It is so hard to believe as I look at these photos of my six-year-old, alpha male cat that I took just last weekend, that he is now at the vet clinic quite sick...possibly with a life-threatening illness.
When we brought Magnus home six years ago in October of 2000, I thought he was a female, and I named him Maggie. When we realized our error we had already been calling him by this name for a while, so - not wanting to confuse him - we masculinized the name to Magnus. It turned out to be quite a fitting moniker, with him growing to be a very large-sized kitty (Magnus is Latin for 'large').
His mother was polydactyl, and she passed this trait along to each of her three kittens. Magnus was always a conversation starter around our place when people would notice his ping pong paddle-shaped paws. Watching him swat at my mother's West Highland terrier, Barney, when they would come for a visit was always enormously entertaining.
His mother gave him something else before he was taken from her...fleas. For the first few days after we brought him home I had to give him flea baths to rid him of the infestation. He would cling to my rubber-gloved forearms as I held him under the showerhead. I remember the long, red scratches that his little claws left on me after a bathing session. Ironically enough he ended up developing a fondness for the water, and would often hop into the tub while my kids were bathing. It made for some very interesting photo ops.
Before he got very big, he was known for climbing to the top of the wicker shelf, and then meowing loudly to be rescued because he couldn't get himself down again. He would also find perches in the most unusual of places, such as on top of my computer monitor, or between the desk and the sliding keyboard tray below it. Another favourite place to install himself was in a laundry basket full of warm clothes right out of the dryer. He still enjoys the latter to this day.
An indoor cat, Magnus longed to go outside. Following the advice of my vet at the time, I allowed him outside on a tether fastened to a stake in the ground so he could wander, sniff, munch on some grass, and otherwise mark his territory. We did this because we had a large cat population in the neighbourhood, and he was driven nearly insane by all the other male cats that would come around, taunting him from outside the living room window. He ended up spraying our bedclothes in an attempt to assert himself and claim his territory. After we started letting him outside supervised he never sprayed again.
Magnus' personality changed dramatically when we added Hermione to the mix two years later. He went from being mischievous, fun loving cat-about-town, to a mature and stoic alpha male. He would sit on top of the stairs surveying his new young calico charge with a distinct air of superiority with a dash of self-importance. You could almost see him rolling his eyes at her kitten-like antics.
The thing I always loved about having cats is that they're such low maintenance pets. You can leave them alone for the weekend, and as long as you have food and water available they don't
even miss you. You don't even have to worry about housetraining them much beyond showing them the litter box, and how to put their paws in the sand and dig. Plus I've always wanted a cat, but due to having a sister and then husband who were deathly allergic, it never happened until I was living on my own after my marriage ended.
Now, as I sit here trying to remember everything the vet told me following Magnus' blood test results, I can't help but feel guilty that maybe I should have been more concerned that he wasn't really eating that much. I should have rushed him right into the vet's clinic when he continued throwing up little teaspoonfuls of bile on the second day. Maybe this is what I get for being so indifferent towards my kitties. I should have given him more attention and played with him more. Maybe I shouldn't have any pets at all because I'm so damn selfish...
If my proud and stately alpha male pulls through this I will never take him or his sister for granted again. I will carve out time for them every day and give them back some of the joy, love and companionship they have given me over the past few years....as if I deserved it.
