So, last year my wife and I adopted a cat. Specifically a Turkish Angora who was named Kraliçe Kultan (“Queen Bitch”, after a David Bowie song). She is, adorable.
Every cat is unique, but Kraliçe (Kr-ah-lee-ch-ey) has some special elements that I’ve never dealt with before.
Indoors
Fortunately for the wildlife of Aotearoa, she is a strictly indoor cat who has been raised as such and only goes out on walks under strict supervision and a leash. This means she’s always around, somewhere, but also makes her a little more needy for attention.
It also means that since she can’t just sneak out to do her business, it becomes really important to maintain her litter just the way she likes it – or get used to cleaning up messes.
Raw Food Diet
Kraliçe has been raised on and expects a diet of raw animals – specifically mixes of meat, organs, etc to ensure that she gets all her nutrients.
This creates the problem that she is more than a little bit fussy and also not all raw food is created equal. Meat cubes and slices are among her favs, but they are also kind of lacking in various things – wild organ mix is also a fav but is probably not good for her to have without spacers.
So now a not insubstantial part of my life is built around working out what she likes, how to mix it up and apologizing to her when I fail her.
So Floofy
She is super floofy.
So floofy that we have to brush her regularly so that she doesn’t vomit up massive hairballs – at this point we basically just brush her regularly whenever she’s near the brush and she still spits up hair randomly.
But it is a worthwhile.
Water Gremlin
Allegedly Turkish Vans are the cats that love water, but I can tell you that this particular Turkish Angora loves it – or at least she loves it when my wife is around.
She likes to supervise showers, walk in the bath and to swat at the water when the tap is running.
Yes this whole post was just me wanting to brag how beautiful and fun my cat is.