Furry Friends Friday: Swirls and Curls and a Sphynx

It’s Furry Friends Friday, sponsored by Pets Add Life (PAL), whose mission is to spread the joy of multi-pet ownership. We love this mission and we’re here to help!

Each week, we feature a new multi-pet household and today we’re featuring our wonderful friends from the blog Curls and Swirls – a family of three Cornish Rexes and one Sphynx cat. Oh, and a human named Teri. She (thinks) she runs the show.

Teri’s gang consists of the Furrydance Colours Cove (all Cornish Rexes) Coco, girlcat, 7 years old. Furrydance Brighton, aka Bright One, boycat, 6 years old. Angelwaves Undeniably Sentimental aka Sammy, boycat, 11 years old and the lone Sphynx, Majikmoon Disco NoFurNo aka Disco, boy cat, 8 years old.

Teri used to breed Cornish Rexes and Coco and Brighton were born in Teri’s house. Brighton was promised to a home, but he had three leaky heart valves and when Teri spayed his mom after his diagnosis, the couple decided to adopt her instead.

Coco was a momcat for five years and Teri’s favorite girlcat,

As a sidenote, a blogger that Teri follows had lost their boy Cornish Rescue Rex and he looked a lot like Coco, and they were grieving, so as hard as it was, Teri let Coco go to live with them. But their resident cats tormented her and so they sent her back to Teri…and Teri says Coco is never leaving there again!

Disco came to live with Teri when her favorite kitty Bo passed away due to HCM and Teri missed having a neutered boycat in the house. Teri still was not over the death of Bo, so she and Disco didn’t really bond…until Teri’s husband passed away in 2007. Now Teri and Disco are very dependent on each other!

Brighton was born shortly after Teri adopted Disco and Teri recently had an animal communicator tell me that he was the incarnation of Bo…Teri says she believes that.

Sammy was a former daddycat who is now trying to acclimate with the rest of Teri’s cat family.

As a breeder, Teri always strove for companion cats to share her life, so only had one male and two females most of the time. “I always had in my mind that one person/three cats was an ideal number,” she says. “But one person/four cats feels right, now too.”

Teri says the benefit of a multi pet household is because she believes cats like the stimulation of companion cats, but they need to be of similar temperaments and personalities. As Teri says, “ I happen to have two very social breeds of cats and while I think most girl cats would prefer to be queen of the house, I love boycats’ silly, loving personalities, too. All my cats enjoy each other’s company, just not 100% of the time, hahameow!”

Teri’s household of cats get along very well, she says, because they are of similar temperament. But when Teri’s husband passed away, Disco went through almost two years of behavior issues-spraying and urinating outside the litter box. Teri feels he missed the extra attention of having two people in the house. But with the help of a behaviorist and anxiety meds, he now is happy and carefree and behaving. Teri’s so glad I figured out what he needed to be happy!

Teri believes that cats communicate with each other and even if not close, they do depend on each other for environmental stimulation and enrichment. Since Teri is away at work many days for 12 hours, she is less anxious knowing the cats have each other to snuggle and socialize with.

Teri, I would be so sad without Pugsley to keep me company when the staff is gone. I agree with you! Thanks so much for sharing your story! xo, R