Meet Grayson

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Grayson is a Russian Blue. He is almost eight years old. His nickname is “Gray Gray” because sometimes he can be a little “Cray Cray”. We rescued him and his four other siblings who were living in a little park near where my wife worked. She could see them romping and playing and then if things looked dicey the litter’s mom would lead them into a storm drain pipe that was nearby. My wife knew that they were in a very dangerous area with a very busy street nearby.

Over the next couple of weeks she was able to use our live trap and trap everybody, but the mom cat. She was never able to trap and rescue mom. Some cats are just too smart or paranoid to get caught. One of the other ladies that worked in the office wanted two of the kittens for herself. This left two males and two female kittens about 6 weeks old.

We were able to find a family for one of the males right away and then had Grayson, Layla, and Teela left. After a couple of weeks we found a home for Teela and another adult rescue we had at the same time, His name was Malibu and he just loved Teela. Malibu was great with all three kittens, but we could tell that Teela and Malibu were quite close and Grayson and Layla were very close. We decided to try and find homes for both sets of kitties so they would each have a buddy to be with from the start.

We found homes for both sets fairly soon. Malibu and Teela went first and then a week or two later Grayson and Layla were delivered to their new forever home … or so we thought. After about a month or so the family that adopted Grayson and Layla called us and said that they were pretty much just living in a closet and were not coming out or interacting very much at all. They wanted us to come get them. We were very disappointed that they did not call us earlier so we could have tried to help the situation. Once we realized things were not going well we went and picked them up right away. It seemed like the husband and wife were having some issues and the house just seemed way more stressful than when we did the initial home check prior to the adoption.

We rarely have returns since we are so very picky with all of our rescues. We felt bad about the rough start these two had. we made sure that they had their own large bedroom to hang out in and to get reacclimated to our house and other pets. They did start out just staying in the closet, but they did remember me and we soon bonded again. My wife and I just decided to keep them and try to make up for the bad match up we put them in.

It took awhile, but they gradually got more comfortable and began to venture out to other parts of the house and became more comfortable with our other cats and dogs. They both were really attached to me from that point on and are now my shadows.

Although both are still kind of shy Grayson definitely has come out of his shell more than his sister. One of the things that helped Grayson become more confident is he made very close friends with another cat Monkey.

This is one of the first times that Monkey met his soon to be BFF! Monkey is really the Alpha pack leader of the cats. Everybody liked Monkey and he liked everybody back. The only exception were any of the cats that were shy and timid. Monkey was not mean, but he did have quite a sense of humor. His version of humor did include chasing and teasing the more timid cats on occasion. This was discouraged, but still happened from time to time.

Needless to say I was a bit surprised he took Grayson under his wing, but they seemed to click right away. This was so helpful to Grayson since Monkey was so popular Grayson got exposed to the other cats relatively quickly and since Monkey was the leader NOBODY messed with his buddy Grayson. Grayson figured this out pretty fast and now he could just be himself and not have to worry about noises, shadows, and other cats or dogs.

Their bond became very strong very fast. They were practically inseparable.

I have never seen such a tight bond between two cats that weren’t related or that did not grow up together. Monkey is two years older. Grayson missed cat etiquette school growing up and has a tendency to scare off or stress out most other cats after hanging near them for just a short time. Monkey keeps him in line.

Grayson is just a big, goofy, dorky cat that just likes to hang out, nap, be with friends or me, and get in some playtime. One of his favorite games is to run throughout the house jumping over furniture, dogs, and other cats. He really likes to do this if another cat will chase him or be chased by him, but he will do this crazy activity even by himself. He also loves playing with the giant fish, the purple ball stack toy, and the bouncy sponge balls for cats.

Grayson also loves cuddling and hanging with his sister Layla. She puts up with his antics for awhile before she leaves.

Grayson will just follow me around like a puppy. He meows if I am in the bathroom or office and he is shut outside. He does not like when the shower is on so then he does not throw a fit. He also likes to lay in my lap when I am watching tv. One of his biggest challenges is that he is so large he has trouble fitting in or on things that the other cats like to lay on. He is not fat, just big and heavy. When he lays on my chest for very long it can be a challenge to breath. I told my wife I think he is not a pure breed Russian Blue because I think he has some Clydesdale horse in his family tree!

Unfortunately, we lost Monkey to cancer awhile back. I was devastated and poor Grayson was completely lost. He started keeping even closer to me and gradually started trying to find other friends to hang out with.

Initially, after Monkey’s passing Grayson kind of took a step back and was more shy than usual. I gave him a lot of extra attention and he started fitting in with other pet friends too. He has never quite returned to his same happy self, but Grayson seems to be doing better now. He also is getting more used to solo from time to time too.

Apparently, he has even started his own local business!

Grayson is not the brightest cat we have ever had. He does frequently get into trouble in numerous creative ways, but he is my buddy and we spend a lot of time together. I did promise Monkey I would watch over Grayson so that he wouldn’t have to worry. I do enjoy hanging out with him so much and he does make me laugh too.

I hope you enjoyed meeting Grayson. Please check back for other cat intros in the future.