Shellyversary!

[melannen]

It's officially been a year of me having Shelly in my house with me! (Or, well, her fancy name with the vet is Torellella Cloudina, but those are just names of small shellies, so she's still Shelly. Or more likely the Shellicle Cat or my Shelly-Belly or Fee Fi Fo Felly Shelly. But that's how it goes with the naming of cats.)



We had her one-year vet checkup and shots today. She was very brave.



She tells me the vet says she's perfectly healthy but I should feed her more treats, so we're going to have to work on that.



One thing I have noticed in the past year is that she really likes music! Basically if I'm watching cute videos online and there's one that has the sort of peppy, melodic instrumental background music - you know the sort of thing! - she will crawl out from wherever she is and get as close to my phone as she can and start purring. But only that sort of music! Rock does not work, sea shanties do not work, Mozart does not work. The other day we stumbled on a cute video where the background music was the Pink Panther Theme and she was so happy so I decided to see if it really holds up and we have listened through several entire Mancini albums on youtube together. So I guess I am embarking on a journey to explore lounge music and its kin. I will have to try her on classic big bands and '60s electronica and maybe some of the other more melodic instrumental stuff I like and see where our tastes overlap. I guess her season two theme song is the Pink Panther! Who knows maybe it'll finally motivate me to fix my speaker setup (but then she might cuddle the speakers instead of me...)



I am still constantly amazed that even without knowing what I was doing I managed to adopt the best cat in the whole shelter. How does that work??

Comments

[sonia]

<3 Yay Shelly, Best Cat!

[melannen]

She is!

[samjohnsson]

Did you leave her in the sun too long? She's all faded! (Who'm I kidding? She'd probably like to be left there longer.)

[melannen]

It has been an ongoing problem, it's true. I try to at least make sure she's evenly faded but it hasn't quite worked.

[torachan]

Such a sweetie! She should definitely get more treats.

[melannen]

She agrees!

[rionaleonhart]

Awww, this is a lovely entry! I'm delighted by how clearly she communicates her musical taste.

[melannen]

It's really delightful! When she was new she'd leave the room if a device had loud or angry voices on it, but she seems to have realized that doesn't matter, and now she only reacts to good music (like) and cat-like animal noises (either dislike or confusion). She doesn't seem to care about what's on the screen though. (She does like sitting on the keyboard.)

[thawrecka]

What a cute kitty!

[melannen]

So cute!

[umadoshi]

Happy gotcha day to you both! *^^*

Shellicle Cat! *glee*

[melannen]

She's very the wrong colors for a Jellicle Cat, but fortunately that's what she isn't.

[marginaliana]

Best Cat! Re: music - have you heard this album? Seems like it might be in the right area.

[melannen]

No but we will have to try it!

[cesy]

Aww :)

[melannen]

:3

[vriddy]

Adorable :D

[melannen]

You're right!

[isis]

What a beauty! Definitely needs more treats, though.

[melannen]

The vet says she needs more of the dental treats, she thinks she needs more of the fresh salmon steak. We're negotiating.

[runpunkrun]

Happy Shellyversary!

[melannen]

Thanks!

[dhampyresa]

What a very excellent kitty!

Have you tried rubbing her belly while going "belly belly belly" to the tune of the Pink Panther?

[melannen]

I have not! She actually does not show off her belly very often, so I treasure all the opportunities I get for rubs.

[skygiants]

omg she loves lounge music?! that's one of the cutest things I've ever heard

[melannen]

It is! She's so good.

[china_shop]

Awwww, she's gorgeous! Yay Shelly! (That's adorable about the music. Hee!)

[melannen]

She's the prettiest!

[kiezh]

A very excellent cat! Charming and delightful and extremely photogenic.

My cat Samantha also pays attention to my music and has opinions about it; she especially likes female singers with low-key instrumentation, which fortunately I have a lot of in my music collection. If something loud and full of electric guitars comes up on shuffle when she was listening to the speakers, she'll look annoyed and wander off. Voices and acoustic instruments only, please!

It really surprised me at first; I've had cats who were interested in me singing before (and wanted to examine my throat and mouth to see what exactly I was doing), but none but Sam who expressed Opinions about music from speakers. Some cats are just more musical, I guess! Like your lovely Shelly, who knows what she likes. :D

[melannen]

It is really interesting! I tried to casually look up the science on cats and music, but all I got was people trying to sell "Music for cats" (which didn't even mention Pink Panther.)

[lokifan]

What a gorgeous girl! And awww at her liking the Pink Panther theme, so cute!