Cleo, the loving diva
Cleo (female)
Breed
Unknown, black and white
Date of Birth
September 2018
Health
No issues. FIV/FELV Negative; current with vaccines and deworming; blood tested in last year’s checkup.
Habitat
Indoors. Looking for a home with no other cats or children.
Personality
Cleo is the loveliest pet you will ever meet (including dogs). Her life mission is to love you and be pampered by you. She craves human attention and physical contact. She is a shoulder cat and she takes that role with utmost seriousness. She always allows you to pick her up, often initiating it herself by lifting her two front legs like a baby, begging you to do so. If she feels neglected, she will try to jump on you, which she always manages to do very smoothly.
Cleo prefers to sit and sleep on top of you, from head to legs, accommodating herself anywhere around your body and staying there for hours. Like Frankie, she adores being under covers with you, especially in winter, as she tends to get cold easily (she is, after all, a desert cat!). Cleo is more nervous than Frankie and gets scared more easily, but she warms up faster to new people, especially if they offer her cuddles and a lap to lie on.
Cleo is extremely gentle in her interactions with humans, to the extent that she allows our newborn baby to pet her. If he grabs her too harshly, she simply meows at him and walks away. Cleo loves to be kissed on her face and have her eyes gently rubbed. In return, she will lick your eyelashes and give you heartfelt head bumps against your face. Having been bottle-fed from 2 weeks of age until she was over 3 months old, she truly treats humans like family.
For such a gentle kitty, Cleo has a very shrill voice and a strong purr. Besides being a purring machine, Cleo is very vocal, expressing her likes and dislikes clearly, making her an easy cat to read. She follows commands and responds to her name when called. She can meow very loudly when she wants food (rightfully so, as she only does it when she is starving) and is particularly talkative when she plays. Generally, Cleo is a calm cat, but a couple of times a day she needs to release her energy. When she does, her tail becomes spunky, and she chirps, meows, and her pupils dilate.
Cleo has a very strong bond with Frankie, on whom she dotes for everything. From the moment they met, Cleo has mothered him, continuing to groom him daily. They play together several times a day, involving wrestling, chasing, jumping around, and teasing each other. Although they do so energetically, they have never broken anything. Cleo also enjoys napping a lot with Frankie, especially in the mornings if there’s a sunny spot in the house. Cleo loves to be in human company but she does just fine when you leave to a great extent because she has Frankie next to her.
Toys
Cleo is full of energy but she also has a remarkable amount of patience. She delights in playing hide-and-seek, and thoroughly enjoys any interaction that involves you. While Cleo is gentle and knows not to bite hard when playing with your hands, her favorite playthings include strings, ribbons, objects with a crunchy texture, and plastic twirls. Additionally, she has a fondness for catnip plants and catnip sticks.
Diet
Cleo loves Frankie’s diet so she is eating the same, which is also safer for Frankie as he is quick at stealing food. This is a main diet of raw meat (rabbit or turkey) with complementary hypoallergenic dry food or dry fish for snacks.
Crate
Cleo is great at traveling in the crate. She and Frankie flew from Bahrain to France in May 2022, and then traveled from Paris to Barcelona by train. In both instances, she was calm and barely meowed.