IGNAZ/ MAURICE

My experience with a cat named Maurice.

In the spring of this year, a new friend came into my life. Actually I knew him a bit longer but he did not stayed with me. A little friend on whose example you can see, it's never too late to change anything. Even cats can do so.

Where should i start? Maurice was not even called Maurice before he came to me. His name was Ignaz. Not avery nice name and so you can certainly imagine that only a few liked it. This could also explain why many where approaching perhaps with less sympathy for the cat.

But on the other hand Maurice/ Ignaz was a bit of a challenge, a fighter cat in the truest sense of the words.

Many where afraid of him. If you came to him to quickly, or even less than a half meter, so was attacking his best defense. He not only screamed loudly, he struck it.

No wonder that there where just little few who could get along with the cat. But now, back to the roots........................................................

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Maurice is born in Munich 11 years ago somewhere in that town. My friend who was the first to have this cat found him in a dark Basement. Left alone and about 8 weeks old. No family was in sight no one who was missing a cat. So he kept him and took him home. He gave him the name Ignaz and still I don't know why... at turns out very soon that the cat has some unusual ways to act but in the beginning it just didn't seem to be a big problem. With the time it became clearer that it was maybe a bit of a challenge to deal.

But so was he a fighter too... after all he was little and alone and had not much to eat when he was found- he survived year after year and then my friend moved to Berlin and so the cat.

...

You know, cats don't like it much to move from one place to another but they can deal with a lot so moving to Berlin and living in different places here - he was dealing gooooood with it.

But he was still not easy to be with together... not a cat to play with, or to have fun with a lot. He never really liked other people then my friend who saved him. He never accepted a scratching tree, never has eaten grass for cats or even let himself stroking from other people and so he never liked other animals around him, not even cats.

But then I get to know him and from the very first sight we had fights and he found someone in me which he started to respect cos I never let him go with what he has done. So everything got a response and a lot of these- no... he didn't really liked it but he learned ....

....and then my friend from Munich needed someone to take care of his cat

..and so I was a cat sitter... two times for a couple of weeks and yes on of these two times I lived with him together...
But how does he came to me then? Well my dear friend fell in Love... and two people sometimes want to live together but Ignaz/ Maurice could not live together with other cats and yes my friends companion has already been with three cats. So.. one against three. And because I was the only one who could deal with such a cat, I got asked if I could... mmh you know..

Finally I sad yes and though I could try and maybe this cat will be a lovely one at the end.

To make a long story short.... I made it.... a new name, a new home, new rules and I got the best example how a cat can change....

Well it was a challenge I was not sure in the beginning I could win or something like that but now this wild Tiger became a cuddly cat, well not exactly but very near to that...

But, unfortunately, showed up on time, that my apartment was too small for us two, and I developed an allergic reaction to it. Sad but true, he needed a new home and I was so afraid I have to leave him at the animal shelter. It turns out on the way that Berlin has much to many cats without a home. No matter where I was looking... full house.

How lucky I was when I heard of a man who said he will try with a second cat. Well I said, it's always worth a try, because Maurice now was different to what he was then. So after eleven weeks living at my place he came in a transport box (which he never done before because he never was able to get in) to a new home with more space and another cat.

... and... he was so calm and nice and lovely... took this new home so ... well it was still much of a surprise he had no problem with an other cat and and the days after it shows he was able to stay there and... he came to you, never run away like before, never screamed and stroking was not a problem at all and he also took the scratching tree and eat grass for cats... I was doing god, so he was too...

But live goes on and you plan to visit him from time to time but somehow it never really came to be more than two times.

Now I heard that he has died a couple of days ago... maybe it was a heart attack but that doesn't matter....

... and yes I am a little bit sad now... he was just a few weeks a guest in my home, but I loved him, not really from the beginning but with the time we spend together...

...so my dear Maurice rest in Peace...

R.I.P Ignaz/ Maurice 2000-2011

LOVE & LIGHT