Loki

 

Loki on his 16th birthday—he was a little grouchy because the neighbors' were being loud and disrupted his nap

When I first came to live with my family, I wasn’t too thrilled with the other pets.  It took me awhile to get to know them to the point that I was okay with them being around.  It was fairly clear that the leader of their group was the oldest cat, Loki.  He tolerated everyone and usually just stayed with Jen, but he would let you know if you were bothering him.

According to Jen, Loki was born into a feral cat colony on her dad’s front porch on April 10, 2005.  Loki’s mother was trapped and spayed, so she could no longer produce milk for her six kittens.  They took the kittens in and bottle-fed them, which meant that they were too domesticated to be released back into the wild.  One of the family’s cats had died just a few months before and they were still grieving over the tragic loss.  Though they already had two cats, they agreed to take one of the six kittens once he was old enough to leave the litter.

At first, the family struggled with what to name the kitten.  The Lord of the Rings was popular at that time, so they debated naming the little grey cat “Gandalf,” but it just didn’t suit him.  Within a few days, he was showing his true side: he was a troublemaker.  Jen wanted to name him “Stitch” after the lovable blue monster in Lilo and Stitch.  No one else agreed with the name, and so they eventually settled on Loki, the trickster Norse god, and he certainly lived up to his name the best he could.

Jen always says Loki is one of the most unique cats she has ever had.  They think he might be descended from the family’s cat Puff, the only cat they never had neutered.  Puff was at least part Scottish Fold, and Loki developed similar personality traits, though his ears were always normal.  Since he was bottle-fed, Loki was always and still is very social with people.  He will reach up to Jen like a child when he wants to be picked up and likes to sleep on people’s laps when it gets cold.

Now that he is older, Loki doesn’t get in as much trouble as they say he used to—apparently he was a REALLY bad cat when he was young.  Every once in awhile he will get into trouble, usually from doing something like tipping over a glass of water or sitting on the table.  He absolutely loves boxes and will climb into them even if they still have stuff in them.  He had his own shoe box with a blanket Jen crocheted for him.  I tried to lay in it, but I was just a bit too big.  He got a bigger box for Christmas that Jen said was actually made for cats.  It has a scratching surface and a place to rub your chin, but Loki mostly just sleeps in it.  When he isn’t in it, either DiNozzo or I will sleep there.  It’s actually a very comfortable box.

Usually Loki doesn’t bother me.  He likes to sleep a lot and hang out with Jen.  Sometimes I like to ambush him from around a corner or a door.  I get in trouble if Jen catches me doing that because Loki doesn’t like it.  Loki used to eat on the very top perch of our cat house most of the time, but Jen has moved his bowl lower now that he has been having trouble jumping up.  He still moves pretty fast when there is food involved, like cheese or cat treats.  Most of the time he just likes to relax and watch everyone else.

Loki and I will sometimes sit together on the bench and watch the birds outside.  We’ve even hunted bugs together in the house.  He usually doesn’t mind me, unless I am trying to annoy him—then he will give me a smack on the head.  He watches me a lot, as if he thinks I’m weird for pulling all of the toys out of the box everyday or running up and down the stairs, but he’s pretty chill, so I think he’s a cool dude.  The people call us “the grey ones” since we are pretty close in color, I’m just fluffier than him.  Jen had said that I should learn from Loki because he has become a really good cat.  I’m not sure what she wants me to learn—when I sat on the table like he did, we both got into trouble.  Still, Loki knows the good places to sleep in the sun and how to get the people to put food in the bowls.  Overall, he’s probably the best of the pets because he just does his own thing and let’s me be me.  Plus he looks a lot like me, and I think I look great.

It's a little late, but happy 16th birthday Loki!  And thank you for always sharing all the toys with me!  And for sharing your birthday dinner (even though you stole some of my share)!!