Loki Sleipnir – Ragdoll of the Week

Our 3-year-old male blue point Ragdoll, Loki Sleipnir, was named after both Odin’s companion Loki and his 8-legged horse, Sleipnir. We had already decided to name him Loki (God of Mischief) as we are Marvel fans, but when we looked up his name, we were surprised to find out he was a shapeshifter and not son of the Norse God Odin, but the son of a giant and a goddess (Wikipedia). Loki than had a middle name.

Cat Scans

As it turned out, our Loki, never got into any mischief; however, he “cat-scans” everything, sniffing as though adding to a database. We never saw anything like this. He is fearless and answers the door with us when the bell rings. He sniffs and greets them and then goes back to his business.

I hope his database doesn’t have a limit.

He seemed to have learn 1 cat “trait” a month for the 1st year. A breeder, kept him and his siblings in a separate cage until he adopted us. He never got to learn from his mom. We think he learned from the tv as time went on and, of course, us. Loki watches it with us at night.

Cat Grooming

Which brings up another misconception. Ragdolls do not mat. Well, someone forgot to tell him. We kept up with removing them until we discovered them on his undercarriage. It was almost impossible to get him to hold still, we took Mr. Fab Fur to the vet. The groomer said she wasn’t sure if there was a cat in all that fur but finally found one. Here is his “after” pic. Wow! He’s got feet.

Loki is very possessive of his special personal items and doesn’t like change. Born on September 23, 2018, he is on the cusp of Virgo and Libra; social, high standards, meticulous, materialistic and stubborn.

Cat Tree

I say personal because he thinks everything is his and we are staff. However, his cat tree is extra special, as it is where he “hangs” most of the time.

When we brought him home, at 3 months, my husband placed him on the scratching rope. He hung there and dropped off and ran, then circled back and climbed it on the run. When he got to the curved carpet part, he managed to negotiate his way over the lip. It appeared as though he thought he achieved a great triumph because he stood there like he was on Mt. Everest and looked so proud. He then hopped down on the end table, sofa and the floor. Phew! We thought he was going to jump off and we stood by to catch. Smart kitty.

His cat tree’s rope needed a section of new rope so my husband was starting to install it until Thunder Thud walked into the room. He walks heavy and you can hear him in the tile floors. Well, you might have thought it was the end of his world the way he reacted. He started meowing and went running over and hung on to it, making it very difficult to continue repair.

It was a tug of war until he got the urge to scratch it.

When it was finished and before it could be put back in place, he settled in and “protected” it until it was pre-nap snack time.

Next time, we’ll have wait until his nap, as it increased the repair threefold.

Yes, he has a schedule. At 11 AM he disappears into our bedroom and naps until 5 PM, gets up and plays before dinner then it’s back to bed until dessert time around 9 PM. He wants to be included in every meal, so we have to refresh his food dish by pouring it back, rattling it around and putting down fresh. Then we can eat. He doesn’t eat people food unless it’s a lick or two of butter almond ice cream.

Cat Diet

His diet as a kitten was Hills Advantage Kitten Dry Cat Food and 2 “fishies” of Vetri Lysine Plus Immune System Support (with 250 mg N,N-Dimethylglycine HCl (DMG)).

 It was quite a task getting him off the kitten food.   Because he is food specific, not finicky, he would not give it up and did not like the Hills adult.

Because of a mild health condition which is expected to be resolved, he is currently on Hills Z/D along with the Lysine.

It was recommended that he be on a hydrolyzed (proteins are broken down for easier digestion) cat food. He is a “chicken man” and did not like the recommended top 3. We were able to coax him slowly to eat the Hills z/d and donated the other 6 bags to A Better Life for Cats.

He watches tv with us on his tree until we start to get ready for bed. Then he wants to play, of course, he is rested. After play, one of us goes first and the other 2 watch more tv and then we go to bed. He stays with us for a while on his White Tiger towel and goes back to his tree to sleep. He’s up at daybreak playing in the living room with his toys until we get up or if we sleep past 9 AM he wakes us up.

We were looking for a rescue and gave up because they insisted, we take their playmates. We would consider another, in about a year, after he was trained, so he could be the mentor. One day I decide to give it one more try and a pic of what was supposed to be him showed up. It was an older car. I called. He was an hour away and we brought him home. Loki has brought so much joy into our lives and our neighbors who kitty sits for us. We don’t know what we would do without him. We were meant to be a family.