Mr. O.

After hearing that people - who aren't commenting, just sending me Facebook messages, enjoyed the post on The Jab, I thought I'd introduce you to our other little guy, Oliver.  Oliver's other names include Ollie, Obi-One, Obes, Walrus, Rabies, Mr. O, The O, O-Man, Roadblock, and Fatso.

Oliver was adopted by a "last chance" shelter in 2007, and was actually living in a foster home not far from our house.  He was living with a whole bunch of other cats, and his name at the time was Milton. We went and met him, and he was very, very shy, but we expected that, like Punjab, he'd grow out of it.  We were able to bring him home about a week later, as the shelter/foster program wanted to ensure he was neutered before we had him.

So, home came Oliver.  We bought him his own little bed, crate, etc. so that he'd have something that didn't reek of Punjab.  The first night we had him, we tried to separate him and Punjab by keeping one in one bedroom, and the other outside of the bedroom.  Unfortunately, cats have a funny thing about being locked out of a space, and they freak out.  Both Punjab and Oliver were meowing as loud as possible to get through their respective doors.  It took less than an hour for us to give in and open the doors.  Then, let the games begin! 

Oliver and Punjab have been different from the start.  Oliver is terrified of everyone except Chris and I, and Sarah, our friend who is often at our house. Absolutely terrified.  When someone comes over whose voice he doesn't recognize, he runs.  His favorite place to hide is deep within my closet.  He knows how to pull the door open and quickly runs to the most inaccessible spot inside, and sits there, in fear.  We have tried multiple times to teach him that people are ok, but it seemed to stress him out even more, so we just let him hide.

Oliver has issues with his food.  If he happens to run out of food, or can see the bottom of one of his two bowls of food, he walks around and meows (and meows, and meows and meows). Usually, this happens in the middle of the night.  Part of me wants to make him wait it out, and not teach him that his meowing will be rewarded with food, but the other part of me needs my sleep! Then, I almost always know that when he gets his food, he'll eat so much, he will make himself sick.  It makes me sad that four years into living with us, he still has this odd tendency.  He has become a huge cat because of his love and insecurity about food.  He weighs roughly 17 pounds, and I am embarrassed to take him to the vet (but still do!) because they always tell me to make him lose weight.

Despite being part of our family for almost four years, he still changes a little bit every week and month.  He will now lay on the couch with us, let us pick him up (for brief periods), and he now has a new routine of laying alongside me in the early hours of the morning. When I wake up, I rub his stomach, back, and neck, and he purrs and rolls around.  I try not to make any movements towards holding or moving him, otherwise he'll be spooked and run off.

The best part about having Oliver is that he loves to play with Punjab.  They run all over the house together, playing with whatever toy, straw or ball of foil or paper we give them.  I love the fact that when we're away from them for extended periods, they have eachother. He can be a bit of a bully, however, because he weighs about six pounds more than Punjab!

He's a wacko... but he's a keeper!