Cats and Other Animals — Gandalf the Grey

Gandalf the Grey came into our lives in early 2012, soon after our lovely Dilly left for kitty heaven.

Dilly

Our other adoptee, Taffy, began to seriously grieve for Dilly right after he passed, and was actually going off her food, and wandering around looking down and depressed.

Taffy, a week after Dilly left us.

So we began to keep an eye out for another needy cat.

One day I decided to drop in to the local animal rescue and there, in the cat section, I met Mr. G.

Gandalf at the animal adoption place. I called to him, then opened the cage door, and here he is trying to figure out how to safely get down. Check out the sneaky feline paw in far left pic.

Gandalf (or Big Papa Smurf as he was known) figured out how to climb down and right away jumped onto my knee and started to purr.

There really wasn’t much of a decision there. I called home, said I’d found a potential candidate (I had to take him to the vet and get him checked for Feline Leukemia before taking him home.)

I filled in the appropriate paperwork and learned that he had only recently come in, and that his former owner was elderly and unwell and had been taken to a nursing home, and that the family had chosen to dump Gandalf at the shelter rather than take him in themselves.

He was displeased at being placed in a cat carrier and vocalized loudly all the way to the vet. Thankfully they were able to run the test on him and gave him the all clear so I took him home.

According to the usual directives on how to integrate new pets into the household, we gated Taffy and Tessa (the dog) to allow Gandalf to check out his new surroundings.

He strolled around, first coming over to the babygate behind which Taffy sat. He made friendly overtures, she hissed. He left. Next he checked out Tessa. Nothing exciting happened. They just stared at each other.

Tessa stares at Gandalf.

After doing a bit more checking of rooms, Gandalf found my office and came and positioned himself right behind my chair and there he stayed until it was pet feeding time.

Gandalf spent the afternoon holed up behind my chair.

The first thing we noticed about Gandalf was how very quiet, friendly and laid back he was.

That night at bedtime, we gated Taffy in one room, brought Tessa into our room which is where she usually slept, and placed a baby gate across the door. This way we figured Gandalf would be free to continue checking out the house.

Gandalf sat outside our room and howled horribly for a long time until we let him in. He walked over to Tessa’s bed, sniffed, decided she was no threat.

He then jumped onto our bed, walked up between us and settled behind our heads, like that was where he had always been.

I should explain about the name change from Big Papa Smurf to Gandalf the Grey. First, we didn’t really like the Big Papa Smurf name. We felt it was long and difficult. Also, Gandalf did not respond to that name. How we came up with Gandalf the Grey, I do not have a clue, but we did, and as soon as we used that name, Gandalf responded to it. So that became his name.

Gandalf with an old sock.

We found that Gandalf was really persistent in his efforts to make friends with Taffy. Eventually, he convinced Taffy that he was an okay buddy, and here they are, a month after he joined the household.

Gandalf and Taffy in the window.

Taffy is a bit annoyed with him for being pushy, but he just stares back.

We quickly learned that Gandalf spends half his waking time cleaning and the other half playing. The other thing that we found out is that he is a Russian Blue. Apparently they have a double coat, very pleasant dispositions and are incessant cleaners.

Gandalf demonstrates how to clean your knee, and next how much he loves a ratty old rolled up sock to wrasstle with.

In the spirit of frequent cleaning, Gandalf lives to be brushed.

Gandalf getting brushed. The Teeshirt in the background has a graphic of Dilly with 300 style helmet and the words Never Retreat Never Surrender

Here, almost a year after arriving, Gandalf is in the window with Taffy, but they are quite relaxed. She seems to be using his tail like a scarf.

Gandalf and Taffy in the window.

Gandalf and Taffy sharing the beanbag cat bed.

In the above photo, Gandalf had been with us almost three years.

Bruce makes a superhuman effort to tote both cats

As time passed, the pets seemed to be more and more at home. Gandalf had bonded to me and annoyed Tessa in that regard. He likes to follow me around the house and if I decide to lay down and take a nap, Gandalf is right there to keep me company.

Gandalf decides Taffy isn’t thorough enough at cleaning herself so takes over, but has to stop to have a quick self-clean.

A prolific self cleaner, Gandalf became a huge Taffy cleaner. Mostly she liked it, but sometimes a little hiss-a-thon would occur, and occasionally if tempers became too frayed, we would have to intervene.

Gandalf quickly learned to recognize the brush, to the point where one of us could pick up the brush, wave it at him and indicate he should jump on our knee so as to get brushed.

Gandalf gets right into the brushing, when done, flops down on his side.

We found out that with cat treats, Gandalf is quite happy to pose.

These last photos are by Bruce M. Walker. We found that if bribed with cat treats, Gandalf will sit and pose wherever you like.

Please note this is a fake plant, so no danger to the animals. A Gandalf kind of Christmas 2015. Photo by Bruce M. Walker