Gypsy Rose

My name's Gypsy. I'm a cat. I'm nine years old in people years. And this is my web page. Not every cat has their own web page! Now you can learn all about me. My hobbies, past-times, and what being a cat is all about.

Hear me talk! (very faint - problem with microphone)

About Gypsy

Date of birth: 05/06/88

Place of birth: Porch roof of a neighbor's house

Siblings: Two sisters (both tortiseshell), two brothers (both black)

Weight: Nine pounds, four ounces (as of October '96)

Gender: Female ("fixed")

Eye color: Light green

Color: Tortiseshell (orange, black, and cream)

Breed: Domestic Shorthair

What you should know about me...

I sleep a lot. My favorite place to sleep is my chair. Or sprawled across my human's bed. Or anywhere in my human's room. My human's name is Misha. She gets mad at me when I sleep in the center of her bed. Why? I ask. I'm only on one small part of it...

I have a collar with a BELL on it. Nametag too; it's star-shaped. The collar, bell, and nametag are all dark blue. It's embarassing and somewhat degrading to have it on all the time, but I suffer gracefully. It does help keep fleas away. I just can't sneak anywhere anymore.

I have all the people in my house trained. Well, besides Misha. She won't get up to let me out at 4 a.m., no matter how loud I cry. But all I do is claw open her door, walk into the hallway and meow loudly. Someone will get up and open the front or back door for me. Whichever one I want. Any time of day or night. Loud meow by door - out I go. Five minutes or less. To get in, I claw at Misha's window and tear the screen to shreds. Then she lets me in the house, and I get to sleep on her bed some more.

My competition, for attention and/or food...

I'm not the only cat. But I was the only one allowed in the house... until Sparkle showed up.

There are FOUR other cats here. Not fair. I was here first. I hate them all. Especially Toss. He always pesters me, swats at me when I'm asleep outside, and tries to steal my food when I'm trying to eat it. I wish he would go away.

I ignore my sister Abracadabra. They call her Boo cause she's timid and afraid of everything. She has long fur. I am a lot prettier than she is.

Then there's Bandit, a Siamese (that means "loud" in catspeak). She meows non-stop. She doesn't bother me though. She will eat anything. I have to compete with her for snacks when my family eats outside. At least I don't resort to digging my claws into humans' knees and begging.

And the newest cat here is Sparkle. She showed up in early July, 1996. She's about two years old, tortiseshell like my sister and I, and VERY friendly. She's talkative, and very playful. Misha thinks Sparkle is oh-so-cute because she plays with fur mousies and loves catnip and snuggles, things I'm too dignified to do. Sparkle tries to sneak up and scare me a lot, which makes me yowl and scream, and makes Misha mad at both of us.

My human Misha has her fiance Julian over a lot. He's nice to me. Gives me lots of pets. TWICE now, he's climbed a TREE to get me down when I was scared by a DOG. Sometimes I try and lick his feet clean. He doesn't always appreciate it.

My likes and dislikes...

I like to eat. I eat dry cat food, but people food is much better. Like turkey and chicken and milk and beef jerky and my absolute favorite--STRING CHEESE! I love it. And it's fun to play with. Sometimes I get POUNCE cat treats. I love those too. My favorite flavor is the BLUE can kind--chicken, I think. Misha and Julian share food with me sometimes. They don't want to always but I stare wide-eyed and seem adorable and starving. They haven't caught on yet.

I don't like to eat mice. I do chase them sometimes, and toy with them, but I don't kill them. They are nasty.

I don't like riding in cars at all. I pretend to take it in stride, though, especially when another cat is in the car with me. I just curl up on the passenger seat--or sometimes on the floor on the passenger side--and pretend nothing matters. But most of the time when I ride in a car I end up getting a bath, or worse, a SHOT! One time Misha and Julian took me to some big building (called a MALL) and I had to get my picture taken with them, in a SANTA hat no less! See? It's just so embarassing!

Some horrible things that have happened to me...

Misha calls me the million dollar cat. It's because I always get attacked by other cats late at night or on holidays and she has to take me to the emergency vet and pay a lot. Once I broke my LEG; I jumped from the garage rafters onto the roof of a car. I had to have this nasty plaster cast on my leg. And to make matters worse, five days later I had to be boarded at the vet's--for two weeks--because my family was leaving for a vacation in Hawaii. It was awful. This is me with my cast on.

Misha's mom squished me in the garage door once. My head was stuck between door and frame for FOUR minutes before Misha heard my cries for help. The only thing that saved me was that the wood frame was rotten and caved in. I lost a tooth in that incident and got a little scraped up.

In January 1996, I started chewing my fur off my tummy and back legs, and it drove Misha nuts. My family started calling me "nekkid legs". So she took me to the vet and he gave her a bottle of stuff to force down my throat. Pills, I think they're called. I had to have a pill a day. I didn't like it one bit. For a while, I didn't chew my fur anymore, and it grew back quickly. But I started it up again. Misha was not happy. I had to take even more pills. Finally, she took me to another vet and he said to stop the pills and he gave me a SHOT. I finally stopped chewing my fur off, and it's grown back all nice and pretty now.

Last November, I was taken to the new vet because Misha felt this lump on my neck and was worried. The vet operated on me (very scary) and removed it. It was a benign tumor, and not dangerous. I had stitches in my neck for over a week, and had to be kept in the house where I would be safe. I could not scratch my stitches at all, and they itched! But my neck fur is all grown back now, too.

Created February 1996. Last updated November 4, 1997.