All About Alfie

A lot of you have asked how our new family member, Alfie, is doing. It's been about six weeks since we brought him home, so I thought you might enjoy an update.

In short - he is a very lovable weirdo. So he fits right in with the rest of the family!

To make a long story short, he has settled in really well. Pip, Milo, and Alfie are all good friends now - that is when they are not trying to kill each other! They seem to take turns with two of them ganging up on the other one, and it's apparently both hilarious  and dramatic.

Basically, Alfie is a very sweet kitty.

He absolutely LOVES The Tim - so much so that when The Tim leaves to go to work, Alfie cries at the door for about 15-20 minutes. Then when he comes home at the end of the day, he runs back and forth the length of the first floor about 2 or 3 times. 

Recently, everyone was on the third floor of our house watching a movie, and The Tim went downstairs for something. Alfie had to move to the top of the steps to see if/when he would be returning, or in case he was needed downstairs.

He has a very sweet face:

 

And SO MUCH toe floof!

He's quite talkative, and The Tim thinks he's like a Tribble. Occasionally he meows, but usually he trills at you, or in response to a question. 

Last week, when I was brushing Pip and Milo, I thought he might enjoy being brushed - especially since it was so stupidly hot, and he has all of that fur. NOPE. He was convinced I was trying to kill him, so I'll wait a while before I try that again. Or see if he'll let The Tim do it, because that would prove it was an OK thing ...

As far as Alfie is concerned, there is NOTHING better than spending time sitting in a window, or even better, sitting in front of the door to the garden to watch the birds and squirrels!

He's a very sweet kitty, and quite affectionate, even if his favorite activity is attacking my legs when I walk upstairs. I think I mentioned that he has to take medication daily for his Pillow Foot condition. The first couple of times we gave it to him, we tried to hold him and give him the stuff (liquid medication that is in a syringe), and it freaked him out, big-time.  So instead of making his transition to living with us even more traumatic, I tried adding the medicine to a small amount of milk, which he thought was a wonderful treat. I told him it was his daily "cocktail."

Then I realized that although many cats love milk, it's not the absolute best thing for them, so I bought some of those Nulo squeeze treats for cats - those are a big hit as well! True to his weirdo status, his favorite flavor is Beef and Sardine, which just thinking about it makes me want to gag - but if he likes it, and it gets the medication into him, all the better!

He still hasn't quite figured out playing - though anytime you can chase a string, he's on board! Last Friday, I decided that I was going to break down a large tower of cardboard boxes (don't ask) that had been in the basement for a while. I wanted to break them down, tie them together, and put them out for recycling. A chore that should have probably taken at max about 45 minutes, ended up taking an hour and a half, because Alfie was assisting me by chasing and catching the twine I was using to tie the cardboard together. But he had such a good time, I really didn't mind.

So he's actually quite busy most days - checking the windows and the garden for squirrels and birds, attacking my legs, playing with his brothers, enjoying his "cocktail" or "afternoon snack" so I can get his medicine into him, and just generally being on cat patrol, as one always is ... when one is not resting from all of the exertion required to regularly perform the above tasks.

We love him so much. And I think he's pretty happy as part of the family.