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The Sweets aka Little Softie

December 19th, 2012

Last week, a few people asked about The Sweets, our little half feral garage cat. She made the move with us, with flying colors thanks to those Thundershirts! I had half tamed her before our trip and she’s become even more tame afterwards. She’ll even sit in my lap now (every now and then). She’s really good about letting me pet her, though she still won’t let Mr Chiots pet her very often (unless he’s the bearer of a chicken wing or some food for her).
Sweets 6
This little cat is really worth her weight in gold, we’re so glad her mama brought her to Chiot’s Run so long ago. She’s a valuable part of our family, one of the only pets actually earning her keep. If you’ve never heard her amazing survival story, check out A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Sweets 3
She gets the HUGE garage all to herself and she seems to love it. She’s claimed the upstairs as her domain. We leave a side window open for her to come and go as she pleases. Back in Ohio we had a pet door in the garage for her.
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She’s been such a great outdoor cat. Back in Ohio she kept our gardens free of moles and chipmunks and our garage free of mice. So far it looks like she’s being a great mouser here as well, I often see her hunting mice around the chicken coop. Perhaps a cat door into the storage area of that building will help keep any mice out of the chicken food.
Sweets 1
Funny thing about this little black cat, we didn’t give her a proper name because she was a garage cat and we didn’t want to get attached. We started off calling her “Little Softie” but then she earned the nickname “The Sweets” because of her personality. We really do love her and are certainly glad she’s here in Maine with us.

Do you have nicknames for your pets?

20 Comments to “The Sweets aka Little Softie”
  1. Andrea on December 19, 2012 at 5:55 am

    Our neighbor had a stray cat that she named Charlie and he spent lots of time at our house. When she moved this past summer, Charlie stayed at us. He loves doing as he pleases and is a really good cat to have for the same reasons as The Sweets.

    He thinks he can kill anything. I’ve seen him with squirrels 1/2 the size of him in his mouth and has tried more than once to get my chickens and wild turkeys! So our nickname for him is Charlie Manson!

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  2. Maybelline on December 19, 2012 at 7:58 am

    Do Dos, the Devil Cat, Mister, Buba, Friend

    Reply to Maybelline's comment

  3. kristin @ going country on December 19, 2012 at 9:26 am

    I call our cat The Devil Cat more than anything else. She is not a favorite of mine.

    I’d be careful of a cat door where you store chicken food. EVERYTHING wants to eat chicken food, and a door like that would be perfect for, say, a raccoon. Bad news.

    Reply to kristin @ going country's comment

  4. SusieB on December 19, 2012 at 9:39 am

    Aw that’s so wonderful you brought her with you! Growing up I lived near a canyon where a lot of animals would come through, and all the cats we adopted were from the backyard. My mom is the master of nicknames — I’m pretty sure all our cats are required to have at least 3 names.

    I just got my own cat for the first time earlier this year. Her official name is Sabrina but I usually call her Bean. Honestly, I don’t know if she knows her name that well…

    I’m definitely going to take note of that Thundershirt. My cat HATES being taken anywhere, so whenever she moves with me I will have to try that out!

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  5. Jaye on December 19, 2012 at 9:59 am

    Yes! All of our pets have nicknames, what’s up with that?? Haha! Why don’t we just name them what we call them :)

    The Sweets sure is beautiful!

    I’m happy everyone in your pet family is adjusting well to their new home.

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  6. Joan on December 19, 2012 at 10:04 am

    Every one of our many critters has multiple names – Molly is Molly moo, Moo moo, Miss Moo, Black Dog (though she doesn’t know this one – it’s what we use to refer to her when we don’t want her to know we’re talking about her), Sandy is White Dog (same reason!), Sandy Sue, Sweetie, Pretzel dog (because she can contort her body in ways that no other dog would dream of!), Police Dog (because she thinks she needs to maintain order and gets mad at Molly or Pirate when we correct them for anything!). Pirate is Cat cat, Piraticat, Mr. Bigglesworth… I won’t get into all the outside critter names but the horse and chickens all have multiple ones too!

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    • Susy on December 19, 2012 at 1:46 pm

      HA – love that they have secret names so they don’t know you’re talking about them. We have to change Lucy’s secret name along with other words like “walk” “ride” etc because she quickly learned how to spell and picks up what we’re talking about.

      LOVE hearing all the names you have for them since I’ve met them before.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  7. Misti on December 19, 2012 at 10:20 am

    Our ferals had to get names because there were so many of them, and there are two red ones so that would have been difficult. Some of them are becoming friendlier, mostly when it is food time too, but others are skittish and prefer to chat with me in meows via five feet away.

    Has The Sweets tried to do anything to your birds yet? (chickens, ducks) I’m curious because I’m wary of getting chickens because of our ferals.

    Reply to Misti's comment

    • Susy on December 19, 2012 at 1:48 pm

      Nope, the Sweets and Dexter have a healthy fear of the chickens and ducks. They would watch the ducklings from a distance, but never really bothered them. Though we did keep a close watch when the ducks were small and would have been easy prey for the cats. Now the chickens and the ducks will chase the cats if they get too close to them.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  8. Deb on December 19, 2012 at 11:13 am

    Over thge yeara dozens have lived here and had names. if I cna poet them they have names, even some I’ve never touched, but 90% of them are called by their given name. No sense in confusing them. Mine will come almost 100% of the time when clled even a stray dump off that I just named a month ago. Too many names would be very confusing I’d think, so we stick with their names given to them when first named. Great cat. Ours get well fed and still most are very good hunters. One outside one is very old and doesn’t hunt anymore, but 2 are excellent. Another recent dump off is older too and I haven’t seen him hunting but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t. I wouldn’t put a cat door in a feed room either for the fact that predators such as coons can get in very tiny places and might ruin all. Let the cat hunt outside and put traps inside. Sweet cat, great you moved her. Glad she didn’t try to go back home to Ohio. Many times cats will try to “go HOme”.

    Reply to Deb's comment

  9. Sincerely, Emily on December 19, 2012 at 11:37 am

    I am so glad to hear the The Sweets made the move well. I seem to have many nicknames for our kitties.

    Reply to Sincerely, Emily's comment

  10. Melanie in Ca on December 19, 2012 at 11:43 am

    I’m so glad The Sweets has settled in so nicely! We have a feral cat named Portia because she is our porch cat and a feral bobtail named, of course, Bob. The Great Danes all have nicknames: Princess is Boodle (no idea where that came from, it just popped out one day and she responds to it as well as to her given name). Orlando is Oley and sometimes Oley Moley. And Stella, who is deaf, is Stella Bella, Baby Girl and The Baby as she is the youngest. Housecat Agnew is Aganaganew and often Catitude for obvious reasons.

    Misti – we have two named ferals and two others and they have never bothered the chickens (bantams and full size) even when they were tiny fluffball chicks.

    Reply to Melanie in Ca's comment

  11. Sue on December 19, 2012 at 11:54 am

    Our border collie is Dakota…aka Koda, Poadster, Koadster. Our big boy kitty is Jake, aka Jakester. Our little tortie girl kitty is Penny, aka Penny Girl, Girl, Pennster, and Bunny because she’s the size of a bunny and as soft. Funny how we all nickname our pets! Loved your podcast; we listen every week.

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  12. whit on December 19, 2012 at 12:34 pm

    A heartwarming story, Ms. Sweets is. I am so happy you were able to grab her before you moved. We have the same situation with our barn cat…our county gives feral cats away to people in need of mousers, as long as certain requirements are met. That is how we adopted her. We named her Rosie, after Teddy Roosevelt (my hubbie had just finished reading the trilogy of books about him.) Rosie was totally skittish in Feb when we got her, but thanks to tuna fish and patience, she’s following me everywhere i go and helps put the chickens to bed every night. :) Last night was the first night she asked for petting! :) I think i’ve won her over. Last week, she let my daughter play with her and pet her. Feral cat, my foot! :) For Hubs tho, she’s still keeping up the feral act.

    We are guilty of naming and nicknaming everything here. We’ve finally succumbed to the idea that we can’t name anything that isn’t a pet. We just lost my daughter’s show Polish hen, Fro, to some wild critter. It’s hard not to get attached, but boy, once you do, it really stings when something happens.

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  13. Donna B. on December 19, 2012 at 12:56 pm

    Sweets~ I’m happy to see another post about her – and what a beautiful cat she’s grown to be!
    Honestly, that shot of her walking away from the duck made me smile… it’s almost like “Ugh, not YOU again!

    Nicknames? Oh lordy… I could write a book with all the names I call my dogs. Their names are simply Cecil and Charlotte… but I call them Dipper-doo and Marble, Dipper-dee and Honey-bear, Cee-cee and Blarblarbl, Nips and Uggee… I could go on and on… :D

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  14. Angela on December 19, 2012 at 1:04 pm

    She’s beautiful! I love her story.

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  15. kirsten on December 19, 2012 at 2:40 pm

    We have two dogs – formally named Cody and Burton. They answer to an abundance of nicknames though…

    Cody: Co-diggity, Roo, Roo-dogger
    Burton: Stubs/Stubby, Bug/Buggy, Bunny-Butt, Nugget, Stink Bug

    Yes, we’re crazy people.

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  16. glenda on December 19, 2012 at 3:41 pm

    I’m very impressed with the efforts made toward moving the cats. You didn’t leave the semi feral behind!! Love when you write about the cats.

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  17. Mich on December 19, 2012 at 5:44 pm

    Glad the Sweets has settled in so well & is busy earning her chicken wings :)
    Our GSD bitch is called Ella but is aka Bel-bel, and minxy.
    The 4 outdoor/farm cats are named but no nick names…although they do get called some choice names when I have yet more rodent entrails on the doorstep, or the odd pair of rabbit trousers! Lol.

    Reply to Mich's comment

  18. Mrs. Mac on December 21, 2012 at 10:15 pm

    A small stray cat turned up at my back door during a snow storm earlier this week. It doesn’t seem wild .. and enjoys being indoors .. sits on laps, uses a litter box .. and loves my special needs son. Unless someone miraculously claims her/him .. we’re keeping the cat (and I’m not a cat person). We haven’t decided on a name .. but are tossing up ‘boots, mitsy, Top Cat .. I currently just call it Kitty.

    Reply to Mrs. Mac's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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