I'm back...I'm sure no one knew I was gone other than me as it's only
been a few days.  I'm in the midwest visiting my mom and she has my old
laptop which worked fine last time I was here but this time the
security certificates had expired on the browser and I downloaded IE5
but it wouldn't work. So, while I could read the ngs with difficulty, I
couldn't post or go to any website where I had to sign in.  Finally,
last night I d/led IE5 in a different format and it worked!!!!!!  I'm
so excited.  I felt cut off from the civilized world...well, if this is
civilized.

I miss my 3 kitties but their dad is taking care of them.  My mom has a
huge cat named Henry.  He weighs about 20 lbs.  I told her to make a
vet appt. for him while I was here as she can't lift him when he's in
the carrier but she hasn't yet so I doubt if it will get done.  He
really needs to lose weight.  He's about 5-6 years old.  She has had
him almost 2 years.  The poor little guy has one of those classic dump
stories.  He was front declawed by his prevous owner who is my mom's
hairdresser's daughter.  She had 2 cats, Henry and a mean one, both
front declawed, who always tormented poor Henry so he spent much of his
time hiding from him.  Then she got engaged and the guy doesn't like
cats much, you know, same old story we hear all the time.  For some
reason, he decided she could keep 1 cat so she decided to keep the mean
one since she didn't think anyone else would want him.  She thought it
would be easier to place Henry who is very sweet.  She had it arranged
for him to go to a local no-kill shelter but my mom decided to take him
as she hadn't had a cat for a few years since their last one died (my
father is now deceased also) and she felt it was time.  So this is
where Henry lives.  My mom loves him madly. He was already obese when
she got him and he hasn't gained.  She thinks he has lost some but he's
still a huge, huge guy.

Fortunately, he doesn't have any behavioral problems associated with
his declawing and is very well-behaved.  The girl offered to also back
paw declaw him (!), too, before my mom took him but she said no,
fortunately.
She did get her other cat back declawed, though.  Now she has a baby
but she still has the other cat, too, and apparently isn't planning on
dumping him at this time.

Henry doesn't care for me much, though.  He's not afraid of people like
2 of my cats are so he doesn't run in fear of me but, if I come into a
room, he studies me for a couple minutes and then just goes to a
different room.  I guess I'm disrupting the little brat's lifestyle.
I'll still be here a few more days so maybe he'll warm up to me but
it's like there isn't even a cat here most of the time.

He's kind of a strange dude.  She has a lot of windows...he never looks
out of them.  He's indoor only, of course, and shows no interest in the
outside world but she has a really nice screened in porch/sunroom and
he couldn't care less about it.  He used to like it, she said, but now
he has no interest.  My cats would love it.  It might be that the a/c
is on now so the door to the porch is closed and maybe when it cools
off and she turns the a/c off and leaves the door open more, he might
go in and out more freely.  But I think it's so odd that he doesn't
look out the windows.  There are tables by many of the windows and a
big bay window with a window seat that most any cat would love, one
would think, but not Henry.  He never, ever looks out any of them.  I
guess in his original home, it was an apt. and there weren't any
windows he could get to but I would think 2 years of a lot of windows
would undo that.

He doesn't play much either.  He mostly eats, wants to be petted (by my
mom only), sleeps, and lays around doing nothing.  He's got so much
more room than my cats do but he doesn't utilize it in a catlike
manner, imho.

Candace