This is my pet cat Cheese. He is an all light orange kitty with some very muted tabby stripes and quite a character. He was a feral kitten living on the street in Alhambra, California that was transformed into a pampered indoor only cat after a very chaotic two week breaking in period with him going nonstop bonkers which included literally climbing the walls. His character is quite unique in that it completely rotates throughout the week. Some days he just has to be on or near you and other days he is fine sitting on his own looking out the window all day. Another day he his calm and quite normal and the next day he could be running around wild and racing at full speed throughout the house and jumping all over the furniture, fireplace mantle, table, and kitchen counters. He is very friendly and loving towards people but he does not get along with other cats at all. Even after being around other cats for a long time he meows nonstop, stalks, and attacks. He is relentless and will not tolerate being around other kitties. He has to be the only cat int he house and he lets you know it. He is the boss! He also pretty much goes where he wants and cannot be trained to stay off or away from certain spots. In fact, if he knows that you do not want him to go somewhere, he will intentionally go there and make sure you watch him do it.
Cheese is quite the fashion model too! He has a full wardrobe assortment including complimentary accessories to make him look extra handsome for the lady cats. He has several bow ties and formal wear for all of the special occasions and looks quite dapper in all of them. He doesn’t mind wearing his clothes and likes to pose for the cameras since he knows he looks so handsome! He has gotten countless compliments for his good looks but he doesn’t let it get to his head. He is still friendly as ever.
Cheese got his funny name as a kitten. I gave him a piece of cheddar cheese while he was still on the street as a feral kitten and he liked it so I started calling him “Cheese.” He doesn’t really come over or acknowledge that he knows this is his name but it suits him well.
Unfortunately, Cheese was diagnosed with the chronic disease of Inflammatory Bowel Disease in 2013. He would not eat much food and as a result lost a lot of weight very quickly. It was an odd situation because he had to see an Veterinary Internal Medicine Specialist and undergo numerous tests and procedures and there was not a conclusive diagnosis. However, the final two options were Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) or Lymphoma and they both had the exact same treatment of chemotherapy medication and a steroid. He had a rough time on the chemotherapy medication and would just curl up and sleep and look ill all day. It was hard to get him to eat food so he got different types of dry food, wet food, high calorie supplements, and treats hoping that he would like something to keep him from losing more weight. Eventually, he was taken off of the chemotherapy medication and transitioned to a new steroid regimen. It was determined that it was most likely Inflammatory Bowl Disease after more time passed by and his reaction to the treatment. After a while he began to slowly gain some weight back and become more alert and able to move around more. Eventually he started to act more normal, well normal is a relative word for Cheese, and seemed to feel better. He still only recovered to half of his original stalky-build weight so he is quite lean now but his demeanor seemed to return back with his wild antics. He continues to live with daily medication to treat the Inflammatory Bowel Disease yet every once in a while he will get a bad flare up of the disease and just sleep a lot and be very lethargic. A result of the IBD, he vomits at least twice a month and each vomit session entails two stages. The first stage is usually food or liquid then a few seconds later the second stage is usually just a little foam like liquid. Many times after vomiting he continues to act normal and not necessary ill. Hopefully Cheese will not get any worse due to his chronic condition afflicting him.
Cheese has so many pictures and videos because he is such an entertaining cat. Even when he is sleeping he does something funny or odd that makes him the perfect cat model. He loves to play hide and seek and will continuously meow at you until you play with him. Usually that will tire him out for a while and he will rest afterwards but he might want to continue to play more later. Unfortunately he sometimes wants to play at midnight or 3:00am and starts howling incessantly. This might call for him to get a little water mist spray to stop the howling.
He is such a versatile cat that he can look very handsome all dressed up in his tuxedo or he can look like a dirty vagabond. One time Cheese got curious and climbed up the chimney for some crazy reason. He came out a total black cat! It took about two hours of cleaning him and washing his fur but he still had dark ash color ground into him and it took over a month for it to all finally go away. Another odd thing that he does is forcing himself into very small jigsaw puzzle boxes. I am not sure why he feels compelled to force himself into such an uncomfortable position but that is just Cheese being Cheese! Just when you think that there is nothing more weird or wild he can do…he finds something new and proves me wrong. Even with all of Cheese’s crazy escapades, medical conditions, HUGE and I mean HUGE veterinary bills, and dislike of other cats, he still has to be one of the best looking and coolest cats around. He started his life alone on the street and almost didn’t make it because he was in terrible shape but now he has pretty much gotten everything he could possible want and more. I mean…just look at him!