Kap is a nine-year-old, short hair cat with diabetes. You can say he’s like an old man who just likes to lie around all day, judging the young neighbor cats running around outside who have way too much energy. Kap is usually a quiet boy, only mewing for food when we’ve forgotten that breakfast is at exactly 5:13 am and dinner is at exactly 6:04pm (even though he will try to trick you into thinking he hasn’t been fed for three days if you’re not paying attention). He plays with string on occasion, and for the last six years that he lived with John and his older brother, Tiger (may he rest in peace), Kap has had a very sedentary lifestyle.
Now bring in Franklin, the nine-week-old kitten with two much energy who won’t shut the hell up, and yeah, poor Kap was initially a little stressed out.
The first few days after we adopted Franklin were nerve-wracking. Kap was not a fan. In the two years I have known Kap, I have never heard him hiss no matter how angry or upset he was. He hissed very meanly at Franklin, and Franklin in turn kept his distance. It didn't matter how much Franklin wanted to befriend this new, big cat. He knew on instinct that he had to be patient with his new big brother, and soon the walls Kap put up would come down.
And thankfully, Kap's thick wall of ice did indeed melt, and now the two have become good buddies. Kap is still not the energetic playmate Franklin sometimes wants him to be, only willing to wrestle for about two minutes at a time before walking away, but it is incredibly sweet for me and John to walk into a room and see the two of them laying together, sometimes even going so far as to cuddle.
Kap is really leaning into his big brother/father duties. The biggest being teaching Franklin how to bathe. As Kap is tired a lot of the times from his diabetes and mostly low-energy, he really let himself go in the last year (he was diagnosed November 2022) grooming-wise. When I would pet Kap I could feel how dirty his fur was, and he would shed like crazy all the time. Now it is like a complete 180 for Kap. As he has been teaching Franklin to bathe himself, Kap’s fur has become incredibly soft, smooth, and clean-feeling to the touch. I used to have pretty bad allergies with Kap compared to Tiger, and I now realize it’s because Kap wasn’t bathing himself and taking care of his fur in the way he should have been. And, unfortunately, as John and I are still learning how to take proper care of a diabetic cat, I now know we should have been helping Kap more in the bathing department. A mistake I will not allow us to repeat should Kap stop bathing himself again.
Franklin has also learned to settle down and relax more. He is still meowing like crazy and always wants to be where John and I are, but he knows that when he wants to hang out with Kap he needs to be gentle, be quiet, and be calm. Well, most of the time. Like I said, he does like to wrestle with his big brother, and Kap will sometimes tolerate it for two minutes. Other times when Franklin wants to rough-house with Kap, Kap will flip Franklin on his back and walk away in two seconds, the winner. If Franklin then tries to go for round two, Kap just sits and stares at Franklin, and Franklin backs off- which usually leads to very funny zoomies, but I digress.
The only truly scary moment we had with Kap was about two weeks into adopting Franklin. *GRAPHIC WARNING* Despite wanting to eat and drink, Kap was having liquid diarrhea and was throwing up his food. We really started to panic when we saw there was blood in the diarrhea. *END GRAPHIC WARNING* We took him to the vet and, lo and behold, it turned out that Kap was just incredibly stressed out. Which makes total sense. His older brother, Tiger, doesn’t come home one day, and then a few days later a wild kitten appears! On top of that, John and I are grieving, and John’s mom comes to stay with us for a week to be a light in the darkness that Tiger left when he passed. Add all of that up and it's no wonder we all didn't have the same stress symptoms as poor Kap.
The Vet gave Kap some meds to help with the stress, and after one day we saw incredible improvement. Kap was back to his old self, wanting to eat all the time, play with string on occasion, and sleep on clothes we leave lying on the ground.
And best of all, he’s learning to love and tolerate Franklin a little more day by day. But that still won’t stop Kap from trying to steal Franklin’s food if he doesn’t finish it all, haha.
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