"Josie"

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. He 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.

I'm currently keeping Josie in my guest bedroom and I'm spending a lot of "bonding" time with her. I have a screen door separating her from Tiger, Linda & Princess in the hope that they will become acquaintances with Josie through the screen door which should increase the odds of them accepting her as a friend once I let Josie have full access to 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's a resilient little gal - what spirit. There are some short video clips of her at the bottom of this page.

Birthdate: approximately April 23, 2007 (my 41st bday)


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.


    Both these 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.

This picture was taken just after I let Josie visit my master bedroom for her first time. She became very playful as she explored the new room and she loved running up and down the carpeted ramp leading way up to the catwalk! I had Josie for 2 weeks when this picture was taken, making her roughly 8 weeks old.


   These pictures were taken at my office after I had Josie for three weeks - she was 9 weeks old. That's dad on the left and our friend Philip Lindsley on the right. I try to take Josie to my office quite a bit to get her used to taking car rides in the pet carrier and to meet new people. She is doing great! She's still extremely playful and affectionate. I periodically let her out of my guest bedroom and into the rest of the house. Tiger is doing okay with it, but Linda and Princess hiss at Josie a lot.


I love the above 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 seals. The picture was taken in late July 2007 after I've had Josie for seven weeks. So she was roughly 3 months old in that picture and Tiger was roughly 17 years old. As of the time of the picture, Josie is still extremely playful; what a fun kitten! She loves playing rough with Tiger and trying to tackle him. He is incredibly patient with her, but he will occassionally hiss to make her stop playfully attacking him. I can't blame him, LOL. 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.

Windows Media Player Video Clips

If you don't have the latest version of the Windows Media Player you can get the free version by clicking here.

Josie playing with feather - June 9, 2007 (30 seconds)
Josie playing on carpeted cat tower - June 9, 2007 (70 seconds)
Josie waking up after a nap in my jacket - June 11, 2007 (40 seconds)
Josie playing with new spring toy - June 14, 2007 (30 seconds)
Josie on catwalks for first time - June 20, 2007 (110 seconds)
Josie in my den for first time - June 27, 2007 (50 seconds)
Josie playing near Tiger's cat house - June 30, 2007 (43 seconds)
Josie playing on Sali's cat tower - June 30, 2007 (26 seconds)
Josie's first time in catrun - July 14, 2007 (40 seconds)
Josie's first time in catrun - July 14, 2007 (34 seconds)
Josie playing with electronic toy - July 15, 2007 (36 seconds)
Josie playing "fetch" at office - July 17, 2007 (39 seconds)
Josie playing "fetch" with Nancy at Brad's house - July 18, 2007 (48 seconds)
Josie playing rough with Tiger - August 2, 2007 (2 minutes)



Other Related Links On My Site:
The Catrun
The Large Cat Enclosure
Catwalks Inside My House


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