Longtime friends of this blog know SuzanneD as one of our most prolific, encouraging and all-around awesome posters.

She is also mama to three glamorous Tabby’s Place alumnae: Suri, Bonzai and Tara. SuzanneD, thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing this most exceptional update with us - and for giving your girls the life most cats dream of.

 

Bonzai & Pubert

 

I thought everyone at Tabby’s Place would like to have an update on Suri, Tara, and Bonzai. To do that, I think it would make sense to introduce Pubert first, as she is my only non-Tabby’s-Place cat and the feline equivalent of the Cruise Director in my house. I found Pubert (nicknamed Kitten and Sweet Pea) when I was living in Finland. She was 2 weeks old, and some cruel soul had locked her in an outhouse with no food or water. Pubert spent about a month in quarantine after that, recovering from double eye infections, parasites in both her intestines and ears, fleas, and lice. Shortly after she came out, all healthy again, I returned to the United States. Pubert took the 18-hour airplane ride with me, wowing all the fellow passengers with her jet-setting ways and her official European Union pet passport.

Suri & Pubert

Despite the cruelty she experienced at the beginning of her life, little Pubert is the happiest cat I have ever owned or met. She loves everything–her home, her toys, her bed, her Mom, and every other cat on the planet. In fact, Pubert goes out of her way to make the hourly “rounds” and be sure that all the cats in her immediate vicinity are happy and entertained. Even cats who don’t like other cats fall in love with Pubert. She just won’t take no for an answer.

Suri became Pubert’s first Tabby’s Place pal. Suri (nicknamed Planet Tortie and Pinky) has the legendary tortoiseshell attitude and an appetite that rivals the largest animals on Earth. She has grown to startlingly round…um, Rubenesque…proportions as a result of her love affair with Hill’s Science Diet dry food, and the vet recently suggested I give Suri the “light” weight management version. But in true human fashion, Suri interpreted “lower-calorie” to mean that she could eat twice as much as before. She’s 19 pounds now and loving every minute of it.

Glamorous Suri

Suri enjoys playing Chase and indulging in various versions of WWF cat wrestling with Pubert, generally from 1 AM until 5 AM. (My neighbors have the patience of saints.) Suri also adores batting at her jingle mouse on a plastic fishing pole, making various unsuccessful attempts at munching on my computer wires, and indulging in some sort of ongoing love affair with my toes. I don’t even like my toes as much as Suri does. At nap time, you’ll find Suri lying all over the other cats or attached to me by way of paws wrapped around my arm. She just loves to be next to me. Sometimes I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and find Suri just sitting there staring at me and purring. It’s adorable.

Tara & Bonzai

Tara (nicknamed Lovebug and The Rectangle) came next, and Pubert immediately adopted her as a Fur Mama. I will often find Pubert pseudo-nursing on Tara, which she doesn’t seem to mind at all. But that’s Tara–more laid back than a lounge chair. Tara shares many of Suri’s favorite hobbies (not to mention Suri’s general body shape), such as eating, snacking, noshing, and grabbing a bite. It’s very normal to find the two of them camped out together at the food area. If they could write a cookbook for cats together they probably would. And much like Suri, Tara purrs all the time–even when we go to the vet. The vet actually has trouble listening to her heart sometimes because the purring is so loud and continuous.

Fuzzy & Tara

Not surprisingly, Tara has a secret admirer. My mother’s cat Fuzzy (the big black and white guy in the corner of the photo) did a somersault the first time he saw Tara. I don’t mean he rolled around on his back–I mean an actual somersault. Every time Fuzzy visits he puts on an Academy Award winning performance for her. And Tara, like any self-respecting cat lady, continues to play hard to get. But secretly I think she loves him. If a wedding date is set, you’ll hear it here first.

Bonzai (nicknamed Zilla and Super Black Goofball) was the most recent kitty to join the group, and if Pubert considers Suri her playmate and Tara her Fur Mama, then Bonzai is her Elvis. Pubert follows Bonzai around all the time and mimics her behavior like a little black bookend. I learned early on that Bonzai likes complete peace and quiet while eating, so she and Pubert get to eat up on the counter away from the other kitties. They constantly glance over at one another and exchange cat “kisses” during these special meals. It’s a social activity as much as food time.

Bonzai!

Bonzai has three favorite activities: sitting on the window sill watching the squirrels and birds outside (there are so many in the courtyard here it’s like an episode of Animal Planet all the time), coming up with elaborate games that always involve swinging on and hanging off of my arm, and playing with her catnip cigar. She can literally spend hours upon hours doing these things–with little Pubert right by her side watching, of course. And at night, Bonzai has to sleep with her head on my leg. She doesn’t budge from that position until the alarm goes off. My little space heater.

Anyway, I just wanted to give you that update and let you know that the cats are happy, healthy, and thriving! Thanks again for helping me to create my little fur family!

No, thank you, SuzanneD, for the love that defines your life with your girls. Please give them eighty thousand kisses each for Webster and me.

Tags: adoption, bonzai, suri, tara

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