Aclimating to Pets

Dear Reader,

If you follow me on either Facebook or Twitter, this will come as no surprise. Last week I adopted two cats. Two Maine Coon cats, to be specific. They’re brothers, mature, adult cats.

I’ve always wanted Maine Coons, and every so often I do random internet searches for catteries and look at pictures of kittens, and follow that up with shelter searches. A few times I’ve been a day late and a dollar short of adopting a stray or surrendered Maine Coon. When I saw the boys, I didn’t know they were a packaged deal, and I went to the shelter after confirming they were still there not knowing how I would pick between the two.

When I got there, the two people at the desk were surprised and kept trying to caution me about taking them. Yes, they’re ten years old. Adopting an older cat is always a tricky thing. How long will they live? What bad habits do they have? The list of things goes on. I went into this knowing that it wouldn’t be easy some days, but after meeting the fur babies, you can’t help but love them.

They have very specific personalities.

Mario is the more dominant of the two brothers. He’s a seal point Maine Coon with the bluest eyes! He’s also the vocal one, and won’t hesitate to talk to you if he wants attention. Though he is very cuddly at times, he’s very much an Executive Cat. If you get up to go do something, he wants to ensure that you get there and are doing what you need to be doing. He won’t sit with you for very long, but he does have bouts of please-pet-me-now.

Yoshi is the cuddle hog of the two. He doesn’t realize how big he is. Yoshi is my Manager Cat. He makes sure I take the required breaks by laying across both my arms. I’ve learned that I can type just fine with a cat laying across me, so long as he doesn’t blog access to the mouse pad on my laptop. He’s prone to laying across the back of the couch, on my desk or burrowing between me and the arm rest of the couch when I’m using said arm rest to rest the laptop on.

And yes, their names are Mario and Yoshi. If it weren’t for the fact that they kind of react to their names, I’d change them. While I’m not crazy about the names, it’s not a big deal.

These cats have easily stolen the hearts of my friends, who flocked to my place on Good Friday and glutted the cats on snuggles and attention. It’s funny, because each cat is very conscious of giving each person equal attention. Or maybe they’re just greedy?

I haven’t had any issues with them, save for some territorial marking. Yuck, I know, but I’m hoping it’s something we can move past in a week or more. I’ve purchased an air difuser that is supposed to help settle them and reduce marking. I’m also weilding two seperate cleaners to cut down on the odor. Of all things, I’m super sensitive to scents, so I’m actively fighting this.

If you have any suggestions for how to handle feline marking, let me know.