Pet of the Month! Charlie!

Charlie is a beautiful 2-Year-Old Ragdoll, who is an attention-grabber with his big beautiful blue eyes.

Charlie unfortunately had to have an emergency Ex-Laparotomy, as he had eaten some Christmas ribbon, which meant he had to have emergency surgery.

1.      What are Charlie’s favourite thing to do?

Charlie loves to disrupt the household. He causes mayhem just for fun! His favourite thing in life is to drag ‘Grump’ (his favourite soft toy) around. He’s got loads of toys but loves Grump!

He also loves to be outside in the patio watching the birds, there are 2 pigeons that sit and tease him throughout the day. Also the next door neighbour’s cat will come over and through the window they will ‘bop’ each other. Another thing he thoroughly enjoys is to drag my other cat Ted around.  

2.     What do you enjoy about Charlie?

The chaos that he brings to the house - his naughtiness makes us laugh! We don’t know what he’s going to do day to day, so he keeps us on our toes throughout the day.

Now a new thing we have discovered is if you praise him when he’s done something wrong, he loves it, he is so cheeky. When we praise him, it distracts him from being naughty which is probably not the right thing to do but it works, he just brings so much light to the house he is definitely a character.

Charlie is the boss of the other cats, but the eldest cat isn’t fazed by Charlie and just lets him carry on. He’s also hilariously talkative amongst us all. If my other cat comes down for breakfast, Charlie will give you verbal ‘attitude’ and tell you off. I find it difficult to tell him off because he is so funny.

3.     How did you know Charlie was unwell?

Charlie threw up some ribbon, I was holding onto it whilst he was being sick, so he knew he had swallowed something. He also felt cold and was lethargic which is totally unlike him, as he is normally such a crazy character you could tell he was out of sorts. When I spoke to someone at the James Horner Vets, they had told me to bring him straight down especially him being out of character and that’s what I did.

4.     How were you affected by Charlie’s surgery procedure and recovery period?

I was absolutely distraught. Everyone at the vets knew what a bad state I was in; I couldn’t stop crying and felt like I needed therapy to deal with it all! After the surgery I couldn’t relax until Charlie had been to the toilet (passed his first stool!), a bit like when you have a newborn baby and wait for them to go. It was a huge road to recovery but thankfully he has made it through and has gone back to his usual self, if not naughtier.

5. Did/have you made any lifestyle changes to prevent this from happening again?

I’m unsure where Charlie got the ribbon from to begin with but have now made sure that there is nothing within reach of him or his brothers. The doors are now all closed including the bathroom.

Nothing is off limit with Charlie, he will try and get it even if it puts his life at risk, he has no sense at all. Especially of a night-time I check all around the house now it has become a routine, and when people come round, I make sure none of them have anything that Charlie could get his paws on as I don’t want to go through the same trauma we have just been through!