7 May 2012 - Present
This page is about Ozzie, a ginger and white pedigree Maine Coon. Now, how do you describe a real character? He is the smallest Maine Coon we've had, but that doesn't mean he's a small cat.
Piquant. That's what he is. Gorgeous, sweet and full of bounce.
Tracy saw his photo on the Jehosacat website, and fell in love with the tiny, ratlike, runt of the litter. He had missed out on his mum's milk and had to be bottle fed while a tiny kitten. When he was weaned, he lost out on food because he was so small and took to growling whenever he ate to try to scare off the other kittens. We visited the Jehozacat breeder, and the feeling Tracy had towards Ozzie was reciprocated almost immediately and he took to Tracy strongly before we left. Two weeks later, we picked up a tiny bundle of fluff and, little did we know it, changed our lives totally.
A week later, we got Floyd, and despite Floyd being three weeks younger, Ozzie was much the smaller kitten, so Ozzie had to fight for his position all over again. Anyway, Ozzie has a winning way and, being a very happy kitten, he got on very well with Floyd, and they quickly became good friends.
Now, we had coped with two kittens, Squeaky and then Gryff a few years later. Neither experience prepared us for the chaos two kittens caused. The house was bedlam for months on end as the two kittens chased after everything, chewed everything, ate everything and played with everything. We were exhausted. Ozzie's favourite toy was, and remains, a tinsel ball that crinkles when he chews on it. He loves chasing the ball when it's thrown for him, then he picks it up, growling, and brings it back for you to throw again. This is a dog's behaviour, not that of a cat... But then 'Maine Coon's' are supposed to be a dog lover's cat. At one time Ozzie had sixteen of these toys around the house, most of them being under the beds, sideboard or sofa's. He always has a favourite, usually green and gold (though, as cats are colour blind, how does he know?) as opposed to green and purple, and it's usually rather flattened. To check for the favourite, he picks it up with his front teeth and carries out a couple of reflexive chews, and if it's not suitable, he drops it and picks up another.
At the end of November 2012 Ozzie started to feel a bit sick, and we booked him in to the vet's to be looked at - initially we were not too concerned, but when he was sick and it smelt of feaces we became very worried. Just as well we did. He had an intersusseption, where part of his small intestine had telescoped into the lower section and both blocked the intestine and killed the telescoped section due to lack of blood supply. It turns out that 50% of cats die from this, rising to 100% if not treated in 24 hours. After the operation we were told that as he had survived the op, he had a 95% survival chance provided that he stayed calm and didn't open up the wound to cause perotonitus, when the survival rate would flip and become 5%. I made a pallet timber and steel mesh cage to keep him in and we brought the very ill kitten back home. Now, have you ever tried to explain to a cat that he needs to calm down? Doesn't work. Ozzie went complately mental when we tried to get in into the cage that would save his life. He was jumping up, off us, off the furniture and racing around everywhere. It made me cry while trying to catch him. He was so frightened, and we were so frightened for him. We needed him to get well.
In the end, Ozzie got better, not due to our care I think, just due to his general health & youth. Boy, did he give us a scare. This is what he is like now, next to Fluffy.
Ozzie is a lovely, sweet cat who behaves rather younger than his age. At the time of writing (Nov 2013) he is 18 months old and still plays like a little kitten. He wants to share his toys, and join us on the bed. He dabs us with his nose as if giving us a kiss. His adult molar teeth still haven't fully come through so he chews everything (especially cardboard boxes and fingers), and he has yet to come into his full skeletal size. His muscular development will come later. Despite this, he is bigger by 20% than Fluffy. Norwegian Forest cats are bigger than average, but Fluffy seems small.
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