Cat Attitude In A Nutshell

Bluebottle was feisty and cat attitude in a nutshell. An outdoor cat who came indoors but retained enough of her feral side to be unpredictable. Bluebottle lived life on her terms full stop. She loved the luxuries of being indoors, like log fires and food on demand. But she was less keen on paying the rent in the form of cuddles! And just try and give her medication!

Cat Attitude In A Nutshell

Cat Family History

Any cat will tell you that their family history is an important part of who they are and forms their character. Bluebottle was the only kitten of Pinocchio, a black and white cat with a black patch in the center of her chest. A visitor once asked who was the cat with the target on her chest? Pinocchio was the daughter of Cutex who was the daughter of Angela The Great. Angela was the first wild cat to come and live outside our house in Italy and was the founder of our little family. Bluebottle’s father was Doughnut, a tabby cat.

An Interesting Birth

Bluebottle was born over Easter 2006, on the porch outside our front door. A little white and grey tabby kitten with huge eyes. Eyes so big in fact they gave us an idea for her name Bluebottle – after the flies with huge eyes!

Bluebottle, or Blue as she became known, was born with a frightening deformity to her tail. Just below the tip there was a complete circle of tail where it had all fused together. We had never seen anything like it, nor since! We took her to the vet who said the large eyes were a sign of undernourishment. She  said Bluebottle would have to have the end of her tail amputated when she was older as it would rot.

Pinocchio took matters into her own hands (or paws) and one morning the tail was completely straight. But there was a huge gap in the skin and fur where you could clearly see the skeleton of the tail! Much to everyone’s amazement, the skin and fur eventually grew back and she had a normal tail. Even the vet was stunned!

Bluebottle Got Lost

One day we saw Pinocchio walk up the drive with little Bluebottle toddling along behind. She was about five weeks old.  Several hours later Pinocchio came back alone. We searched for hours! No sign of the kitten and lots of tears. Two days later, our big ginger tom cat, Berlington Bertie, came down the drive, stopping to encourage something to keep up with him. Lo and behold, behind him was our missing kitten, thin but okay. So we brought her indoors to keep her safe.

Bluebottle As A House Cat

Bluebottle adapted well to being in the house and to being spayed. At that time we had one other cat, a ginger Tom called Jimmy who had a heart problem and was therefore housebound. You can read Jimmy’s story here. Bluebottle adored Jimmy and spent her time sprawled over him. She got on well with my little chihuahua Holly, but that was mainly because Holly always went around her and left her alone.

Once old enough she went outside when she pleased. Bluebottle spent a lot of time outdoors. She loved everything in the house except for cuddles. She would lay for hours purring in front of the log fire. But she hated being picked up and would bite. I don’t just mean nip, I mean really bite nastily. We just had to accept that was Blue. But it could be scary! If she got up on our lap we would sit still like rocks. No-one dare touch her or they could get badly scratched or bitten. So, we would just enjoy the fact that for ten minutes she wanted to sit with us. She was basically cat attitude in a nutshell. She had enough for several cats in fact!

Bluebottle Training The Dog

Jimmy died and so did Holly. Eventually we got a new puppy called Barnie. Bluebottle had a wonderful time teasing him. She would sit on a chair hiding and as he went past she would lean over and smack him on the head with her paw, withdrawing again quickly so he couldn’t see her. He used to look around in bewilderment to see what had hit him. I swear Blue was giggling each time.

Three abandoned kittens joined the household and we were worried how Bluebottle would react. But she coped really well by basically just ignoring them. You got the impression they were beneath her and not worth the time of day.

Bluebottle Got Sick

One day Bluebottle started to have problems using the litter box. Clearly she had a problem urinating. A visit to the vet resulted in a diagnosis of bladder stones but a special urine test was required to confirm and decide treatment. Blue was given an anesthetic so the vet could draw urine from her bladder with a needle.

Bluebottle didn’t come round immediately from the anesthetic. It took so long even the vet started to be worried. Eventually she came round but she was a bit strange. The vet said to take her home and keep an eye on her and bring her back for the results of the test. She gave us a prescription for some medication to be put in Blue’s food.

We stopped at the pharmacy to pick up the medicine. BB went into to the pharmacy and I sat with Bluebottle. Then she had a massive seizure. Followed by manic howling as if she could see things. It was frightening to witness.

Bluebottle Had Dementia

When we got home, we let Bluebottle out of the cage and her behavior was immediately erratic. After an hour she was pacing and pacing. I rang the vet who said it sounded like a reaction to the anesthetic and it would hopefully wear off.

By bedtime she was still pacing aimlessly. As she reached a wall her head would hit it and she would walk back in a different direction. The only way to get her to eat and drink was to put bowls in her path. Even then she only paused momentarily. She was still doing it the next morning plus she was starting to look dirty as she wasn’t cleaning herself. She wouldn’t eat and she wouldn’t drink, just paced and paced. Hearts breaking we realized this must be a form of dementia.

Back to the vet whose first comment was she looked fine on initial examination, albeit a bit dirty. Until we put her on the floor and the pacing started. Once the vet had watched her for a few minutes she confirmed our diagnosis. It seems to have been triggered by the anesthetic. We had no way to know. We decided the kindest thing was to put her to sleep.

Bluebottle died in 2015 and the whole household missed her. Soon after I took in two more stray kittens, Stevie Mouse and Emmy. I like to think Bluebottle would have enjoyed knocking them into shape. But there has never been another cat with such attitude.

Cat Art Images

Check out my cat art images at my Art Heroes (Europe), Pictorem (USA and Canada) and RedBubble (worldwide) stores.

This is a revised version of an article I posted in Katzenworld several years ago.

Before you go

My name is Dorothy Berry-Lound an artist and writer. You can find out more about my art and writing at https://dorothyberryloundart.com.

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Thank you for reading!