I am glad to hear Jolie's bloodwork came back normal and that she ate some of that FF! I have bought that Medley stuff before and the cats love it. It looks good enough for humans too!

Sorry I have not been here for a few days. We had Jolie's red blood count done again since there was a problem the first time, with it saying she didn't have ANY red blood cells (which, would not be possible for a living cat.)

Here RBC's are just fine! She is also eating again, so the weight loss must have been due to here having a very sore throat that hurt too much to eat.

We bought some Wellness dry, which she, and all the other cats like. I don't know if her throat is still sore at all, but since the Wellness kibble is very small round bits, they would get down her throat easier without as much scraping it as larger sized kibble would.

A few years ago, at first Galen and Sumner liked the Wellness dry, but then they didn't. So we hadn't bought it since then. But now, it's greatly loved by all the cats.

We do feed canned food daily too. We got some of the Fromm's shredded chicken in a sauce, and they all loved it. Jolie didn't eat here entire serving, but she did eat some.

The Fancy Feast Medley is liked by my cats more than the regular FF. It does look like something humans would eat. But I won't be tasting it.

My cats must be weird....they don't like the new Fancy Feast Medleys. If it's not a pate, they only lick out the gravy and leave the "meat". Even Sparky who you would think would like "chunk" foods (since he was abandoned he must have eaten birds and mice and things....) but Nope, not even him!!

Oh, well my cats only like chunks in gravy, so the FF Medley and the Fromms are just the kind of canned food they love.

Sparky was not feral and not out in the park for long. He was in too good shape to have been out for a very long time with no help from humans. So I doubt he was living on eating birds and mice. He would have eaten bugs though. (Crickets have lots of protein! ) Part of that wooded park is bordered by houses, so he may have wound up getting handouts from people, or, more likely, raiding the trash. Or terrorizing outdoor chained dogs and eating their food!

Oh.... I wasn't sure how long he had been on his own in that park and he is a very good hunter and does catch birds and mice rather quickly - especially compared to the other cats who seem to not have a clue how to hunt. They all do tend to like bugs though....

I just thought that Sparky had been on his own for a week or two (maybe longer) based on how "wild" he was when I got him from you and how wild he was when YOU got him. He must have been purely terrifed to be on his own....poor boy... he's such a good kitty now!!!!

Hi Margaret:

I'm glad that Jolie is doing better.

Until I ended up with cats, I never would have though that they were such fragile creatures.

Mark

Oh, well maybe he did eat mice then, but cats who were raised in a house and never saw a mouse as kittens don't tend to eat them when they do catch him.

I am of the strong opinion that he was out on his own for more than a week- more like at least two, but he seemed in too good a shape for it to have been like over a month. I thought you thought it may have been many months. But he wasn't really old enough for it to have been many months, since he was only around 8 months old when we got him.

He was wild in a way, but he was not at all afraid of humans and loved to get his head scratched, so he had a lot of human touch as a young kitten, making him not feral. But he wasn't quite tame either. Likely a cat gave birth in someone's house or shed or something, and the people handled and loved on the kittens a lot, but didn't have them live in the house either at all, or once the kittens were old enough to run around and eat on their own.

So, maybe one could call him an "untamed, tame cat". Basically, he seemed to think he was the Master of the Universe, including over humans. I never met a young cat so full of himself! With NO respect for the humans. He would smack me if I verbally scolded him. That boy was something else! I think he was royal born.

It basically took Jim screaming out loudly and throwing the stuffed monkey towards Sparky, after Sparky dug his claws into Jim's hand hard when Jim was holding the monkey, that got Sparky to respect Jim. I guess Jim's deep, loud man's "roar" was more "lion like/cat like" for the likes of Sparky to consider acknowledging as having some significace. Any other cat would have been terrified of Jim for weeks, probably after that. But not Sparky. It just got Sparky to quit attacking Jim's hands. He still still slept on the bed with Jim and liked getting his head scratched.

HAHAHAHAHAHA.... No Mark, I haven't been kidnapped and the computer taken over by enemy kittys or anything. Sparky actually has been a VERY good boy lately. Especially after the incident the other night.... I asked Neil if Sparky was in the room with him (he was playing that STUPID computer game again) and he said "yes". All the other kitty's were upstairs so I closed the cellar door. THREE HOURS LATER I asked "Where's Sparky?" and Peaches was sitting at the cellar door and Neil said "I don't know.... he was in here a minute ago". Neil was delusional as Sparky was sitting quietly in total darkness for 3 hours on the other side of the cellar door. I have learned not to trust my husband now and take an actual headcount myself before closing the cellar door. I still feel bad. On the brighter side, Sparky no longer cries to go down in the basement. That was a bit nerve-wracking. My poor kitty boy.....

Margaret - I sure wish there was some way for us to know what poor Sparky went through all on his own and for how long that happened. We'll never know, of course, but he's settled down quite nicely. Must be getting "older".... hehehe. I'd love to know why he was out on his own.....