaving the shutters OR window closed for the spring and summer.  

Percy is such a dichotomy.  The mere sight of the street cats (our set of regulars, some of whom are neutered, some of whom are actual family to my clowns inside) makes him insecure and nervous.  On the other hand, Percy is a wild card.  He plops in my lap, all probably about 15 pounds of him now...in one swell foop.  Blam!!!  And he purrs and purrs and purrs and drifts off into a deep, deep sleep, totally limp in my lap and arms until half of me is numb and I can't stand it anymore and I have to move. He appears to be completely relaxed and not nervous at all.

He always has something to say...always talking.  Mah maoh....mah mah moah....meh meh.  Mip? 

Percy gets along with all the others very well.  They have group morning playtime every day and snuggle later in various spots around the house...our bed, the couch....various cat beds.  No animosity, lots of affection and camaraderie.

 He is smart enough to know how to escape the wrath of Missy Tee at meal times....he either hangs out under the dining room table, or sometimes beats her into the "cat room" and bypasses her totally...or seeks out a spot above on top of a cage or table.

And then there are the zoomies.  They all get the zoomies, but Percy being Percy...and large and fat....Percy has special zoomies.....zoomies that end in splats against a wall sometimes....and rolled up carpet runners.....and occasional hisses and yowls...and general chaos.  He really seems to make himself quite at home.  Mah maoh?  Is there a problem?

Well, Percy, my special fella....I hope you make yourself entirely at home, get over this problem that you have...and realize the street gang is no threat to you and yours.  I love my front view, I love the sunshine....and I want you to feel as happily relaxed about that as I do....hopefully, by spring.  In the meantime, it's baby's first holiday season as a house cat and he seems pretty freaking relaxed about that.