My Pet Lily

I begin with wishing you all a very Happy Valentine's Day!!

As it is Valentine's Day, I thought I would speak about my special valentine, my pet cat, Lily.

Lily is definitely a very special cat. I got Lily over 7 years ago from the local animal shelter. She had been picked up running wild on the streets of a nearby city. They thought she was probably 1 or 1½ years old. Although Lily is not quite feral, she is still very, very skittish. If anyone comes over to visit, she immediately hides. The only way you'll ever see her is from outside when she is sitting in one of the front windows. Even when I come in from being out, she'll run into the nearby hallway so she's at least out of sight. She has no desire to go outside because she's lived there and doesn't want too again. Therefore, she's totally an indoor cat, which is fine with me.

She has made a lot of improvement since I first got her but she is still very skittish in many ways. For example, if I sneeze or cough too loud, she runs and hides. Even to this day when I sometimes reach my hand out to pet her, if she is all curled up, she will sort of cower. Who knows what she went through while she was running wild. I know it is true of any animal that has been abandoned like she was. I have been told by a vet that they are glad I am so patient with her. How could I not be? She is so sweet and loving in her own way.

She does not like to be picked up. She will lay on me though, but only when I am either lying in bed or sitting propped up on the bed. Sometimes she comes up to me and puts her head on my shoulder when I am sitting propped up on my bed. She, generally, won't even get on my couch if I am sitting on it. Just another of her skittish ways, I gather.

She has no desire to eat my food as I guess she ate enough of that when she was living on the streets as scraps from trash cans, etc. She only wants to eat her dry food and treats. Unlike most cats, she is afraid (I guess) of my computer equipment. So, when I am working on my computer she does not get up on my computer desk to sit or lay on the keyboard nor to sit in front of the separate monitor, etc. Even if I am not at my computer, she still never gets up on that desk or even my computer chair. This is true of my kitchen counters, she never gets up on them either.

I have a funny story to share. I bought a window seat for Lily. I put it in one of the windows. She wouldn't sit on the window seat. Instead, she would squeeze in next to it in the little bit of room that was left on the window sill that was not taken up by the window seat. So, I finally took the window seat and put it up on the shelf in a closet. One day I walked into the closet and Lily was sitting on the window seat up on that shelf of the closet.

Lily is also very smart. I have watched her, but never been able to catch her on video, when she will go over to one of her little toy balls and position herself where she can back kick it with one of her hind legs. Then she turns around and chases after it. In fact, one day when I was lying on my bed, she jumped up on the bed with one of these little balls and was playing with it. Just being silly, I said to her “well throw it to me.” I kid you not, she literally grabbed that little ball with the claws of one of her front paws and she threw it at me. It hit me between the eyes. They do say be careful what you wish for...

Anyway, I just wanted to share about my special little girl. Below are two of my favorite photos of her. Note, she has one blue eye and one green eye.

I have also posted a couple of videos of her playing with one of her "puff balls" I call them. It was actually attached to one of those climbing trees but she wouldn't play with it there. So, I cut it off and she plays with it on the floor as you'll see in the videos.

Link to 1st Video of Lily First Lily Video