Pretty Boy Marble
Marble was originally an outdoor cat–actually a kitten–who lived in a cardboard box with his mom on my mother-in-law’s (referred to as MiL through the rest of this post) back deck. His mother and he were all over that backyard catching mice they used as gifts to show appreciation to MiL for the food she gave, climbing trees, and chasing possums.
MiL liked having the cats around but didn’t want them reproducing, which cats have a strong tendency to do periodically. To solve this problem, she called the Paws organization, to come out to catch the cats and take them in to be ‘fixed’ or ‘neutered’. Marble’s mom didn’t make it back home. She had leukemia, so was put to sleep. This left Marble all alone. Husband and I took him so he’d be cared for within a home. MiL didn’t want cats inside back in 2008 when this all happened. She’s changed her mind since then, and now had two cats keeping her company 24/7.
It was husband who named this cat, saying he looked like a marble cake. Additionally, Marble picked husband to be his favorite human. Where ever husband is in the house, including the bathroom, Marble is there too.
When we first brought him home, he kept on scratching and climbing the door frames. Bad cat! But after living in MiL’s backyard where there were all those trees to climb and claw on, what could we expect from this little guy? As to be expected, we now need new door frames, which we will get whenever we can spare the expense for it.
To alleviate this beastly matter, husband created a towel with shelves at various heights going all the way up almost to the ceiling. We bought large carpet remnant to glue onto it. In order to keep it from toppling over, husband attached it to one of the walls in the back bedroom. I was surprised at Marble’s reaction to his gym tower. As soon as it was secure, he was running up the side of it, bypassing the shelves. He sat on the top shelf and puffed out his chest. Our two other indoor cats use the tower too but always use the shelves to reach the top.
Being the one male feline inside, he has taken it upon himself to be the alarm system for anything out of the ordinary. If any of the three indoor cats, including himself, have a hairball, he’ll spout off to me to come clean it up. He has a perch at the sliding door going out to the deck where he keeps a watchful eye on the outdoor cats. If a cat from beyond our realm comes moseying in, he’ll come get husband or me to either approve the visitor or shoo the intruder away.
Marble is the easiest of the indoor cats to take care of. He’s the only one with short hair. We still brush him on occasion so he doesn’t get jealous of the attention we give the other two.
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Any questions?
“I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.” ― Jean Cocteau
A Scripted Maze 
Marble sounds like the perfect cat.
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Almost anyways. If he could just stop with the hairballs.
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Those are the worst.
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Marble is a marvel. 😀 I would have like to see the ‘tower’ hubby built for the kitties.
I have a carpet covered tower for Lady Gaga, but she doesn’t have front claws. When Dickens arrived, he went to town on it. A year later he’s managed to tear the carpet to the wood. Better that than my furniture. ❤ ❤ ❤
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Marble has clawed the hell out of the tower. It isn’t quite bad enough for us to go the store to buy another remnant though. The scratching boxes sold now work well with our cats. We rub a little cat nip into the textured cardboard and they become drunk with the stuff. 😛
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I rub in the catnip all over and my two go nuts but I’m disappointed, they don’t get drunk like all the other cats I’ve had in the past.
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Our youngest one, who I’d be writing about next week, doesn’t seem to react to it either. I can’t figure out what the difference is between the cats.
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Neither can I. Lady Gaga didn’t care for catnip until Dickens came along. These two teach other good and bad. Naughty fur balls. 😀 😀
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Next week I’ll be writing about that the trouble Miya gets the youngest one into. 😉
How did Dickens arrive at your home?
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I got him from an animal rescue place. He’d been in foster care from August when he was picked up until a year go January 28th when I fell in love with him. She such a lovey dovey boy.
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We have many places for our cats to climb and sit and sleep. Your husband’s solution sounds perfect.
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I never thought Miya would like being that high, but she’ll even sleep up there.
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We have two sisters. One stays close to the ground. One will go as high as she can.
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In a few of weeks I’ll be writing about the brother and sister who live on our deck.
Out of the two girls, which one prefers you?
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Neither will cuddle up with me. One comes over and demands to be scratched of brushed. The other likes to play. But they both seek out my wife when they want to curl up. The dog lays with me, so that might be a deterrent.
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Love the cat quote. I wouldn’t mind a few cats here if not for the cat boxes that go along with them. They’d probably have my shy intimidated Lab bossed into subservience within moments.
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Although it isn’t supposed to be advisable, you can just let a cat outdoors to do his/her thing. One of the cats my MiL has was strictly an outdoor cat until he discovered the cold cooked chicken in her refrigerator. Now he comes and goes pretty much as he pleases. I also know that a cat can be trained to use the toilet. Cats that are healthy like their surrounding clean so the toilet idea is a feasible one. Labs are wonderful dogs. I think they might be the most intelligent breed. Disabled people have a tendency to prefer the lab to any of the others as service dogs.
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