August 19, 2012 - Living it up in San Francisco

Like me, Caligula has really taken to his new life here in San Francisco. Most days are of a comfortable temperature and sunny!

Last year he had to get some dental work done, 3 of his 4 canines had to be removed and he'd already lost 3 of his lower incisors! Poor guy The good news is that dental disease like this is common, particularly in purebreds, and he'll do fine without those those teeth. We're supposed to be brushing his teeth regularly, but have you ever tried to brush the teeth of a cat? It happens irregularly. Since they put the cat under general during the procedure, he also had some patches of fur that needed to grow back, as seen here:

Last year he also had a few vet visits to try and track down the source of his mild hyperglobulinemia (abnormally large amounts of globulins in the blood), including an ultrasound and further blood tests to rule out cancer. We're happy to report he seems fine after all that! The vets also commented on his weight (14 lbs) but we've switched him to a weight loss formula of Science Diet and he's lost a pound.

I've been traveling more since moving out here, so both kitties have had to get used to us being gone. Early on we had friends drop in to take care of them, but we now hire a pet sitter who can take care of Simcoe's special needs (she was diagnosed with kidney disease in December 2011). I think they know what suitcases mean now, and Caligula never passes up an opportunity to take a nap on one:

Mostly though? He still just loves to sleep and eat!

April 12, 2010 - Moves

Where has Caligula been?

Before any moves, there are some photos on my blog from 2008, here: Cat Pictures, August 30th 2008.

In 2008 move was to an apartment in Kenilworth, Pennsylvania!

Check out more photos of him and his sister in Kenilworth over on my blog: Kitty Pictures, October 8, 2009.

Then in February 2010 we started packing...

And he was borded on to a Delta flight, routed through Atlanta, and is now living in my new home with my new boyfriend MJ in San Francisco, California!

He and Simcoe settled in quickly and are loving the California sun and huge windows.

And "his" new beanbag bed.

He celebrated his 6th birthday last December, and aside from being a little chubbby he's in perfect health.

January 22, 2007 - Caligula got a sister!

Over the holidays Michael and I decided to go to a local breeder I found out about through a friend to get a female Siamese to be Caligula's little sister. On January 19th I went to the breeder and was able to bring her home - our little Simcoe!

There were some tense moments on the first day or so, but they were tolerating each other by Saturday night and today they're sleeping on a chair together. Caligula is even being quite maternal for a male cat, cleaning the kitten, checking on her when she meows a lot, keeping her warm. It's so adorable.

And Simcoe now has her own website too! SimcoeC.at

Decamber 14, 2006 - Caligula's Birthday!

Caligula got many well-wishes from friends this year.

And he had a nice 3rd birthday yesterday! We decided against getting many more toys, so he received a single toy, some cat grass, and a nice dinner.

Ooooh is that for me?


Yay new toy!


Attack!


Rawr!

Then Michael "prepared" a delicious plate of Eukanuba Morsels in Sauce with Select Tuna.

Hey food!


Eating!

August 27, 2006 - New Photos

Just posting a couple of pictures of the beautiful kitty from the past couple weeks :)

Photo taken by Michael


Photo taken when Ian was visiting in August of 2006 - glowing eyes kitty!

December 25, 2005 - Caligula Christmas!

Caligula started the day with a nap on my lap.

In the late morning both Caligula and Michael were finally awake, so it was present time! As to be expected, Caligula got lots of toys. This is the best time of year to get him toys because there are so many Christmas ones, and his favorite color is red.

3 bags of red and green mice!


He played fetch with one of the red mice for a bit


Green catnip mouse from Baerana and b2s

The most popular toy was a goofy-looking, round, red mouse with a party hat on a string. I was unsure of how he'd react, since it had a muffled bell inside and he generally doesn't like bells, but we were pleasantly surprised! He went nuts over it!

You can see what the toy looks like here


Attacking the red mouse toy, you can also see his new catnip-filled chili in this picture

And finally, we shot a little movie: Caligula playing with red mouse toy! (3.9M)

December 4, 2005 - Year in Review

It's been too long since I've updated this site! Caligula is doing well, we just bought our Christmas tree, and Caligula loves it. His second birthday is coming up in a few days, I can't believe we've had him so long.

We've taken a lot of pictures this year, I chose a few that I particularly like and put them up in a new gallery: Various Photos from 2005. Enjoy!

Earlier this year I also made a Caligula Mahjongg Tileset for Gnome Mahjongg in Linux, you can check out the tileset here: caligula_mahjongg.png

I hope to update more in the near future :)

March 20, 2005 - Caligula goes to work

Michael works in an office that has an office cat, Cargo Kitty. When he was called into work on Friday he learned that Cargo was not going to be in the office, so he packed up Caligula into his carrier and decided to bring him along.

He meowed a lot during the car ride, and Michael opened the top of his carrier, he was very good. Crawled out of his carrier into the back seats, then back into the front again."

Once at work Michael got busy with what he needed to do and Caligula explored the office. He smelled Cargo everywhere, so he went into all the offices trying to find him. And each time he started to feel a bit lost he'd meow and try to find Michael again. "He's very talkative," the women in the office noticed, and he is. And he was nice to everyone, no hissing or growling like he does at the vet's office.

After a couple hours, Michael was finished with work and it was time to go. It was all quite an adventure for Caligula!

March 13, 2005 - We've had Caligula for a whole year!

Caligula is feeling better.

And today marks our one year anniversary with him! We brought him home from Pharo's Best Cattery on March 13th, 2004.

Then


Now

He's such a great cat %)

March 12, 2005 - Caligula's 1 year vet visit

Thursday night was Caligula's 1 year checkup at the vet.

They wanted a relatively fresh stool sample, so I cleaned out his litter box on Tuesday evening, assuming he'd go again before Thursday night.

Nope! As disgusting as it is, I ended up grabbing old Tuesday litter bag out of the trash and getting an older "sample" figuring that would be better than nothing. Yuck.

As always, Caligula hated the car ride and meowed a lot. Then, about halfway there, a horrible smell came from the back seat where his carrier was. He had finally given us a stool sample, in his carrier. Double Yuck.

So we pulled over and I threw out the old sample and cleaned out his carrier and put some of the fresh stool in the bag. I'm just glad we had tissues in the car to wipe it all up with and he hadn't stepped in it before we were able to pull over and clean things up. Cats are gross sometimes.

We finally got to the vet and he was weighed.

11.6 pounds.

Eep, isn't that a lot?

Eventually we followed a vet tech into the exam room, and passed a dog on the way, which made Caligula start hissing and growling. Oh brother. He hadn't calmed down much when the doctor came into the exam room, and promptly growled as soon as he touched him. Most of the exam went this way, poor Caligula was very unhappy about the whole thing.

He got his 2 year rabies shot and a cat flu shot, which he took fairly well. The vet also emptied his anal glands (cat's have anal glands? Apparently.) because we mentioned that he sometimes rubbed his bum on the floor and it was slightly irritated. The vet didn't seem concerned with this because the irritation didn't look bad.

About his weight, the vet said it is not a problem right now, but it could become one if he kept gaining. He suggested that we make sure he only gets 3/4 cup each day and bring him in to the vet in 6 months to be weighed and make sure he's not continuing to gain weight. No more cat milk for Caligula!

It was about 6:30 by the time we got home. The vet warned us that cats often act a bit "off-color" for 24 hours following these shots, and we shouldn't be concerned unless it lasts longer than that. He acted fine when we got home, but some time thursday night he crawled on top of my clean clothes in our closet and went to sleep.

This is strange behavior for him, he never sleeps there, he usually sleeps on our spare blankets, a pillow on the couch, or in our bed with us. When Michael saw him on my clothes friday morning he moved him to a pillow on the couch, but he immediately went back into our bedroom to sleep on my clothes. Very odd indeed. He didn't move from his place on my clothes when I filled up his food bowl this morning, which he usually runs to investigate. I was glad Michael is working from home fridey and could keep an eye on him.

By Friday evening he was feeling enough to come out of the closet and visit with friends we had over for Movie Night. Today he seems to be doing a better, but still not 100%.

Poor Caligula, always feeling horrible when he comes home from the vet!

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