Chilly Diva

Princess Diva is a Cat Who Walks By Herself.  She’s a true “I Vant to be Alone” Garbo-cat – disdaining the company of lesser felines, and occasionally bestowing her dignified attention on a suitably humble human.

Sometimes I sits and thinks.. and sometimes I just sits..   MW

Most of Diva’s time is spent outside in Pen 1; she can occasionally be found up on the roof, but she quite enjoys the dog-houses at the back, and she really loves the little bed that was put up for her.

From up on the roof she can look down on lesser beings! - KN

Sometimes she puts on her cat-blinkers and makes her way into the Double-Wide, where she will sit on the back of the couch and watch the comings and goings in the parking lot, occasionally accepting the homage that is due from staff and volunteers.

Diva has her own little bed - LBF

She’s a beautiful girl, but because she lives outside so much of the time, and disdains being groomed, she does get a bit matted occasionally.  She was actually doing OK in the early summer, when Smithy, Dell and a couple of others got lion-cuts, but we noticed recently that the mats were back, and she was taken in for a beauty treatment (under light sedation, which is the only way possible with Diva!)

Shorn and itchy - LBF

Beauty it was NOT!  Apparently they found that the mats couldn’t easily be removed, and they ended up giving her a full lion cut, as the only way to solve the problem.

OK in the sunshine - but it gets chilly! - LBF

Given BC’s usual fall temperature, that shouldn’t have posed any difficulties, but we’ve had the coldest early fall ever. The med staff and Diva’s human fans sprang into action with a variety of little sweaters for her to wear.

This is a Diva purrito - LBF

Unfortunately, she was Not Amused by them, and all volunteers need to keep an eye open for little discarded garments in the back pens, which have to be washed and kept on hand in the Diva pile.  She does seem to have had the sense to move into the warmth of the cabin in Pen 1, taking over an entire block of shelves, and relegating “the boys” to the opposite side of the room.

Safe and cozy on her shelf - LBF

Diva’s people are keeping a careful eye on her, and she’s getting as much cuddling as she will allow- followed by the inevitable struggles to get a sweater back on her.  By the time she’s got used to it, she will have grown enough fuzz that it may not be so important. And we know that she always has the option of being inside – when she stays out, she’s just being obstinate, as only a cat can be!

Diva proudly making a bold fashion statement - KN

Blog by Brigid Coult

Photos by Lisa Brill-Friesen, Karen Nicholson & Michele Wright