Latte

Latte is our 1 1/2 year old soulful and sensitive tabby boy. Latte has a long and athletic build. He is bigger than his brother and weighed the most in his litter, yet he is very quiet and extremely shy.

Latte is the other half of our bonded boys Latte and Cappuccino. When they were little kittens both Latte and his brother were identical. Every hair matched, every pattern, even their meows were identical. It was a challenge to tell them apart. However, Latte had more muscle tone, so he weighed more than his brother. Of course, I couldn’t get out the scale every time I needed to tell them apart. I could only tell them apart by feeling Latte’s body to feel the extra muscle tone he had over Cappuccino’s slender build. Over time Latte grew a little longer, his face grew a tad wider, the pattern on his tail changed just a bit, and his meow grew a little deeper. Latte and his brother are equally mischievous and their energy matches, yet their personalities are so different. Latte is timid and scares so easily, but he has always taken the role of being the protective big brother to Cappuccino.

Contrary to his brother, Latte has given us several scares. Although Latte is the quiet and shy type, we have learned quickly to never underestimate this boy! You always have to watch the silent ones! ? Latte tends to get himself into the most precarious of situations. Within his first year and half, these are just a few of the Latte predicaments.

• He swallowed an entire Christmas ribbon within seconds. Fortunately, he threw it back up WEEKS later! ? A call to the vet was made, but no appointment needed.
• He got tangled in the pre-lit Christmas tree. He panicked and twisted making the wires even tighter. Thankfully, I was in the room when it happed, but I had to cut the wires of the lights in order to get him out. ? No vet appointment needed, but we had to replace the tree.
• He chewed through a crinkle cat tunnel, and he got stuck in between the layers of the tunnel and the plastic material that makes the crinkle noise. ? Once again, I had to cut him out of the tunnel. No vet appointment needed. The crinkle tunnel was thrown away, and it will not be replaced.
• I have lost count of how many times Latte was chewed on packages of paper towels, bathroom tissue, plastic bags, the window blinds, boxes… You name it, Latte will chew it. We have to hide any and all plastic from Latte. Fortunately, no vet appointments have been needed for his chewing obsession. Knock on wood!

Unfortunately, Latte’s luck did run out a few months ago when he ended up getting a laceration on his front left leg. He was cool, calm and collect about the whole ordeal, but I could not put a bandaid on a cut where is muscle tendons were exposed. Off to the emergency clinic we went. Latte had to be sedated and get stitches, but overall it was an easy but very expensive fix. Latte had to wear a hard plastic for 2 weeks, but he had different plans. He was able to get the cone off every single time. I tried baby onesies. Off they went. A soft collar. Didn’t work. But, within 4 days the cone didn’t matter because Latte had pulled out his stitches! ? Hence the need for the cone in the first place! On a side note, I was impressed with Latte’s perfect precision on removing the stitches. By a miracle, Latte’s wound had healed enough and he did not mess with it, so it healed perfectly. To this day, I have yet to find the culprit to the laceration.

Latte and his brother bring so much joy and adventure to our home. With all of the mischievous antics that come with theses boys, we love them even more. Our home has been “cat-proofed” for years, or so I thought. Latte has upped the ante of cat-proof! I accepted that challenge, for life without Latte and Cappuccino is unimaginable. We absolutely love and adore our sweet Latte!