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| Name: |
Ralph
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Age: |
Seventeen-Eighteen years old
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| Gender: |
Male
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Kind: |
Tuxedo Shorthair
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| Home: |
Newnan, Georgia, USA
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Ralph arrived in our back yard, howling bloody murder, about thirteen years ago - it was night, and he came from behind our back fence, yelling loudly- we opened the door and he walked in- he was nearly dead, very thin and malnourished, every bone showing, and he looked to be a hundred years old, although the vet said he was maybe 5-6. He was front-declawed and 100% not feral or wild, he desperately wanted human companionship and laps to sit in and above all, food.
He was probably abandoned or dumped by whatever heartless villain had him front-declawed, and there was no way the poor guy could have survived without front claws- he also has a digestive disorder, he can't get much out of the food he eats, it goes through him too fast- the vet put him on Flagyl immediately and that helped a lot, but he still has food go through him too fast, and the results are in the biological-weapons category because he only partially digests things - if he visits the litter box the whole house knows about it very quickly.
He's picky and fussy about food, of course - typical tuxedo cat attitude, a.k.a. Tuxitude - and he wants laps and pets and chin scratches now, on his terms- and he can be a totally sweet lap cat if he wants to be and if it's in his interests to be one-- or he can be a cranky dictator if his needs are inadequately met- neither we nor the vets know how he is still alive after all this time, with his digestive probs and other complaints, but alive he most certainly is, and he makes very sure we know it. He complains more (and more loudly) than his namesake Ralph Kramden, and is just as surly and crusty, but we wouldn't trade him for the world- the picture shows his favorite place, curled up in the sunshine in the catnip plant- probably gooned out of his little mind but happy and content.
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