 | Home:Twentynine Palms, CA |
Age: 10 Years Sex: Female
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Leave a treat for Lu Lu
Nicknames:
Lu, The Lu, Lulu-Kitten, KiTTen! The Queen of the Lulus, Teacup Snow Leopard
Kitty Complexion:
| | | | | | | | | Activeness | | | | | | Intelligence | | | | | | Curiosity | | | | | | Friendliness | | | | | | Vocal | | | |
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Quick Bio:
Likes:
Sleeping in the sun, eatin catnip, chasing the other cats, especially Mocha and Ho Ho.
Pet-Peeves:
Generally doesn't want to be picked up except if it's her daddy
Favorite Toy:
Anything with shiny mylar strips on it. Catnip filled toys. Furry mice. In her dreams, real live squirrels. Fellow kitty and my minion, Ho Ho
Favorite Nap Spot:
Our bedroom window bed with a view of our deck, where the squirrels come every day to taunt her and dig in my plants. Recently, a soft bed that used to be that of my departed old boy, Philo.
Favorite Food:
Fancy Feast in just about any flavor. French fries, when she can get them. A few times, the delicacy, ear plugs, with disastrous results!
Skills:
She’s a high-IQ cat, clever, scheming, and a real killer. She likes to play fetch too! She is also an incredible snuggler, with her daddy. As a greeting, she likes to give you full-stretch waves with an outreached arm and paw.
Dwells:
indoors
Arrival Story:
This is really background for most of our current cats. After we moved into our first apartment together in June 1999, Andrew (my fiancé) and I just had Philo, my first cat. The apartment complex where we lived had a disorganized feral cat colony of about 10 cats, trying to survive in a spartan urban area. Because our apartment managers didn’t do a good job of keeping the dumpster areas clean, all kinds of critters were attracted to our apartments.
Not wanting the cats to dumpster dive, we fed them nearby where they felt safe. We had to sneak around for morning and evening feedings and to observe the cats. Andrew and I were forced to move our feeding areas around some, but a small number of cats would come each day. We gave them all names and got to know each one as best we could.
But the apartment managers wanted to trap the cats and “remove” them: meaning trap them and take them to animal control for certain euthanasia. We offered to “help” by getting the cats homes…whether we had homes for them or not. We also frequently sprung traps set by the apartment managers to prevent anyone being caught. If a cat was caught, we would say that we had a home for it, even if we didn’t. We learned about how Trap-Neuter-Release can help feral cats live a slightly better life, preferable to euthanasia. We started taking cats to be fixed and release them afterwards. Finally, we also offered to do the trapping for the managers, which they liked, but we didn’t tell them that we would be fixing and releasing them!
A group called Fix Our Ferals in Berkeley, CA lent us a trap and offered clinics where several of our cats were fixed. I learned so much working with them, and we can’t thank them enough for the good work they do. We started trapping as many cats as we could, fixing them and releasing them so that we could stop the population from growing. It was hard work, but so worth it.
Over the next 4 years we lived there, no more kittens were born and through adoptions, fewer and fewer ferals lived there. Even though this was the case, we received continual pressure about feeding the few innocent cats that relied on us right up until the day we moved.
Feral cats are hard to place in homes because they take a lot of patience, understanding and training. I didn’t even know I had it in me, but it has been the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done – socializing/taming feral cats! It’s been a bonding experience with the cats and my fiancé, as we were a good team during the whole process. (I’m so lucky I have such an understanding and cat-loving partner.) Andrew and I have adopted 6 ferals as our own cats, and 3 others became beloved cats of Andrew’s mom. In fall 1999-2000, we adopted a feral kitten, Lu Lu, a terrified adult tabby, Mocha, and a young gray tuxie, Bon Bon. In 2003, we would adopt Gris Gris, Ho Ho and Ding Dong. All of these kitties - our Krewe of Ferals- will have pages on Catster soon, if not up already.
Bio:
When we moved into our first apartment together, Andrew and I (Jennifer) had my older cat from college, Philo (who is no longer with us). We thought he needed a companion, and there were so many feral cats that needed love just outside our apartment.
It was summer and Lulu was part of one of the litters being raised in that area. We spent many evenings observing, feeding and talking to Lulu and her family. They got somewhat used to us and we were even able to approach them and play. We were enchanted by this tiny but very smart and fearless black & white cow print kitten with a mustache. It was love at first sight. Her family would shelter near our apartment in a landscaped area that was somewhat safe, the Juniper slope.
I was horrified one morning, when I found Lulu in a trap sitting outside the manager’s office, waiting for a pickup from animal control. I immediately told the managers that we had a home for the kitty and took her home. We almost lost her, and it was pure luck that I had been there to intervene. There were many cats that we couldn’t save, including Lulu’s momma. That was when we got our own trap to begin taking control of the feral situation and use guerrilla tactics to take care of them and prevent their removal and euthanasia. Read more about his long journey in the arrival story above.
Lulu was adorable. We had been calling her Charlie when she lived outside, because she had a Charlie Chaplin moustache that seemed to take up her whole face. We assumed that since she was such an outgoing kitten that she was a boy. Turns out she wasn’t. She was fixed at a Fix Our Ferals clinic in Berkeley, CA.
I’ll never forget Lulu’s first bath, which she needed terribly. Not only was her pretty white fur dirty, she was loaded with fleas! I’d heard horror stories about how fleas can kill kittens, so we bathed her immediately. She wasn’t so sure she liked all that handling. So it took two of us a long time to bathe her in the bathroom sink, and comb out over 60 fleas! She was so small, she fit in your hand, but she could struggle like she was bigger. Afterwards, Lu was an obviously contented kitty. She snuggled up on our comforter in the sun to get dry and fluffy. She even let me hold her as she slept. Kitten love!
She was sweet a lot of the time, but she also made life hell for my old kitty, Philo. He was about 14 years old and was diabetic. A little arthritic, the last thing Philo needed was a kitten attacking him trying to play. She would try to play with his tail, which made Philo snap at her. He could be an ornery cat to begin with, but I can safely say that he hated Lu. We attempted to ease the situation by getting Lulu a new playmate, and it turned out to be Mocha (see family below). But Mocha had her own issues and really couldn’t be Lu’s playmate.
Though we had a full house of cats with three kitties, we continued to feed cats outside. The group outside changed somewhat, but three cats whom we had trap, neutered and released, remained in the area. These were Ho Ho and Ding Dong (sisters), and their mother Gris Gris. We adopted them in March 2003 and of course, this changed Lu’s life somewhat. Another change was in early 2003, I lost my beloved first cat Philo to complications from diabetes.
I kept the new cats in a separate bedroom while I worked on taming them. It didn’t take too long, and then a screen separated the Lulu, Mocha and Bon Bon from Ho Ho, Ding Dong and Gris Gris. Pretty soon, everyone was able to mingle reasonably well. Lulu has been pretty much the dominant cat of the group until our move in fall 2004.
Since our move, Lulu’s had to share being a dominant cat with Ding Dong, her nemesis. Lulu gets bullied by Ding Dong at least once a day. No fights, just intimidation maybe a little hiss or swat. They coexist and Lu tries to stay out of Ding Dong’s way. Flip side is Lulu bullies all the other cats besides Ding Dong! Again, we don’t have fights, but Lu harasses the other cats when she feels like it. In particular, she has it out for my minion, Ho Ho, I guess because she is jealous.
Perhaps as a result, Lulu has formed a very strong bond with her daddy, Andrew, and though she loves me, she resents Ho Ho fiercely.
Lu holds her own as a strong-willed feline. She’s very photogenic and she knows it. She loves being fussed over and photographed. Lu is the official greeter when we have company. Too curious to be shy, she’ll give you a big stretchy wave.
Lu is smart enough to be trained to do tricks, maybe even to be in commercials or print ads. She’s an eager learner, but gets bored easily. She’s a little less motivated by treats and praise now, and likes to act out like an unruly child sometimes. But she’s still a love and like no other.
We think Lulu believes that she a special breed of cat (that to my knowledge, doesn’t exist): the Teacup Snow Leopard. She thinks she is the only Teacup in the world and is of course, very very special. She does have a very sleek, athletic body is a very good hunter, and has enormous furry paws. If she caught a bird or squirrel, I’m sure she would seem like a Teacup Snow Leopard to them!
One of Andrew’s skills is making up new, funny lyrics to existing songs: something he picked up in 12 years of work in radio. One song for The Lu captured her spirit quite well. Sung to “Song for a Future Generation” (on the B-52s album Whammy Kiss), some of the lyrics went: “Hi, my name’s Lulu and I am a piebald, I like sleeping and playing with my-lar toys!…Wanna be the Queen of the Lulus, wanna be the fastest cat on earth, let’s meet and have some kitties…NOW! La la la la la! La la la la la! La la la la la! La la la la la.
Lu is about 6 years old now, but we still call her Kitten. She remains as active as a kitten and just as cute. Lu is the first cat Andrew and I adopted together to start our feral cat family together.
Lives Remaining:
7 of 9
Forums Motto:
Teacup Snow Leopard
The Groups I'm In:
Black And White Units, Black and White: Stripes, Cow Contentment - Black and White Cats and Dogs, Fabulous Ferals, feral cats united
I've Been On Catster Since:
| June 26th 2005 |
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More than 4 years! |
Rosette, Star and Special Gift History
Catster Id:
162896
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