Josie

"Josie"
Josie is currently 6 years old

June 2007 - at age 8 weeks
On June 7, 2007 I went jogging in my neighborhood before work. To my horror, I saw a small animal nearly get hit by a car. The animal sat scared and motionless as the car passed over it; luckily the tires missed it! After the car had passed, the tiny critter darted into some nearby bushes. I thought it was a small squirrel - I ran to the bushes to make sure it wasn't injured. To my surprise, it was a small grey & black tabby kitten! If I got too close she would dart into other nearby bushes, so I jogged home and returned with my humane animal trap which I loaded with moist cat food. I returned 20 minutes later and the little kitten was in the trap. Her loud cries and wild attempts to get out of the trap told me that she was not a happy camper. LOL. I immediately took her to my vet's office. My usual vet was not in that day so another vet examined "Josie" (my friend Nancy came up with that name partly because I like the Clint Eastwood movie "The Outlaw Josey Wales"). When I picked up Josie, the vet had her cradled in his arms and said "this little gal saved my day." He had a rough day that day and needed a success story. Josie was it. She was negative on all diseases, and other than being a little under weight and dehydrated, she was in good health. The vet thought she was roughly 6 weeks old...making her birthday be April 23, 2007 (my 41st bday). The vet gave her some vaccinations, a deworming treatment and an oral medication that quickly began killing fleas; the fleas were dropping off her like, well, flies. That had to make her feel so much better.

When I took Josie in, she was my 4th cat at that time. For the first two weeks I kept her in the guest bedroom with a screen door separating her room from the rest of the house. At first Josie was fairly wary of me and did not want my hands touching her. But even during her first few hours in my guest bedroom she played with a feather, used the litter box, and ate & drank. And soon she was allowing me to pet her and pick her up. On the third night she crawled up on the guest bed and fell asleep on my chest as I gently stroked her. She was a resilient little gal - what spirit. Both Linda and Princess would hiss at Josie through the screen door. But I would periodically let Tiger in to see Josie. Like all female cats, Josie fell for Tiger. Unfortunately, Linda and Princess have never learned to like Josie. But, then again, they have not learned to like each other either. Tiger was the one cat that all three gals loved.

Josie was an extremely playful kitten - the most playful I or my friend Nancy had ever seen. She would sometimes forget that Linda and Princess didn't like her much and she'd dart at them in play. Linda and Princess were quick to remind Josie that they were not interested in playing with her. Usually they'd hiss or growl and then run off. Because Tiger was more tolerant of her, Josie would pester him a bit too much. He was getting older (17) so I would sometimes keep them in different rooms. That way, Tiger could feel safe to run and play without Josie trying to tackle him. Josie especially loved to play rough with Tiger on my bed at night - often getting on top of Tiger and nipping at his back. So I usually put Josie in the guest bedroom at night so that Tiger could sleep peacefully. Tiger suffered a heart attack in September 2007, three months after I took in Josie. He lived for another 14 months - most of which were surprisingly healthy.

Below are some pictures of Josie, followed by several short video clips.

June 2007 - age 6 weeks
Both of the above pictures were taken within a day or two of bringing Josie to my house. What a cutie. Her markings are striking and look a lot like those of my cat Linda.

June 2007 - age 6 weeks
I love this picture; it was taken on just the fourth day after I rescued Josie. Nancy has a special way with young animals - human or otherwise. A few moments after I took this picture Nancy began gently swaying and bouncing, and Josie tucked her head inside Nancy's jacket and fell into a deep, contented sleep.

July 2007 - age 9 weeks
These pictures were taken at my office after I had Josie for three weeks. That's dad on the left and our friend Philip Lindsley on the right. I took Josie to my office nearly every day for her first 3 or 4 months. I think it was good for her to meet lots of people. Eventually she stopped wanting to be loaded up in the carrier each morning at my house, so I honored her wishes and stopped taking her.

July 2007 - Josie age 3 months, Tiger nearly 17 years old
What a great picture. Josie's ears are pinned back as she touches and smells the new flowers in the vase. And Tiger watches his friend from one of his favorite window sills. Josie was a very, very playful kitten and would often try to tackle her much bigger friend, Tiger. He was extremely patient with her, but he'd occassionally hiss at her to try to set some boundaries. Three months after this picture was taken, Tiger suffered a heart attack and was diagnosed with heart failure. He lived another 14 relatively healthy months. In the above picture, Josie was only smelling the flowers in her usual investigatory way, she was not eating them. So no worries about toxic flowers being eaten.

May 2010 - Josie age 3, Riley age 2
That's Riley (black & white) with Josie. I rescued Riley in May 2010. He's a playful, affectionate and headstrong guy. And he adores Josie. The two of them hit it off very quickly. Most cats don't seem to care much for Josie. Bless her heart. She may have been separated from her feline mommy at too early an age - so she may not have learned certain cat behaviors. Other cats seem to pick up on this and avoid her. But good ol' Riley likes her just fine. In fact, after a few months together Josie and Riley began grooming each other (like Tiger and Linda did oh so many times). Very neat.