Sylvester, the Very Strange Cat

If you have read my blog for any amount of time you know that we have some, well, "different" kind of animals on our little homestead. They all look normal from the outside, but once you get to know them...um, not so much. We have had Patsy, the Wonderless Dog, the five-legged toad, and Patty, the special-needs chicken. But, Sylvester has topped them all. First I'll give you a picture of the cat. He looks quite normal, and even quite beautiful for a cat. That is what attracted me to him when my best friend Rebekah convinced me we desperately needed a new one. I am secretly blaming this all on her. I am so just kidding Rebekah, my resistance was down that day, obviously. I also thought it would be fun for James and Sylvester to "grow up" together. Well, James is growing up, Sylvester not so much.

Anyways, we bring Sylvester home on that Friday night and we are all excited. I love all things little and getting to take care of a kitten is fun to me. Like I thought with Patsy, this cat would secretly be mine and would love me the best. Yeah, he loved me. He would not stop trying to nurse on me. Yes, he would grab hold of my fingers and the end of my shirt and try to nurse. At first I just assumed he was lonely and missed his momma. I even thought it was sort of sweet. I began to train him this was not acceptable though. He never got it. If he got anywhere near me he tried to grab hold of the end of my shirttail and nurse. It got very annoying very quickly.

As time went on we began to notice things. Like you could swat him with a broom to get him to move and he would just sit there. It was like he felt no pain. Mark told me from the first night we brought him home something was not right with the cat and he was so right. James would grab him and pull him around and he just laid there and took it. (BTW, we trained James how to treat him, it just took time). We have a very normal 14 year old cat named Kitty and so we knew that things were not the same. It is very hard to explain here on paper (blog).

He also harassed the two other cats continually. Like, all the time. Everyone just grew to like him less and less. He was like the bully at school. But, we had him and Mark has a rule here, if you take on an animal you are responsible for it and so we continued to try to make the best of him. If anything he was pretty to look at, from a distance. When he was old enough we had him fixed in hopes it would calm him down and he would leave the other cats alone. So far this has not happened and it has been over a year.

This little incident was the final straw for me though. When this happened I gave up all hope of ever liking him. I just tolerate Sylvester now. I know that sounds mean, and like I said I have 16 chickens and two other cats that I just love. And I haven't given up hope on having a new dog one day. I love little things and please remember these are animals, not human babies. I LOVE all human babies. I have a house full and want more! But, after reading this you will understand.

Abbie and I were sitting in her room playing Barbies one day. Sylvester walks through and plops down in my lap. I was rubbing her and I said to Abbie, "You know, Sylvester is getting older now and maybe he will calm down and be a good cat." And right then, I am not kidding, right then, the cat tee-teed all over me. Have you ever?