Meet our cat Maurice!

Maurice will soon be two years old. He is a “domestic” breed cat, but based on his behavior and physical appearance, we believe it is very possible that he is a mix of Bengal and American Shorthair. We plan to do a DNA test soon to know exactly his origins!

He is a very curious young boy: he is afraid of almost nothing, except the vacuum cleaner! As soon as he hears a sound or noise that he does not recognize, he runs to see what it could be.

He loves being up high (yes, he always climbs on the counters and the kitchen table). It is (unfortunately) very common that we find him at the top of the mosquito net, caught there screaming for help. He has a love love for our plants, after which we had to install them very high up to prevent him from lying in them, scratching in the soil or ingesting them.

He likes to find hiding places in completely unusual places to take naps, so it happens quite often that we don't know where he is and have to look for him for hours (of course, it's always when he hides in these places that he doesn't come when we call him).

Maurice also has this funny habit of scratching the floor before drinking from his water fountain. We read somewhere that this is a natural behavior for felines and that they do this to make sure that the place where they are about to drink is safe. It's always very funny to see him scratching the kitchen floor.

Of course, with his big personality, Maurice is very vocal. As soon as we get home from work, he runs to greet us and meows non-stop while rubbing against our legs until we pick him up. He doesn’t hesitate to tell us to open the patio door so he can go and feel his whiskers in the fresh air outside.

Maurice also has the strangest way of washing himself: he sits on his behind and stretches his hind legs as far as they will go, curling up on himself to wash his lower belly (pictured).

Basically, Maurice is a real clingy cat. As soon as someone is in the house, he will follow that person from one room to another and stay there as long as we are. He demands a lot of attention and affection, until he doesn’t want it anymore! It happens a lot that we are busy in the kitchen and he establishes camp right behind our feet, so we stumble on him quite often. We are sure that if he could talk, he would never admit his love for us (he is too proud, you see).

His story:

Phil and I were looking for a little furry creature to give a loving home to. We searched all the shelter websites near our house.

We finally came across the page of a little boy about 1 year old who had been left in a shelter called Proanima in the city of Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu. On his profile, little Maurice (who was called Zeus at the time) was exactly what we were looking for. A curious, affectionate and social cat. It was even written that he was the shelter employees’ favorite! Luckily for us, he was in perfect health.

So we applied for the chance to meet him. We were contacted a few hours later by the shelter to make an appointment for the next day. Needless to say, we were very excited to finally meet him! I got busy shopping right away for everything we would need to welcome him.

The next morning, we went to the shelter. When we met him, Maurice was very sociable with us. We opened his little metal cage and he was purring like a motor! We also had the crush that the shelter employees were talking about.

We then finalized the paperwork and left the shelter with Maurice.

The first few weeks were, of course, full of adaptation, both on our side and on Maurice's. However, we began to notice behaviors in him that let us know his stress level: excessive licking, excessive scratching, unpredictable aggression. We were taken by surprise, since Maurice was no longer as affectionate as when he arrived and we wanted him to feel comfortable in our home!

We tried several things: ignoring his aggressive behavior, brushing him more often, giving him more space, being very careful not to make sudden movements around him, giving him as much attention as possible as soon as he asked for it. Despite this, we had not noticed any improvement in his behavior.

We talked about the situation to Julie, who was formerly the owner of Polocats. She sent us one of her Hawaiian shirts and mentioned that the clothes sometimes have a calming effect on some cats. Since we were at the point where we were talking about consulting for medication, we had nothing left to lose and we said to ourselves: why not!

The rest, you already know: we fell in love with the product. We found our affectionate and sociable cat again. We were even able to experience spending a full night with Maurice in our bed without being woken up dozens of times!