Nikolupdate II: No, This Is Not Turning Into “One Of Those Cat Blogs”
Submitted by Sarah D. Bunting on October 21, 2008 – 9:32 PM37 Comments
But I thought you’d want to know, per Matt, that Nikolai has had a bath, behaved himself very well in the process, and is settling in nicely:
After surveying his new home, Niko has found his throne. He prefers to be ateye-level with his subjects, I suppose. He’s sleeping up there now, a well-deserved rest. And may you rest assured he’s found a happy home.
The picture at left is of a pre-bath Nikolai, casing the joint. Aw.
If you would still like to contribute food/toys/’nip/a Petco gift card to Nikolai’s upkeep, please send any and all of that stuff to my P.O. box, which you will find on my “About” page (top right). I will send it on to Leila and Matt. And you needn’t feel obligated, but if you’d like to do it, thank you in advance.
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Tags: feline fun times friends Nikolai
Sars, you weren’t kidding when you said he had a peacock sized tale- and that’s BEFORE his bath?
Damn, his royal tsarness looks pretty happy in his new home.
Thanks Matt and Leila!!
Oh wow, what an adorable photo — look at that tail! Yay, for Matt and Leila!
Too cute!!!1! :)
Good grief. Of COURSE Leila and Matt had to adopt Nikolai. They already had an enormously long, fluffy, yellow cat tail tucked behind their bookshelf…….. Ohhhhhh…..
Never mind.
Congrats on the new addition, Leila, Matt &… uh… enormously long, fluffy, yellow cat …
Yay for Nikolai! Woohoo Tomato Nation :)
Ohhhh MY, he’s a handsome devil. He looks so relaxed, like he’s lived there his whole life!
Leila & Matt are my heroes for the day. Sars, you were my hero the day you rescued the Tsar, and will be again when you send some Tomato love to the capital. But for today… Leila & Matt, you are the primos.
*sigh* I just love happy endings. :)
Wow Niko sure looks orange in that pic. Is it just a change of light? or is he really an properly orange cat? He looks happy surveying his home and I do hope we get updates and a post-bath pic.
Leila and Matt rock!
I am really not much of a cat person, but God, that’s a seriously cute cat.
I’m so happy he’s settled in! Sars, I’ll be emailing about his dowry.
He’s too cute to be real. I wish he could’ve been mine!
Congrats to Leila and Matt and their new very fluffly Nikolai!
Nikolai looks like he’s passing judgment on your record collection. Hee! Super cute.
Sars, how is it that Nikolai doesn’t have any teeth? Is this common amongst certain kinds of felines? Or is it his advanced age and lack of flossing that caused this to occur?
Awww… Who’s a good boy? Who’s a good boy? Yes you are! Yes, you ar….ahem. Sorry. Can’t help myself sometimes.
I would like to add that if this were to turn into “one of those cat blogs,” I’d be OK with it. :-)
@Bronte: That happens with the Hobe at times, too; most of the time, he appears to be more of a burnt orange or orangey-greige, but get the right sunbeam and he’s a traffic cone.
@BSD: I don’t know exactly what Niko’s deal was, but the reason Hobey only has 2 1/2 teeth is that he picked up some sort of gum disease that stayed dormant for years, then flared up when he got older. Evidently this is not uncommon in shelter cats, which Hobey was, and you can treat it via other means for a while (steroids, diet supplements), but sometimes it’s a better net result just to pull the teeth.
Cats are carnivores, so their teeth are primarily for pinning and tearing (vs. herbivores, who have flatter teeth for grinding/ruminating), and Hobey does have that type of tooth left — but a domesticated feline can easily get by with none at all, because he’s not called upon to do much killing or ripping of hide from flesh. He’ll have you know that he COULD, mind you, but he isn’t.
There are variations on the gum disease/tooth decay in different cats, but the short answer is that they get to middle age and this sometimes happens.
@ JR: I’m with you, if this turned into “one of those cat blogs” I’d be perfectly happy. The first TN entry I ever, ever read was “The Hobey Diaries.” https://tomatonation.com/?p=370
Our dog has, well, not a lot of teeth. He’s a rescue, though, and we think in a previous life he liked to chew on rocks, which probably accounts for a good number of the missing chompers. He’s still got enough of the back teeth to crunch up his food, though, so he’s hanging in there.
I love happy endings! Nikolai looks positively regal and tsar-riffic up on his throne. Rock on…
@ JR and @ Jen: I agree…more cats! I first found my way here after googling “roomba cat” and finding this https://tomatonation.com/?p=844
AWESOME!!! SO AWESOME!!! Leila and Matt, thank you. You too, Sars. My heart feels so light and bubbly today because of your kindness!
Sars, I remember your entry on having poor Hobey’s tooth work done at the vet – I think it was the same entry about the rampaging “Japanese Fighting Moles.” I still re-read that entry and laugh (not about the teeth or the moles, of course, but the “Japanese Fighting Pine,” etc.).
Nikolai really is a handsome, handsome boy. Great move, Leila & Matt! He looks content already.
Of course, like any good tsar, Nikolai has serfs to do the ripping of hide from flesh.
I thought His Imperial Majesty looked so orange, and so devilishly cute, on his bookshelf-throne that it must be a*post*-bath picture. (What do I know from lighting?)
My first reaction to that picture was, holy crap, that cat has a fluffy tail!
My second was, holy crap, Leila and Matt have vinyl records *and* the means to play them! (For the youngsters in the group, we used to purchase large, thin vinyl disks that contained recorded music; we played these on a rotating device with a needle-tipped reader. Said device is to Niko’s right in that picture.)
I’m so very glad Niko has a home.
Awwww. Tsar of all he surveys. :-D
Aw, Nikolai.
(damn dusty cubicles.)
Hee. Who’s tsorry now? At least he’ll be getting tsome decent tservice from his new tserfs (not that he didn’t get tsome rockin’ tservice there from TSars).
Oh, and? Cat blogs = good! When I’m not having a good day, I google the old entries about Hobey, Little Joe, and the littlest brother … Roomba! And then I rumbinate.
That would have been “roombinate”. Sometimes I’m witty; sometimes I’m half that.
I think that picture should be captioned, “Olivia Newton John-Physical? Are they kidding me with this shit?”
@La BellaDonna, thanks for a VERY much needed laugh. Between Nikolai’s tail, the cool vinyl lps and your post, I have a “tsmidgen” of faith in the world today.
*totally owns ONJ’s “Totally Hot” on vinyl*
What’s wrong with a cat blog? Especially if it’s written by you, Sars. It seems to me like you haven’t written much about your cats lately and I miss it. :)
Yay for Niko! He looks really content there. He seems like a great cat.
Yay! I’m glad he found a local home. Have you negotiated visiting rights?
Mark me down as one who would be totally cool with Tomato Nation being all cats, all the time. The way you write about your cats slays me, Sars. To this day my favorite ever term from TN is “startle poo.”
I just caught up on the saga of Nikolai… all I can say is WOW, awesome Sars, reading this really made my day!
I would not be averse to reading more cat news on the TN. I have enjoyed stories of the Hobe and Joe. I live vicariously since I am not allowed to have cats. But I remember fondly the days when we always had at least one cat and one dog in residence at a time. And if there was no cat in the house we always felt something was lacking. I particularly enjoyed the Roomba adventures on TN and the heartwarming stories of trips to the vet.
Also, cats are special. There is nothing quite like waking at 3am to find that the cat who hated you 12 hours ago has now decided that it’s “play time”.
More cat stories, please.
Awwww! He is thinking ‘I am orange, floofy and have a gigantic tail. You may now adore me.’
Righty-o.