Ginger - Number Five Of Seven

For as sad as talking about Sampson (Cat #4) makes me, talking about Ginger makes me equally as happy.  We got Ginger sort of by accident.  We often donate food and other things to the humane society for their sheltered pets and M (and possibly M2) happened to be dropping off a donation when they saw "him".  We weren't looking for another cat, we were happy with the four that we had, but something about Ginger drew M to take a closer look.  She called me and said that she was at the shelter and they had a *female* Persian and wanted to know about adopting it.  I really was non-committal about it so she went ahead and brought Ginger home.

Part of the reason Ginger makes me so happy to talk about is that up until Ginger, each of the adults except for J basically had a cat.  Boots was attached to M, Francis to M2, and Emily to myself.  Sampson pretty much played the field, although he hung out with me more than anybody I think and J really wanted a cat that was attached to her.  When Ginger came home J fawned over "him" quite a bit and Ginger hung out with us most of the night.  

We were all under the impression that Ginger was a girl since that's what we had been told; but Sampson of all cats seemed to act like Ginger was a male - he treated Ginger more like Boots than he did Emily or Francis.  Finally, late that evening Ginger was lying back on our bed doing some grooming and J and I were fairly certain we saw a tiny penis.  We snapped a photo with our phone and sent it to M asking if she was sure that Ginger was really a girl since we had a picture of Ginger's "parts".  M was adamant that Ginger was a girl and even after seeing the picture her response was "we'll see what the vet says tomorrow".  

Ginger had a vet appointment and grooming appointment the next day.  The vet confirmed that Ginger was not a "she" but rather a "he" - hence the quoted "him" in the first paragraph.  It didn't change how we felt about him, we really didn't care, but we still remind M about it from time to time.  Upon Ginger returning from the groomer, he was in much better shape, although his hair was so bad they even had to shave his tail which really seemed to depress him - thankfully we haven't had to have his tail shaved since.  :)  J even shared her soup from the Bread Company which Ginger just loved.

Ginger has a very laid back personality, I've never had a Persian before so I'm not sure if that's the case with all of them (I'm too lazy to look that up <G>), but he is so kind and gentle.  Despite being "fixed", he does have a cute habit of humping things - especially fleece blankets and/or stuffed animals.

I'm not sure that still photo(s) can do it justice, but he's normally such a quiet cat, but when he starts humping all of that changes.  It's really funny when the blanket "isn't quite right".  He'll get really loud until you fluff it to suit him.  He especially tends to do it when J is around or even on the phone; although it doesn't have to be her on the phone - basically anytime I'm on the phone - even if it is work he'll start.  I really admire the little guys stamina as he can easily go 20-30 minutes at a time.  

Actually as I type this, he's on my desk sitting in front of my monitor making this difficult to type.  He's incredibly spoiled, J hand feeds him all the time just like this.

When he's hungry he's not as to the point as Sampson is, he'll come pester me and if I don't acknowledge him he'll start pawing at me until I do.  Unfortunately you never know if he wants wet food, "treats", cream, or what - sometimes I don't think he knows.  I do love to watch him eat dry food or treats as he sort of flips them up in the air to eat - I suppose because of his typical Persian flat face.

Some days I think that he thinks that he's married to J as he is incredibly jealous if she pays me attention when he's around and he sleeps right next to her all the time.  Not that J doesn't encourage it as she'll cover him up and cuddle with him.

He crawls right up on *my* pillow and goes to bed with J.  Often at night I don't have the heart to move him so I will crawl into bed below him and sleep with my legs hanging off of the bed until he gets up and leaves.  J makes fun of me for that sometimes, but he loves her so much I can't bear to move him when he does this.

I think one of my favorite photos is this one - J was out of town for 8 weeks for training - she only came home on the weekends and not all of them - I think this photo was when she had been gone about 10 or 12 days in a row.  He climbed up on my old desk and just glared at me.

Bottom line is that he's a great cat - just like all of them - but he's just flat out attached to J - so much so his un-official nickname is "Velcro Cat".  I think with that I'll wrap this one up - pardon any typos since Ginger took it upon himself to help me with this one.  :)

- M