Breakaway collars really do breakaway. Found that out the first time I put a leash on the collar to take the cat to the vet ----- cat pulled hard and the collar came open and goodbye cat. I had a cat I couldn’t keep a collar on. My Houdini-without-thumbs would take the collar off within minutes. Then I switched to a breakaway where the breakaway part was an elastic hair band — that one had a metal buckle like a belt buckle and H-w-t figured out how to undo the buckle. Finally had to put an cable tie on the buckle to keep it fastened. Even then, me searching nearby yards for the collar was a common sight.
Tonka was chipped when we got him from the shelter. As of a few weeks ago, Creamsicle is chipped too.
And now it has one hell of a story to tell when it gets back to its mouse buddies.
Creamsicle has been fussy the last couple of days. Tonka wanted to play, and she acted like she was going to tear him a new one. The night before last, she growled at him. The SO touched her back, and she hissed at her. (I stroked her back the next morning, and she was quite happy with it.) Last night, ‘mom’ picked her up to bring her inside, and Creamsicle hissed at her. Right now, Creamsicle is quite happy lying on the back of the couch behind my head. I’m taking both cats to the vet Saturday morning for their 30-day feline leukemia boosters. The SO told me to have ‘Auntie Chris’ give Creamsicle a good head-to-toe look-over.
Right now, the hypothesis is that Creamsicle just doesn’t like having to come inside.
She could have some scratches or bites from a cat bite and could be working on an abscess. This makes a lot of cats not wanted to be touched. Another thing cats will do is called redirected aggression, they may have been attacked by another cat but they take out their aggression on the cat or humans that they live with.
The vet found nothing (as I expected), but she said Creamsicle may be constipated. Creamsicle likes to go outside, and we didn’t let her out this morning. There was some feces in the litter box that appeared to be hers, but she may be retaining. Anyway, the vet gave her a huge glob of hairball medicine. She didn’t care for it. And Tonka growled at her again when he got his shots.
Speaking of shots, I found out why the FeLV one is given in the haunch (sub-Q). It’s in case the vaccine causes a tumour. They can amputate the leg and save the cat’s life. The vet said she’s only had that happen once in all the years she’s been practicing.
Glad she’s ok.
Cats are complicated little things. I’d never let my dog growl at me. My cat does and I just say “need some space, ok then”. My daughter occasionally says she thinks it would be cool to have a mountain lion. I love my cats, but the thought of living with one them 10-15 times the size shiver. A little too much primordial instinct there for me.
Tonka and Creamsicle, forced to share a chair
Tonka wanted the chair, but Creamsicle was already there. I put him there. She was not amused. Tonka was OK with it. She figured out though, that Tonka was warm and they stayed there quite a while.
Creamsicle is smelly.
And I mean that in a good way. 
She smells ‘April Fresh’, as if she just came out of the dryer. Sometimes I can smell her as she walks by. We don’t wash her. She cleans herself (and Tonka is taking care to bathe himself more since she’s been here) and likes to lay on the grass. (The brown grass, since we don’t water. It’ll rain soon enough!) The SO likes to put her nose in Creamsicle’s fur and smell it. She says she’s never had a cat that smelled so good.
The ‘Where did your pets come from?’ thread prompted me to mention Creamsicle.
When she came to us, we didn’t even know her gender. She was skinny and starved for attention. She’s still quite affectionate, but is no longer desperate. And she’s filled out very nicely. Last time we took her to the vet (her ‘Auntie Chris’) she weighed over nine pounds. She’s filling out very nicely. 
I’m used to Tonka sitting next to me, patiently staring at whatever I’m eating in the hope that I will give him a treat. I’m not used to Creamsicle doing it. Well, she doesn’t patiently sit and stare. She tries to get her nose in it. She tried to get to ‘Mom’s’ slice of prosciutto-and-cheese roll-up last night. Today I heated up a blueberry muffin. Creamsicle hopped up and stretched out her nose. I gave her a little bit of muffin (without blueberries) and she ate it. She got a couple more pieces about the size of my pinkie nail, and then hopped down.
Cats eating muffins. That’s just weird.
We had one who would eat pasta and oatmeal.
I had one who liked oranges.
I had another who liked dill pickles. That same one also enjoyed lime Popsicles.
My current cat refuses human food altogether. She might occasionally sniff at something I’m eating, but will invariably give me this horrified “you EAT that???” look.
My grandmother had a dog that loved raw string beans. She would go out to the garden and eat them off the vine (the dog not my grandmother).