Bunny the ragdoll cat strutting her stuff, showing off her fluff!
Hello! My name is Jasper, and I am new to Ecency/HIVE! I am writing to you from Cape Town, South Africa. Today, I’d like to introduce my two gorgeous cats Bunny (Missy Bun-Buns) and Pickle (Mr. Pickles).
When my wife and I got them as kittens in early 2016, we lived in an apartment, and so we raised them as indoor cats.
Back when they were still kittens, and friends right from the start! Ragdolls start out with light colours, that tend to go darker as they reach adulthood.
Bunny, the white cat is a ragdoll. Yes, Bunny is a strange name for a cat and gets the vet receptionist a bit confused, but she is SO fluffy so it seems appropriate! She has grown to be exceptionally beautiful, INCREDIBLY fluffy, soft-natured and loving, although a little bit small for a ragdoll cat at about 6kg. We have decided that it is a good thing that she is an indoor cat, because we fear that she would get beaten up a bit by tougher cats, and we don’t want that!
Mr. Pickles, the brown cat is a mix between a ragdoll, and a smaller funny-looking breed called a Devon Rex. We are very happy with how he turned out, as he reminds us of the Siamese breed. He is handsome, playful, affectionate, very vocal, but because of his Devon Rex genes, he can get a bit spicy! He loses his temper when he sees any other cat (besides Bunny) through a window, and on his annual trip to the vet. Mr. Pickles also has an appetite, and so he weighs a little more than Bunny despite his dainty paws and skinny legs! We have also decided that it is a good thing Mr. Pickles is an indoor cat, because he would be the one beating up the neighbourhood cats and we don’t want that either!
Bunny as an adult has piercing blue eyes, and a very fluffy ruff!
Mr. Pickles as an adult. His fur feels like velvet. He’s a mix of fluffy ragdoll like Bunny, and a Devon Rex which is a nearly hairless breed.
A couple of years ago we were able to move from the apartment to a townhouse complex that does have a little garden. However, we decided to keep our cats indoors as that’s what they’re used to. We do hear the neighbourhood cats fighting each other at night sometimes.
However, we have managed to do two things to give our cats a little bit of fresh air:
• We have an enclosed courtyard for our laundry. We often let the cats in there as there is no way to escape. We have made it nice for them with pot plants full of interesting things like catnip, cat-grass and chives.
• We have bought harnesses and leashes so that we can let the cats experience our little garden without fearing that we will lose them.
Recently we got to go to a holiday house that my wife’s family owns in a small coastal town about 90 minutes away from where we live. We were able to bring the cats along for the holiday and thought it would be nice to give them a real taste of the outdoors!
There is a little secluded bay not far from the house, so we decided to take the cats there to explore:
Bunny was eager to explore, but is nervous around strangers, especially small children. Any time anybody else on the beach got too close she would scamper back to hide in the cat-box until they had passed by.
Bunny – “is it safe to come out again?”
Mr. Pickles – “This beach is boring, let’s go along the cliff path!”
Mr. Pickles had no such shyness and soon got bored of exploring the beach and started leading me up onto the path behind the beach that walkers and joggers use to traverse along the coast to enjoy the spectacular views (this town is famous for whale-watching!). This was all going fine until I saw two large Golden Retrievers coming towards us with their human jogging behind. The dogs seemed friendly, but I still picked up Mr. Pickles to keep him safe as they passed us by.
I received a smack in the face for my consideration and looked down at Mr. Pickles to see the angry eyes. Apparently, he was offended that I had stopped him from beating up two large dogs! Oh well, I kept him at arm’s length until he calmed down, and quietly told myself we had made the right decision to keep him safe indoors when he’s not supervised, apparently not so much for him… as for the sake of all the large dogs out there!
The End
Would you like to see more of Bunny and Mr. Pickles?
