Mannie aka Mannipuss

This is Mannie.
We also call her Mannipuss.

♫ Hip hop-a-Mannipuss! ♫           
(Flight of the Conchords)

We fostered Mannie for People For Animals, starting at the end of October 2009. I had somehow convinced Troy that we should foster a cat.
Never mind that our dogs want to eat them.
I am told that she's from La Ronge. As a kitten, she was bashed in the head with a hammer, as a solution to her being alive.
She didn't die, but was rescued.
Her new person ended up with terminal cancer, so had to find new homes for her cats.

Mannie was very nervous and scared for the first while.
Understandably.

I did my research and from what I read, to get a cat used to her new environment, start her in a little room, and gradually allow her access to more and more.
We did just that.

Sadly, as mentioned above, Chaos and Mayhem are not 'cat-friendly'. At this point the dogs and cat are still living separately. We keep Mannie in a bedroom, with her dishes, litter box, scratching post, beds, and some toys, while the dogs are out of their crates. When they are in their crates, Mannie has run of the house.

She is the sweetest cat.
She isn't declawed, thankfully, so she's very careful to keep them in when she bats at you.
Very kind of her.
She's pretty vocal, but not to the point of being annoying, just wants to let you know that she's around. Or hungry.
She even let me cut her nails.
Mannie always goes in her litter box and she doesn't destroy the furniture with her nails.
There was a short period when she would claw the coach, but we got her a scratching post and she stopped. Simple solution.

Mannie is the same colours as this female cat that was on my grandparents farm while I was growing up.
She always had kittens.
We called her Grandma-Cat. She was the friendliest cat on the farm. One winter, her tail got caught in a vehicle door, and it fell off.
Poor kitten.
She's a blue merle, I later found out.

We started fostering Mannie in late October 2009, and we got in our crash on December 5, 2009.
While I was busy being in a coma, Troy and our friends and family looked after our furry friends. It did take Mannie a little time to get used to me again. I think she was a bit mad that I abandoned her for that couple of weeks. She refuses to let me cut her nails anymore.

Mannie and I both suffered brain trauma! We're Same-ies!

Needless to say, we fell in love with Mannie. We adopted her.
Troy sometimes calls her The Curse Cat, because she was bashed in the head, then her adopter died of terminal cancer, then we got in a terrible car crash. I don't believe she's cursed. Just has had a really shitty life.

Troy and I want to get her and the dogs good together, it's going very slowly. Mostly because I don't want the dogs to have her strewn about the house, and then try to love them again after they murdered my sweet cat. Troy doesn't think that'll happen.
It's been decided that Troy will be introducing them, while I am out of the house.
I am so nervous! But I really think Mannie's life wouldn't be so lonely if she and the dogs could chill together.

My Pit Bull Companions! Chaos:

Chaos looking regal

We adopted our big guy from the local shelter, The Regina Humane Society, over 6 years ago, on August 22, 2005. They predicted his age to be a year or two. But both our vet, and our dog trainer say it was more likely that he was about 8 months. He had way more black on his muzzle!
He's an American Staffordshire Terrier Cross.
His name is Chaos. Not because he is or was, chaotic, but because when we adopted him, our lives were chaotic! We had just gotten married(August 5, 2005), moved into our house(August 11), I had quit my job so I could start interning to finish my degree to be a teacher, and we were renovating.
While we're at it! 
My good friend, Renee, was working at the shelter and she said we just had to meet him! So we went on Troy's motorcycle with the idea that we couldn't bring anybody home on the bike.
So much for that strategy!
We fell in love the instant we met him! He was so sweet and friendly! Troy was working nights that week, so he went to work, and I arranged with my dad, to take Copper, my childhood Springer Spaniel, and I to meet and potentially adopt him!
The meeting went well, and I signed the papers!
We worked with him and Russ Rathy, training for obedience, protection and scent-work! Russ encouraged us to work with Chaos all the time, so we did. I would spend 15 minutes practicing heel, come, sit, and stay every morning and for 15 minutes every evening. Troy did training with him too. Plus, we just worked it into our lifestyle. Training during walks, and play was mandatory after every session of training. Russ was awesome! Chaos is an amazingly chill dog! I don't know if he would be so chill without Russ Rathy's help. Actually, if Mayhem, our other rescued pit bull is any indication...I'll leave that for another post.
We also did some group classes, played with agility equipment and took a cart-pulling class together, which was really fun!
I like to call Chaos 'Smoochie-face' and our friends call him 'Bison-head'. Cause his head seems ginormous!
We've recently started calling him 'Dr. Carlyle'. (He runs a successful family practice in the country.)
I wouldn't put it past him. He seems like he would.

He's fantastic with puppies! He's helped socialize many of our friends puppies! He'll let a puppy grab his face and pull! He'll lay on the floor to play because they're so little. It's ridiculous how cute he is!
He also came to the General Hospital to see me on December 20th! We hadn't seen one another since December 5th! Course, I don't remember, but I'm told I was excited and so was he!
I'm in the one in the wheelchair, with my beautiful, warm quilt that my belly dance group members made for me out of everyone's scrap fabric(much of it leftover from performance costume construction)!
Troy has Chaos's leash, my dad is bent over me and my grandmother is the one in the white jacket. I hear it was super cold when I was in the hospital(-45/-50 degrees Celsius). One thing I am glad to not remember!