Kage, The Grey Mouser, Has Gone Over the Rainbow Bridge

We have sad news from +Erika Rice Scherpelz, valet to Kage, the Grey Mouser:

You and Katherine should know that Kage passed last week. We found out a few months ago that he was starting to have kidney issues, but we could not be very aggressive in treating it because the medication options conflicted with his heart medication. A couple weeks ago, we took him to the vet again because he had stopped eating. They kept him over the weekend, but when he came home, it was clear that he was failing. He died a couple of days later, with mommy cuddles.

We're still processing the loss. He's been such a good kitty, and we're so glad that you passed his care to us.

I had not seen The Grey Mouser since we delivered a cat tower to him at his new valets, and we were unaware of his heart condition. Yet even with the years having passed, I find myself sad at his passing.  As Erika said, he was such a good kitty, and he was still relatively young.

All four of our current overlords have been petted.

We'll never forget What-his-name

We actually owe a bunch of posts, some of which we may backdate.   But for now ...

+Erika Rice Scherpelz just posted a picture of Kage (The Grey Mouser) and his housemate Jasper curling up together on the local self-heating cat cushion (i.e. her).

Kage really does remind me of a more reserved version of Penwiper, especially with their long fur and sociability around favorite humans.

Photo Weekend Extra: Kage Nap

I can never resist re-sharing sweet photos of our former overlord Kage, the Grey Mouser.

Photo Extra: Kage Season!

Our former resident Kage has checked in on the web, to announce shedding season.

Still the Mouser ...

Getting new cat towers required us find what to do with the old ones. The Feline Overlords all agreed when we left two in the downstairs front hall: Keep Them!

We did keep the least abused of the three, but we still needed to dispose of the others. Just as we started to get organized, Kage's valet posted on Facebook that she should have bought two cat towers (instead of one) for Kage and Jasper at Christmas. After having warned her that the old towers are well loved, she was happy to take our surplus, and so with the help a third friend, we delivered them today.

Jasper (Kage's co-overloard) greeted us in the dining room and promptly hopped into one of the newly arrived cat condos.

Kage, true to his days as the Grey Mouser, hid upstairs. We were led to his lair by his valet, but he didn't want to greet us, prefering to retreat under a desk. Oh, well, we got to see him, and he's still a beautiful healthy feline.

And I'm sure he'll like his new furniture, even if it came from those boys.

We'll Never Forget What's His Name

It was a year ago today that The Grey Mouser retired as self-propelled cat toy for Billy and Whitey in order to take up his position as Kageneko, the most important kitty in the world. Our thanks to his new valets for providing the update on his status, not to mention the love and care they have showered on him in the past year.

The Departed

I sent the post on our ad-hoc mousing team to the current valet for the retired mouser Kageneko, and she gave me a quick update on him. Since I didn't ask for permission to repeat her, I'll just give a summary:

A happy cat

The knowledge makes me smile, a year after we found him and eight months after we found his permanent valets.

Photo Friday: Belated Co-Existance

We never posted it, but we have in the archives a shot of Emily, Whitey, and Billy all sharing the bedroom with reasonable space between them. Likewise, at nap time the now departed The Gray Mouser (as Kageneko was known while here) and Billy could co-exist.



Update: Actually, we had posted a picture of Emily co-existing with the boys as early as their first summer. Note that Emily was actually larger than the young Catzilla brothers, which no doubt helped her teach them proper respect.

A New Name, a New Happiness

From The Gray Mouser's new valet ...

Mouser (now known as Kageneko, for shadow cat in Japanese) seems quite content. He is now king of the upstairs (downstairs is still a future adventure).

That sounds like our mellow friend for sure.

S.W.A.T. Cat

During The Gray Mouser's tenure, he normally ate in the Library (aka His Suite), with the door closed to prevent any prowling Catzillas from stressing him. However, closed interior doors in this house (especially with food smells behind them) generate their own demand, and reopening them can generate a feline stampede to equal Filene's Basement Running of the Brides.

With the Mouser gone, we left the library open continuously until this morning, when I closed it for an hour (in part to check smells from the heating system, newly launched for fall). Katherine and I then checked the room before breakfast, and gave it a clean bill of health. As we were leaving we agreed the boys could go back in, and as we opened the door ...

... and lo and behold Whitey was in a crouch waiting for the door open. We stepped aside, and he leaped through the door like a S.W.A.T. team. His bound landed him in the middle of the floor, and he immediately checked left and right to locate The Gray Mouser.

Whitey looked downright confused when he realized his cat toy was missing, poor kid.

He'll get over it.

Once more, With Purring

Last night I got a short update from one of The Gray Mouser's new valets.

The Gray Mouser is calmly camping out under their bed, but he doesn't seem stressed. He certainly hasn't minded when the valets come by (down?) and pet him, and he's already come out to be cuddly at least once.

All that sounds much like how he was when he moved into the Kitten Farm, so I assume he'll be fine, and slowly will work his way into the new household (more than here, where the Catzilla brothers crimped his laidback style.)

Meanwhile, the Catzilla brothers are acting like they own the Kitten Farm, which, come to think of it, was how they acted with the The Gray Mouser here. But now they are exercising even more control now, for example snuggling Katherine even closer overnight.

Life seems good all around.

Found Cat

The Gray Mouser moved in with his permanent valets this morning. Thus ends a major part of his story which started when we first heard him meowing outside almost exactly four months ago.

It appears that we (I and his new valets) scared him when it was time to go. He hid under the bed, and we finally gently nudged him out with a broom. He wasn't that scared though, or he didn't know that his claws could hold him firmly in place on a wall-to-wall carpet no matter what a human did. Anyway, we pried him out, and he went stoically in the carrier. But no purring (from a cat that will purr for any trivial reason at all), so he wasn't very happy.

We expect he'll be fine.

The Long (but not Sad) Goodbye

Yesterday, I posted a link to the The Grey Mouser's help wanted ad in the previous post to a mailing list at work. A co-worker asked to meet him, and this evening she and her husband came over for the interview.

To make a long story short, The Grey Mouser will be moving in with his new valets this weekend. We have the remaining few days of this week to say goodbye.

At least he'll be moving via the MINI Cooper S of his new valets. One does have standards to maintain.

I am a little sad, but every time we see Whitey get the Mouser-as-cat-toy look in his eye, we know it's for the best.

Photo Friday: A Place to Call His Own

The Grey Mouser needs a new home in the Seattle area.

While we've decided that The Grey Mouser can peacefully co-exist with the Catzilla brothers, we think he should join a household in which he can be the sole feline lord and master. Then, he can relax and be the incredibly social and lovable cat he is, rather than spending a portion of each day assuming defensive positions in and under our library furniture to avoid the boys' attempts to play with him.

Click on the thumbnails for larger photos.

   


Various succinct details:

• He is a neutered male weighing ~ 9 pounds, and is about two years old.
• He likes most people with almost no introduction needed, and is quite mellow.
• We found him camped out under our patio table in May 2008.
• He is an indoor cat. He hated the aforementioned camping out.
• He has a clean bill of health, current shots, and has been microchipped by us.
• He can do without other cats, especially those that would bully him. We don't picture him as a dog lover, either.
• He's a long hair in the best and worst of ways -- his long silky fur is wonderful to stroke, but does need regular brushing.
• He can be vocal, chirping or sadly meowing, when he's hungry or lonely.
• He is infinitely pettable (he never gets bored).
• He likes to sleep on the bed near his human(s).

The Fine Print: Before you adopt him, you'll need to convince us that he's found a good home with a loyal valet. We'll expect a donation to a local cat rescue organization as evidence of your loyalty.

Updated: He has a new set of valets! See the follow up post.

Photo Friday: The Cat's In the Cradle

The Grey Mouser visited my office window cat tower last month to check out the view.

The Boys Are Back In Town

When I woke up this morning, I discovered two tigers on the bed at Katherine's feet. This made me smile. At the same time, all is not well in the Kitten Farm West -- the Catzilla Brothers comfortable were on the bed because we're back to quarantining the Grey Mouser at night.

Basically, we don't think the Mouser is adjusting to the boys. He's comfortable enough to defend his personal space and to visit with humans upstairs, but sharing is not on his agenda at all.

Katherine was actually traveling (again) during the scratched nose incident, but she got her own dose of Mouser vs. Catzilla Round XXXVII when within a few hours of her arrival home on Saturday when vocal expressions of pending warfare came out of the library.

This is not say that Whitey and Billy don't share some of the blame for intruding. However, they were here first, and we (and her Emilyness) taught them rules that the Mouser doesn't follow.

We're back to looking for the Mouser's original owners, and unless the Mouser adjusts to the Kitten Farm better while we search, after that we'll gently work on finding him a new home where he can be the sole lord and master.

Photo Extra: Mouser Leads with his Nose

The newest development between the Mouser and the Catzilla brothers is not good; I think was Billy who put a bloody scratch on the nose of our gray overlord. Minor, really, but it doesn't show things improving between the boys and the new arrival.



It may be time to look for a new home for the Mouser. He will not go to a shelter. We'd keep the Mouser here under supervised quarantine first, and it has yet to be even near that state of affairs. But it is a quality of life issue for all concerned, human and feline.

The Dawn Patrol: TGM Edition

The Gray Mouser has decided the preferred place to sleep at night is between Katherine and me. This provides snuggles and protection from the Catzilla Brothers.

Originally, he would come to be bed minutes after me or not at all. Now however, he sees to prefer joining us (or me, for this week) in the early morning, often about 4 AM.

This didn't work well this morning, because for reasons unknown to me Whitey was camped out half way between the bed and door. And this wasn't a napping kitten -- this a wide awake sitting up Quiet Hunter.

I know all this because the audio exchange was quite emphatic. No blows were exchanged, at least.

The Mouser ended up not joining me.

Photo Friday: Rubber Kitten at the Vet

From the Mouser's first visit to the Vet, we have him stoically hanging loose waiting for his lab results to come back. For a cat that just got poked and prodded, he's chilled right out. No escape attempts, and he had his usual supply of purrs for when pettted.



(That's not a depressed cat, it's a bored cat.)

Oh, sh-t!

Just as I finished the last post, I thought I heard a hair ball being coughed up.

When I went look, no hair ball, but some funny cat-expelled liquid (pre-hairball?) was in the track of the Turbo-Ball in the library, and someone (perhaps the same cat), had a left bowel movement on the rug.

The latter is very troublesome, because both the Catzilla brothers and the Grey Mouser always use the litter box.

(The Mouser being perfectly litter box trained was one of his endearing qualities. The boys miss the target some times, but that's different issue from not using it.)

For someone to ignore the box may be a stress level problem, and that could be really hard to fix.