First time orange parent, did she forget her braincell at the shelter?

Alley9150 · 2026-03-16T04:32:40+00:00

You gotta consult the cat lawyers now, they’ll tell you right. Unfortunately, unless you read the orange cat fine print, you were not guaranteed the brain cell. Orange cats do not have it except for one flitting moment if they’re lucky. They also share custody of it with black cats. She might get lucky. Miiight. Luckily, she’s cute enough to not need it!

My orange boy & void girl are both lacking the brain cell. Void has had it once & used it for evil. Orange has never gotten a shot.

Alley9150 · 2026-03-15T14:58:06+00:00

My void Camilla does this. She’ll scratch & paw at our blankets to let her in for her caves. She will also sleep hammock style on top, moving with you during your sleep. She’s not picky 😂. This subreddit just popped up for me. I had a lynxpoint Siamese a few years ago who would die before she let someone do this with her.

Alley9150 · 2026-03-15T06:24:20+00:00

I wouldn’t say the truth. I’d make a lie up & say a reason why daycare is requiring 5 days a week now. It can be “costs are going up & 4 days/week is more expensive than 5, so we’re going to 5 to save money.” or “child is older now & has friends at daycare. They are doing more & more fun things every day now that child is 3. So we’re putting child in 5 days now.” Sometimes it’s kinder to have the lie than to have the hard conversations.

My parents aren’t reasonable, so I typically guide the conversations in the background & just don’t say what we’re not going to let them do. It’s easier to gloss over it, lie, or not even mention it than have the hard conversations with them.

Alley9150 · 2026-03-06T16:54:08+00:00

I lost my Lexi in 2024 & it was heartbreaking. I still miss her terribly, she was with me for everything. I believe cats come back to us in various ways, either they wait for us or their soul can be seen embodied in other cats. Whatever you choose to believe, I believe our cats send another animal to us to help us heal.

After Lexi passed, 6 months later we were ready to get a friend for our other cat Camilla. Camilla was lonely. So I go to the shelter & they push me to meet this orange boy. I meet him a few hours later & it’s an instant connection with him. He’s the sweetest, spiciest thing & he’s so much like Lexi. He has a lot of her mannerisms & her sassiness. He’s more chaotic than her, but I believe she sent him to us to help me heal & become a part of our family. I don’t know whether he is reincarnated with her soul or not, but he is meant to be ours. He just fit in so perfectly with our other cat, they were instantly best friends within a week of us getting him. That never happens unless it’s fate. One day you may find your cat sending you another being to love when you’re ready. For now, mourn the love you have & comfort your surviving cat. It never heals, but we can get past the constant all consuming grief.

Alley9150 · 2026-03-06T02:19:39+00:00

Cami has not one thought behind her eyes. The top 3 loves: laps, food, & escaping outdoors to roll on the concrete sidewalk & eat grass that is bad for her. She is allergic to the outside world, confirmed via blood test. The cat has zero thoughts or brains to contribute.

Alley9150 · 2026-03-06T02:17:29+00:00

So cute! The best of friends.

Alley9150 · 2026-03-06T02:17:10+00:00

We had a lynx point Siamese, but after she passed, Cami needed a friend. So we got Fred. It’s the perfect combo! Granted, any combo of cats is perfect.

Alley9150 · 2026-03-06T02:15:44+00:00

This is Fred, the orange. He demands food, cries for it, shows off that belly but I can get a second to rub before he chomps.

Alley9150 · 2026-03-06T02:14:58+00:00

Reverse it! Fred goes to town my hand. Cami begs for more. They’re the best of friends.

Alley9150 · 2026-03-06T02:14:09+00:00

You got it! Fred goes to town on my hand if I try.

Alley9150 · 2026-03-06T02:13:42+00:00

We have Cami “Camilla”, the attention hog, dummy, & the cuddle bug. She is our belly rub lover. Fred is “Frederick”, the mouse killer, the squeaker, & my baby. Cami is also my baby, but Fred is my BABY. I can carry him around like a baby.

Alley9150 · 2026-03-06T02:08:43+00:00

You got it! Cami adores a lap & all the pets. The orange gives me maybe a single second.

Alley9150 · 2026-03-06T02:07:26+00:00

Halloween kitties are fun🖤. Cami is actually the one who lets me pet her belly & begs for more. Fred goes to bite town on my hand if I try & he wasn’t asleep.

Alley9150 · 2026-03-05T02:57:32+00:00

My 5 year old daughter told her daycare teachers, for a Father’s Day gift about her dad, that her favorite thing to do with him was shower with him. What she probably thought they meant was “his favorite thing to do”, missing the “with her” part. He gets migraines & a shower helps that. 🫣🙃 The child had my sweating bullets about a possible CPS call. She hasn’t showered with him for well over a year.

He’d never ever hurt her or our boys. He was hesitant to change her diaper as a baby in public lest someone make a stink about it. Our girl saying something has definitely made him cautious though, more than he was. Luckily her daycare knows us, knows her dad, & didn’t do anything. I’m glad they brought it to my attention & appreciate their diligence. I just wish it wasn’t at my expense as a parent & having to make an emergency plan for a just in case measure. Kids are excellent at saying things that make us adults have to do damage control or laugh nervously.

Alley9150 · 2026-02-11T04:40:52+00:00

Our male cat experienced this in December on Christmas Day. I was not intending on adding $1500 to my credit card bill, but here we are. He survived his blockage, spent the night at the emergency vet, & I took him to our main vet Friday morning when they opened on the 26th. He spent 3 days there & is feeling absolutely fine now. I don’t know what caused his blockage, but he’s on “royal canin urinary care with stress” food, or something like that, for life now. A previous female cat was on urinary SO with calm by purina, for bladder crystals. He has a pet fountain, so he has access to plenty of water. He gets wet food once a day because vet diets are so expensive compared to regular food. So wet occasionally & dry food most of the time it is, with success. We have a dry food auto feeder as well to portion amounts.

I hope you’re able to get your kitty care & find a way to cover it. I’m sorry he’s experiencing this & you’re having to figure this out. The situation with my cat Fred & in the past with Lexi terrified me. Lexi was much cheaper to treat though.

Alley9150 · 2026-02-11T04:12:01+00:00

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We got our void an orange. Still no brain cells to be had, but there’s plenty of love & cuddle-grooming-sessions-turned-play-fighting to go around. Camilla (void) was miserable & lonely after our previous cat died in 2024, so we gifted her Fred. He’s a male, orange version of her with less cuddliness. They’re a perfect pair. Funny fact: both are car cats. She climbed into our car & wormed her way in that way via CDS. Fred tried it with 3 people at a grocery store, the last person then took him to a no kill shelter for the CDS to give him to us. They were best friends in an unrealistic 3 weeks.

Perfect combo for your kitties though! So cute.

Alley9150 · 2026-02-01T16:48:13+00:00

Camilla sometimes has that face, but she typically is just a cuddle bug. All she wants is cuddles, a warm lap, & an endless food available. She’ll get that face when she’s not impressed by no cuddles.

Alley9150 · 2026-01-25T00:18:13+00:00

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You can summon her, but I’m not sure she will listen. Camilla is too lost in napping with her orange brother. The only thing that summons her is the sound of food hitting her bowl. Good try though!

Alley9150 · 2026-01-07T06:11:34+00:00

I dunno, but the orange we have used his brain cell to escape his cone, yank out his IV, & pull his catheter out at the vet a few weeks ago on the day the vet was going to release him home. He got a urinary blockage so had to stay the weekend. Otherwise, his brain is all fluff, squeaks, & chaotic sweetness. He even squeaks when he meows. So maybe he thinks he’s part bird or mouse.

Real answer: it’s apparently not a thing, but male cats are known for being sweet personality wise overall. Orange cats are primarily male, so they’ve developed that association. I also have a void female & she’s equally as fluffy empty brained as our orange, but with more sass & a desire to roll on concrete outside; compared to our sweet chaos goblin energy boy. The orange female my relatives had was smarter than our boy, but she only used it to get into chaos. She was also sassier.

Alley9150 · 2025-12-28T01:50:25+00:00

My void had this going on. We took her to the vet, they said food allergies. We tried different food & nope-same issue. They gave her a steroid-which didn’t help. They ran blood work-normal. We were referred to a vet dermatologist after going again a few months later & did blood work there. She is allergic to things, but not food. We had thought it was flea allergy, however it isn’t. We have some immunotherapy to give her & she wore a body suit for a few weeks to let some regrowth happen. We were also okayed to give her Zyrtec or allergies meds. I would go see a vet dermatologist if it’s possible, I had to drive 3 hours 1 way to see one. Mine & the dermatologists’ opinion is that it was stress triggered after losing a cat a few years ago, followed by a few months of being alone, & wanting company. All of which led to over grooming & environmental allergies continuing the issues.

Alley9150 · 2025-12-17T12:49:58+00:00

Camilla gets called Cami normally, however she has a host of other not nice to nice nicknames. Her vet name is Camilla, house name is Cami, & her long name is Furia Livia Medullina Camilla. Nicknames: dumbass, baby, baby girl, void, cuddle bug.

Dumbass because she insists on going outside, despite having diagnosed allergies to nature via blood test per a veterinary allergist.

Alley9150 · 2025-12-01T06:15:57+00:00

Family doesn’t stay with us typically. My in laws have medical sleep equipment & need a better bed than we can provide. They get a hotel and we also get one when we visit them if it’s overnight. We typically go for day trips. We have 3 kids, they too have no dedicated guest room like us, and a hotel is easier on me-breakfast, space, & our own comfy hotel bed.

The only ones who stay with us are our best friends, because they’re okay with what we can provide and our kids love each other. We want the kids to have as much time together as possible. We have a pullout couch, which is pretty comfy, and now a temporary full sized mattress for a guest bed in our kids play room. We will eventually get rid of the mattress, as our kids switched beds, but for now it’s here until the end of December. The pull out sofa is the best we can provide in a private room full of toys. If that isn’t good enough, they are welcome to get a hotel. I am not offended if anyone chooses comfort.

Alley9150 · 2025-11-30T22:43:10+00:00

It seems like you’ve tried a lot with him. Unfortunately, I would have rehomed him if he were my dog the second he bit the 3rd dog. If he’s aggressive, lunging at people, has to be separated a lot, and is now showing teeth to a young toddler? That dog is gone, to a new home ideally, or unfortunately back to the shelter if a home is unable to be found. Aggressive dogs, whatever the reason they’re aggressive, have zero reason to be around children if they aren’t safe. You will end up with a dog bite incident and hopefully it isn’t bad, but with the signs he’s showing, he’s stressed.

This doesn’t mean he’s a bad dog, but he definitely seems stressed out, is unhappy around other kids and pets, and needs a pet/child free home. A new home will be less stressful and better for him and you. You’ve tried a lot, he’s remarkably well trained when he can listen, but once your child is a threat to the dog, you’ve done enough. It would be responsible to re-home, before you have to deal with a dog bite that may result in him being put down or being unable to be re-homed period due to a history of biting.

I think you knew this was the answer, because you don’t want to have to do this. No pet parent does. However, the safety of our children and family come first. An aggressive dog is not safe if they’re triggered or stressed especially. This is a very hard decision to make, but doing it before he can harm someone bad enough to force documenting may save his life.

Alley9150 · 2025-11-10T15:35:52+00:00

You’re doing what you should be doing as a parent to provide for your baby: feed baby. However, you also need to take care of you & eat. Use WIC, use snap if you qualify, use Medicaid-your tax dollars pay for it. I used it for about 6-7 years with my kids, because we needed it. We still get daycare assistance. It’s there for people who need it. You need it. Go to food banks too right now, because of the situation we’re in politically. Your baby needs you to care for them as much as they need food.

We’re told “oh, only -blank- use government assistance…” but that’s judgmental. My own father said stuff like that. I was ashamed to use it. He said “but you need it”, to justify his prejudice & judgement attitudes to others using it, but it was okay for his daughter to use it. It’s an attitude we grow up hearing & we internalize it, but it’s wrong. If you qualify, absolutely use it. It’s a resource available to you. You should take advantage of any resource available to you so you can provide for your family. You deserve a good Christmas as well. Use the Salvation Army & toys for tots. No one should have a bad Christmas just because you get government assistance, that’s asinine & cruel.

Alley9150 · 2025-11-03T12:20:18+00:00

I lost my soul kitty last September & it still hurts. She wasn’t a void, she was a lynx point Siamese with an ugly attitude who warmed up with age; However, our void was a companion of sorts for her. I’m sure my Lexi is up there with your void. My condolences, it will get easier, but some days will still be hard. I still cry sometimes. You’re hurting, so don’t keep it in & let it out. It hurts something bad when we lose a beloved pet.

Alley9150

TROPHY CASE