aka: Mr. Fuzzles, Major Nuzzler, O’Bryon, Mr. O, Oh-Oh, Fuzzle Schmuzle, Mr. Kittlesworth, Chunkles

Born: April 1999

Adopted: May 1999

Likes: 

• food

• playing fetch with yogurt lids and birth control pill rings

• food

• cat food

• human Food

• car trips

• rings from milk caps

• food

Dislikes: 

• dogs

• kids

• brushing

• nail trims (he even tries to save us from the nail clippers when we try to trim our nails)

Talents: 

• knows his name

• very good interpersonal skills

• fetching (he has even been known to catch)

Adoption Story: After the Ariel debacle, Wendy swore off ever getting another cat. But, Sox genuinely seemed lonely. One day, Wendy’s dad called to say that Kim’s horse riding instructor was fostering a litter of orphan kittens. Since Wendy had dumped an anti-social cat on them, they couldn’t take a cute, cuddly kitten, but did Wendy want one. So, on Memorial Day weekend, we drove to Marietta to pick-up 5 week old Orion. If you’ve never seen a 5 week old kitten, they weigh about 1lb. and fit in the palm of your hand. We were quite anxious about taking care of such a little kitten. Wendy was afraid he was going to starve, so she made Craig stop twice on the way back to Cincinnati to make up formula and feed him. She was also concerned that he couldn’t get enough formula out of the bottle, so she fed him with an eye dropper. That was the beginning of the end for Orion’s waistline.

Sox let Orion know who was boss right away with a hiss, then took to him. Orion was still too young to poop on his own. The mama cat has to stimulate any bodily excretions by licking her kittens’ strategic area. Not being mama cats, we didn’t know this. After a trip to the emergency room for an enema (yes, it was quite expensive), we learned that we’d have to do the job of the mama cat. Fortunately for us, Sox is a natural Daddy kitty. He quickly took over the bum licking job and all was well.

Can you find the baby kitten? This is Orion at 6 weeks visiting Wendy's Steele grandparents at their former home in Beaver, PA. Little Orion went missing for a while until Linda found him snoozing in a plant. We all thought the little guy was too small to climb stairs. At dinner time, we left him safely in his basket in the basement family room. About thirty minutes later he appeared in the dining room. Orion had managed to claw his way up the carpeting on each step and then make the long trek down the first floor hallway. He must have been pretty lonely.

After we took Mama Kitty away from her kittens, they sought nursing comfort from other sources...Eventually, they figured out that since Sox and Orion didn't produce milk, but the boys apparently made great pacifiers anyway. Doesn't Orion look so resigned?

Thanksgiving 2004 Episode: A recent Orion story that may be of interest occurred last Thanksgiving. Wendy’s Mom was coming down the stairs just before Thanksgiving dinner. The house was full of company including our exchange student and one of Craig’s friends who hadn’t wanted to spend Thanksgiving alone. Linda didn’t see Orion sitting on the steps until it was too late. A metal plate and 9 pins later, Linda’s ankle is back to new. As she lay in her hospital bed asking for more morphine, she had a message for Wendy to deliver, “Tell Orion that I’m not mad and I still love him.” This from a formerly self-professed cat hater! 

It turned out that Orion wasn’t doing too well himself. He seemed to have an abscess at the root of his tail. The day after Thanksgiving (no emergency rooms for cats in Marietta), we took him to the vet and discovered he’d been shot by a bee-bee gun. The bullet hole had become very infected. He, like his grandma, recovered and is back to his old self

Thanksgiving 2005 Episode (1 day before Wendy went into labor with Isaac): Craig came home on Nov. 12th 2005 from flag football to find his 40+ week pregnant wife not home.  Frantically searching he found a cryptic note from Wendy to the effect of "Went to the E.R. with Orion...finish making dinner".  Not to be shown up by Isaac, Orion has once again succumb to a November disaster.  When Wendy was holding Orion that night, she noticed he had a funky smell.  A few minutes later she noticed a huge flap of skin hanging off of Orion's front paw, and a gigantic abscess on his back leg.  Craig made dinner and brought it up to Wendy at the Ann Arbor cat clinic.  4 hours and $380 later we had a good as new (actually somewhat frazzled) Orion. 

Wendy only got two more days pregnant than this...and she can still sit on the floor! These two kittens entertained us during Orion's surgery. The gray striped tortie female spent the entire time bossing around the socks kitten. Poor guy. He spent all his time removing poop from the litter box to play with.

Guess how long the Elizabethan collar stayed on once we got home.... about 2 minutes.  This was after Orion had wantonly rammed into the wall and a couple of chairs.

To allow for drainage the vet placed a pinrose tube in Orion's haunch abscess.  We thank our neighbor Decky Alexander for taking Orion to the vet to get the tube removed a day later while Wendy was in labor.