Feral cats can have a nasty demeanor, and Marmalade's mother was no different. Caught in the wild and brought to our house to have her baby's, we created a little safe haven for her in our garage (it was early spring), and the teeny weeny little kittens blessed this world on May 12, 2016. Marmalade was the only male of the 4 kittens. His beautiful sisters were named Angle, Rose, and Maddie. Also, Marmalade was the only orange and white colored kitty. The others being calico or something similar. However, one trait the four share are those long thin legs that were made for jumping leaps and bounds. When they were able to start climbing and jumping (as cats are sometimes known to do), all four could jump from the cat tree (not all at the same time), sail through the air and land on a dime. At the same time, they could land on all four paws balancing on the dime, or just one paw, you pick, they could do both.
PurrFact: Cats are North America’s most popular pets: there are 73 million cats compared to 63 million dogs. Over 30% of households in North America own a cat.
A photo bomb of a reluctant Marmalade the morning after being out most of the night with his stray cat pals partying. He has always had a fascination with the toilet (mostly the water, hopefully). We can never leave the toilet seat up because next thing you know Marmalade is fishing around in the water (for what, we'll never know). One can never get used to a wet toilet seat especially when nature calls in the middle of the night (thanks, thanks a lot Marm for the wet butt at 3 am).
For such a small cat, Marmalade has one of the longest legs I have seen on a kitty cat. He can leap from any spot and land on the head of a pin needle with the unshaken balance to stand on one leg (amazing cat). Marmalade rarely misses his spot. However, over confidence has gotten the better of Marmalade on a few occasions. One warm summer evening (nothing to do with this story, but it was warm), Marmalade in high spirits, attempted to jump from the dinning room table to the kitchen counter where a big pile of treats awaited. The distance being a lengthy 10 feet from the table to the counter, Marmalade bravely took what seemed to him the possible leap. He ended up landing short about 2 feet, crashed into the bar stool, and fell back onto the hard tile floor. "Oh no! Are you okay my Marmalade?", I fearfully called out to him. He stood up, looked at me with a cat smirk as if I moved back the counter in mid-flight, and then ran off in a fit. Thank the blue skys that he was okay and just needed to shake the stars off. I gave him a big hug to make sure he knew that I still loved him (I didn't move the counter, it can't be moved, but he doesn't know that).
PurrFabulous: When the four kittens where able to walk, we would carry the little furry, chipmunk size kittens into the house for play, socialization, and training. The play first consisted of us forming a circle with our legs and letting them walk to us (on rug so they can push off with their tiny paws), and as they got a little older, we would teach them how to scratch and climb on the cat tree. With the socialization, we would have a number of friends come over to handle the kittens as much as possible. We planned a lot of people and animal introductions as soon as they were ready. And, the training consisted of, strengthening their legs by climbing and running, and the use of toys to get them to interact with us and each other.
Angel, pictured here with Marmalade, was the sibling that bonded most with Marmalade (and myself). The other two sisters, Maddie and Rose, tended to hang with one another most. When the three sisters were adopted (become family members of their new permanent home), Maddie moved in with one of our neighbors, and Angle and Rose were adopted by a very nice and caring couple and their two young children (the children's first pets).
When Marmalade was around 6 months, and his sisters had been adopted to loving family's and no longer part of his daily kitty life, he would sleep between us on a small, fuzzy, pink blanket. The blanket was a small fuzzy, pink pillow case, but to Marms it was his blankie. Full of zest he would steadfastly commence to kneed biscuits, lick fingers and hands, nudge noses, and stretch his long legs out to give his full devotion to his love for us.
PurrNews: One time at cat camp Marmalade stuck a feather into his paw and called it marm-a-roni (I didn't know what else to say here so yea).
I stopped petting Marm and now he's tapping me on the hand to pet him some more. After work, he and I have daddy/Marm time. He's always there like clock work, following me from the time I step foot into the house, put my stuff down, go to the rest room (he has to come with me), and then jumps on the bed for Marmalade time. Trusty Rusty (cause he's reddish/orange).
Feral cats can have a nasty demeanor, and Marmalade's mother was no different. Caught in the wild and brought to our house to have her baby's, we created a little safe haven for her in our garage (it was early spring), and the teeny weeny little kittens blessed this world on May 12, 2016. Marmalade was the only male of the 4 kittens. His beautiful sisters were named Angle, Rose, and Maddie. Also, Marmalade was the only orange and white colored kitty. The others being calico or something similar. However, one trait the four share are those long thin legs that were made for jumping leaps and bounds. When they were able to start climbing and jumping (as cats are sometimes known to do), all four could jump from the cat tree (not all at the same time), sail through the air and land on a dime. At the same time, they could land on all four paws balancing on the dime, or just one paw, you pick, they could do both.
PurrFact: Cats are North America’s most popular pets: there are 73 million cats compared to 63 million dogs. Over 30% of households in North America own a cat.
A photo bomb of a reluctant Marmalade the morning after being out most of the night with his stray cat pals partying. He has always had a fascination with the toilet (mostly the water, hopefully). We can never leave the toilet seat up because next thing you know Marmalade is fishing around in the water (for what, we'll never know). One can never get used to a wet toilet seat especially when nature calls in the middle of the night (thanks, thanks a lot Marm for the wet butt at 3 am).
For such a small cat, Marmalade has one of the longest legs I have seen on a kitty cat. He can leap from any spot and land on the head of a pin needle with the unshaken balance to stand on one leg (amazing cat). Marmalade rarely misses his spot. However, over confidence has gotten the better of Marmalade on a few occasions. One warm summer evening (nothing to do with this story, but it was warm), Marmalade in high spirits, attempted to jump from the dinning room table to the kitchen counter where a big pile of treats awaited. The distance being a lengthy 10 feet from the table to the counter, Marmalade bravely took what seemed to him the possible leap. He ended up landing short about 2 feet, crashed into the bar stool, and fell back onto the hard tile floor. "Oh no! Are you okay my Marmalade?", I fearfully called out to him. He stood up, looked at me with a cat smirk as if I moved back the counter in mid-flight, and then ran off in a fit. Thank the blue skys that he was okay and just needed to shake the stars off. I gave him a big hug to make sure he knew that I still loved him (I didn't move the counter, it can't be moved, but he doesn't know that).
PurrFabulous: When the four kittens where able to walk, we would carry the little furry, chipmunk size kittens into the house for play, socialization, and training. The play first consisted of us forming a circle with our legs and letting them walk to us (on rug so they can push off with their tiny paws), and as they got a little older, we would teach them how to scratch and climb on the cat tree. With the socialization, we would have a number of friends come over to handle the kittens as much as possible. We planned a lot of people and animal introductions as soon as they were ready. And, the training consisted of, strengthening their legs by climbing and running, and the use of toys to get them to interact with us and each other.
Angel, pictured here with Marmalade, was the sibling that bonded most with Marmalade (and myself). The other two sisters, Maddie and Rose, tended to hang with one another most. When the three sisters were adopted (become family members of their new permanent home), Maddie moved in with one of our neighbors, and Angle and Rose were adopted by a very nice and caring couple and their two young children (the children's first pets).
When Marmalade was around 6 months, and his sisters had been adopted to loving family's and no longer part of his daily kitty life, he would sleep between us on a small, fuzzy, pink blanket. The blanket was a small fuzzy, pink pillow case, but to Marms it was his blankie. Full of zest he would steadfastly commence to kneed biscuits, lick fingers and hands, nudge noses, and stretch his long legs out to give his full devotion to his love for us.
PurrNews: One time at cat camp Marmalade stuck a feather into his paw and called it marm-a-roni (I didn't know what else to say here so yea).
I stopped petting Marm and now he's tapping me on the hand to pet him some more. After work, he and I have daddy/Marm time. He's always there like clock work, following me from the time I step foot into the house, put my stuff down, go to the rest room (he has to come with me), and then jumps on the bed for Marmalade time. Trusty Rusty (cause he's reddish/orange).