Age: 14 years
Weight: 12.4#
Gender: Neutered male
Demeanor at the vet’s office: Grumbly. “Leave me alone!”
Feline friends: Lewis and Clark
FAVORITE TOY: Peabody enjoys catnip - especially the plants growing wild outside. He likes playing with a string, and
corrugated cardboard scratchers, but his favorite toy is a soft plastic milk ring. He likes to play with it around barriers,
such as table legs or around doors. When he is done playing, he carries it and drops it in his water dish. The milk ring is in
his water dish every day.
FAVORITE TREAT: He is not interested in meat, but in fat. If his family eats chicken, he wants the skin or fatty bits. Same
with any other meat - don't give him meat - just the fat.
FAVORITE SLEEPING SPOT: He has several favorite sleeping spots. In the summer, he likes the padded settee in the guest
bedroom, in front of the window. In the winter, he will take any of the living room seats, or the cat bed under the sofa in front
of the heat vent. He loves the area rug in the living room when the sun streams in - stretching out in the sunny patches.
HOW HE FOUND HIS HOME: Peabody’s family found him at "Meet Your Best Friend at the Zoo" day on June 7, 1997. It
was their 7th wedding anniversary. They were looking specifically for a male tuxedo cat. He was the first one they spotted.
As adorable as he was, they kept looking. After seeing all the remaining tuxedo cats among the hundreds of cats there, they
were relieved that he was still there, although some of his littermates had been adopted.
The rescue group told us his family that he was 8 weeks old, but it is suspected that he was closer to 6 weeks as he was so
small and had blue eyes. His new family took him home in a cardboard carrier with holes in the sides, and he kept poking his
cute little white lips and chin through them. They tried out names they had picked out, such as Mr. Bean and Jasper and Clark,
but his new mom finally said "he is such a Peabody" and he became Peabody.
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF PEABODY: Peabody starts his day poking his mom’s shoulder to get her out of bed. If she manages
to get up before that, he is sitting by the heat vent behind the toilet, waiting for her. He is extremely food-focused. He is on a
wheat-free diet, but is really interested in any other food the other cats get, or wheat-free dry food, which we have to limit as it
makes him sick.
He has always been keenly interested in the garage. Every night, while his family watches TV in the family room, he sits at the
door trying to get it open to go in the garage. He cries and howls and paws at the door. After 7 years, they gave up, and let him
go out there now. He likes to sit on their cars.
If his family is up too late, Peabody cries and howls at them to go to bed. He runs ahead of them and keeps looking over his
shoulder to make sure they are following. By the time they are ready for bed, he is gone. His family settles in, and about five
minutes later, he starts crying at the bottom of the stairs. He cries and howls this pitiful meow, very loudly. His mom finally
calls his name and tells him to come up, and runs up the stairs.
He is not soft-footed by any means. When he goes up and down those hardwood stairs, he sounds like a full-grown person.
Peabody has always enjoyed going outside and exploring his property or the immediate neighbors’. Two years ago he went
missing for two nights. His family was beside themselves, as they had seen coyotes in the area. They thought he might be
locked in the neighbors' garage, as his mom saw them leave shortly before he went missing. When the neighbors came home,
they opened the garage for him. No Peabody. The next day, the neighbor looked for him in there, again - no Peabody. Then his
dad looked for him, again. Nothing. The day after that, the neighbor called and thought the cat was in the garage - somewhere
in the second floor storeroom. Peabody’s mom went up there and called him. She finally heard a tiny little meow. She and the
neighbor had to move a bed, a dresser, and an old crib before they finally found him in the corner rafters.
Since then, he hardly leaves the deck. If he goes out at all, he is back in 10 minutes. Now he needs to teach that trick to his
housemates, Lewis and Clark.
No comments:
Post a Comment