From: livigni@bldrdoc.gov (David livigni 303-497-5898)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats
Subject: Max and Rita need a New Home!
Keywords: adopt allergy new
Date: 27 Jan 93 22:14:58 GMT


Hello again!

I posted earlier about my problem with my cats and fiance.  We had a fight
and I posted some things I didn't mean.  So I have cancelled the post - my
apologies to those of you who have already read this.
When I first met my fiance she went out with me only on the
condition that I find a new home for my kitties, and I gave her my word that
I would.  I will always cherish my memories of times with them, and am happy
I had the chance to raise them.  But now it is the time to start a human 
familly, so please help me if you can - this is putting allot of stress on
my relationship.  I did not realize how hard it would be to find a new home
for them, but I'm sure that anyone reading this would be a good parent (pet).
They are very good kitties, and will make their new owner (pet) very happy.

Max and Rita love each other very much, but Rita would do fine alone.  She
seems to like being the only child when Max goes to the vet.  But Max
would have a tougher time, he needs LOTS of attention and cries when left
alone.  Both are domestic short hair tabbys and have all their shots, including
lukemia.  Please consider adopting them!  I would be happy to help
transport them a reasonable distance out of the Denver, Colorado
area where we live.  Max and Rita are indoor cats, but have gone outside when
I lived in suitable places.

     Max is about 6 years old; he is a pretty brown tabby, meaning that he is a
grey tabby with some brown on his neck.  He is large but a very poor fighter,
he has been seriously injured in fights.  The tiger stripes on his sides are
broken up into spots like a cheetah, and he has a large black stripe down his
back.  He is friendly and is a great lap cat and bed warmer, he (used to when
I could sleep with him) kneads your armpit for a few minutes and then curls up
and sleeps motionlessly well into the day.  He loves to play ball and has
excellent reflexes for it, but can be a bit of a klutz on his feet.  Bounce 
one of those foam golf balls over his head, an he'll jump up and smack it
across the room like a pro.  He's great at catching flies too!  He has a
great voice and uses it allot.  It would take some work to introduce him to
other cats because he will growl and stand up to others but won't fight (he
will probably get his butt kicked, though).  He also hates vets and cages, and
can be aggressive with abusive people so may not be appropriate for small,
unsupervised children.  Max cries if left alone for too long and purrs 
excessively when pet!

     Rita is a cute and cuddly orange tabby about 5 years old.  She is small
and has a long well articulated tail.  She is very shy and will require allot
of love before she trusts you.  Rita is almost a single color, her tiger
stripes are very subdued except for her face and tail.  She looks allot like
the Boda kitty and others you see on packages in the supermarket, I think she
is the cutest creature ever created!  She is very agile on her feet, she jumps
very well and never falls off the fence.  But she is a lousy hunter and
prefers to let the ball stop moving before she goes after it.  She has a very
course voice, but makes a very loud meow-like sound when in distress, and a
variety of other noises like "rrr" when you pick her up and "ack" when she is
excited.  She really "acks" when she sees birds, she is so cute!  Her purr is
almost completely silent.  She cowers around vets and other cats, so may have
a problem getting picked on.  Her fur is very soft and feathery, this year it
is extremely thick too.  She entertains herself (and Max) well, chasing
imaginary things as well as toys, and goes completely wild at the sight of
feathers.  She will sleep on the bed next to Max (not you) and gets up at
sunrise.  Rita is harmless and wouldn't hurt a fly (though she may play with
it to death).

Following is some background information.  This is part 1 of The Saga of
Max and Rita:

I first got Max in 1987. I always wanted a cat but my sister was extremely 
allergic, she would get bad asthma attacks when exposed to places a 
cat had been.  It was life threatening in her case.  So I had 
hamsters (dull).  During my master's program I finally had 
enough income to live in a nice place. Previously the dumps 
I lived in were roach infested, so no pets were allowed
probably because they'de eat the poisoned roaches and die.  There was 
supposably no pets, but the manager had one (his wife insisted) so I
convinced them to let me get one for an additional damage deposit.  I went to
the humane society and held kittens.  They all were only concerned with 
escaping from me, except for Max.  He latched onto my leg and accepted some
serious petting.  They warned me that he may be difficult but did not
elaborate, so I took him home in the spring of 1987.  He is a "brown"
domestic short hair tabby, he's mostly black, grey and white but has some
brown throughout.  When he was fixed I found out his problem was with the 
vet, he hates vets and tries to kill them.  He also hates cages, he cowers 
in the back hissing and growling at anyone who comes near (except for me),
and sometimes deficates all over getting it all over himself.  Anyway he is
a great housecat.
     I named him Max for several reasons, I try to give my animals a name 
they can understand and Max sounds sort of like Meow.  I had a newt named
Bert (burp) for example.  Also he is named after James Clerk Maxwell, a
physisist I admire because no matter how hard I tried I never could get a
feeling for his work.  Then after seeing him with the vet, Mad Max was fitting
as well.
     Max was great in the upper story efficiency I was living in.  He could
go outside on the balcony and visit the neighbors, but could not leave the 
building.  My neighbor Arnie and I would also play ball with him in the long,
carpeted hallway.  He loves playing with those soft foam golfballs.  He was
very quick, his tabby stripes are broken up into spots on his sides so he
got his first nickname, Poocheata.  He has also been known as Youhoodie (a 
name my mother used to use), Whodilly (a word I heard some cajun say on a 
commercial), and more recently Poodie T. Cat, Pootman and the Pootmeister.
But he only responds to Max as you may expect.  The entryway to 
my room had a long hallway from the door, I would bounce the 
balls off the top of the door and he would chase them, he 
would jump several feet into the air and bat the ball accross
the room.  Then he would chase it, bat it some more, etc.  He can carry the
foam balls in his mouth, or snag it with a claw and carry it in his paw;
sometimes he would even bring it back!  If I had rewarded him properly, I'm
sure I could have trained him to fetch.  We still play ball now, but he is
not nearly as agile as he used to be (he's getting fat).  
     When Max was left alone, he would sit by the door ane meow loudly all
day.  Since this irritated the neighbors, I got Rita to keep him company.
Rita came from my mechanic who had a calico cat Turbo who would have a
couple of litters a year (he finally did fix her).  All the kittens were
black, except for Rita who is an incredably cute orange, her fur is almost
the same color as her eyes, and while she is a tabby her stripes are almost
invisible so she looks very monocolored.  She has an exceptionally long well
articulated tail, I used to poke her in the nose with it and she would attack
it mercelessly.  It's so cute when she forms it into a question mark!  She 
hated me and all other people, I had to forceably  contain her to get her 
home, and she protested loudly.  She was covered in engine grime from
playing around the junked cars, and while still at the mechanics I let
her out of the carrier to try and quiet her.  She quickly escaped and hid
under a workbench.  One of the workers thaught he could get her out by 
dripping oil on her, that only coated her real good.  We eventually moved
the bench to get her out but she was a mess.  Then Rita came home, about a 
year after Max.
     Rita got her name because it sound sort of like the "rrr" noise she makes,
and Rita was a pet name my sister used to use for everything.  It was actually
Rheatah until she was fixed, I let her go several years hoping she could have
kittens.  She was most cuddly when in heat, and never got blood on anything.
Some light spanking on her hind quarters seemed to satisfy her, she still
likes it allot.  She is very shy and alluf so I enjoyed the attention. 
She is now known as Rita the Rue, a very musical phrase you can make into
lyrics for almost anything like the Star Trek the Next Generation theme;
"Reeeta the Rueee is so Quuu, Yes Rita is Q, Q, Q, she's the Rue...".
Whenever she'd here the music she'd come running to get some spanks.
     Rita the Rue got her last name for other reasons too.  Not only
because it is cute and like "Winnie the Poo", but mainly because
she used to RUIN things, lots of things.  Almost everything; she would
either scratch it, play with it, eat it, or throw up on it!  She used
to open the refrigerator while I was out.  She ripped a patch off the wall
the landlord had installed after doing some plumbing work, then the two
of them would crawl in there and get covered with fiberglass (I hope it
wasn't asbestos).  She would go out on the balcony and not come back in,
she got left out there overnite once when I visited a friend.  She was happy
to come back in after that!  She would chase the airbubbles in the waterbed, 
filling it with holes (and it has a supposably dog proof extra thick matress).
Later I learned to put a thick layer of blankets between the matress and the 
sheets.  God, she was a cute kitten!  Luckly she has mellowed with age.
     When Max met Rita it was ugly at first.  He chased her relentlessly,
biting and otherwise hurting her.  So I had to intervene to keep him from
hurting her.  They eventually began to like each other and Rita began her 
previously mentiouned ruinous behavior.
     The oil had to be removed from Rita, so I decided to wash them myself.
I got some good shampoo from a groomer at my local pet store, and put them
in the tub.  Then I had one of the bloodiest experiences of my life.  The
washing went OK in the inch or two of water in the tub, just an lot of noise
and a few puncture wounds.  But I tried to rinse them with the shower, a dumb
idea because a cat will do ANYTHING to keep water out of its ears.  They 
latched onto my chest in the process, shredding my shirt with their sharp 
kitten claws and drawing allot of blood.  Eventually they were free of soap,
then I found out that they don't like blow driers either.  Finally they were
clean and dry, and the softest puffballs you ever imagined.  Unfortunately
the pictures I took were still in my camera when it was stolen.
     Before I could clean her I'm sure Rita ate allot of oil.  She has always
thown up allot, I think the oil is the cause.  She also had extremely thin
fur until recently, this year her coat is so thick you can't even find the
underlying skin!  Luckly she wasn't poisoned!  She is awfully lickey, she
licks Max as well as herself, that surely induces the vomiting too.

That's about a year and a half with the Kitties.  I'm sure I left out
lots of happy events, but you get the idea.  I will miss them dearly.

David Livigni

livigni@bldrdoc.gov
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@   Anything stated here is my opinion only    @
@   livigni@bldrdoc.gov                        @
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