Celebrating Caymus’s 12th Birthday: A Long‑Lived Ragdoll’s Journey

Seal Mitted Ragdoll Cat, Caymus, Turns 12 Years Old!

I can’t believe my favorite living Ragdoll cat is 12 years old.  I am glad he has lived this long, but I don’t like how old he is getting – although he continues to be the fabulous all the time.  If you guys want to know what I am talking about, please see this video.

Caymus has had quite a year.  My parents moved to their new home in November 2015, which is the third home he has lived in with them.  His good buddy, Napa, a 10-year old German Shepherd passed in February from cancer.  Caymus is also about to get a new roommate in September – a new German Shepherd puppy.

I am continuously impressed with how Caymus has grown and changed.  He used to be a very scared cat – but over the years has gotten more confident.  He now is usually the one hanging around the kitchen and other living areas, whereas it used to always be just Murphy.  My mom says she sees Caymus more often now.  He also is simply wonderful with my niece and nephews.  He shows them how truly wonderful a Ragdoll cat can be – rubbing his pheromones on things they stick out for him, letting them face plant into his belly and allowing them to be genuinely curious about kitties in general.  I thank him for that – he is a gentle giant.  He also just recently met my sister’s rehomed Ragdoll cats – Ash and Addie – his first time meeting another adult cat as an adult cat (meaning he met my Rags when he was a kitten, and he was a 5-year old adult when he met Charlie and Trigg as kittens).

I have done a few Q&A videos on our YouTube channel – and one of the questions that someone asked me to answer was, “Why is Caymus your favorite living Ragdoll cat?” I tried to record the response with my sister, but failed.  I just started crying (you can see my eyes are watery and I have wiped my tears on my shirt after the first 4 minutes), and I asked my sister why I was crying – and she said, “Oh, I knew you would.”  Caymus is a soulmate and there’s really no explaining a soulmate connection – you either have it or you don’t.  Caymus and I have known each other in other lives, for sure – and I hope to heck that when he chooses to leave this life that he comes back as my cat in his next life.

I still plan on answering that question in a future video, but need to gain my composure better before I do so.  Caymus was so beautiful with my Rags.  Rags never minded Caymus either, which was cool and made me respect Caymus even more.  When my parents got Caymus and Murphy, I was living in their house because my mom wouldn’t let me take Rags out of the house – I was also working on my Masters degree.  So we had only planned on getting a seal mitted with a blaze kitten, but when we told Cindy of Bluegrass Rags (Caymus and Murphy’s breeder) that Rags was 15-years old, she suggested that we get two kittens.  The strategy behind getting two kittens was that they would play with one another and leave Rags alone.  It was an excellent suggestion and worked out well, so I could steal Rags for good.  So Caymus wasn’t ever part of the initial plan, but was an excellent bonus.

He is so wonderful at the vet – allows them to do anything they want.  I bet they could clean his teeth too without having to put him under, but for obvious reasons, that will never be attempted.  Another example of his awesome-ness is that he is the only cat I can set the birthday hat on without him knocking it off – he just sits there with it on his head.  The other cats need the birthday hat strap around their chin to get it to stay.  The only thing Caymus does that inhibits the birthday hat photo process is that he wants to smell the hat and rub his pheromones all over it.

Caymus is the biggest Ragdoll cat of all of our family’s Ragdoll cats (11 total) – in stature.  He is tall, has a long tail and weighs 17 lbs (7.71107 kg) (and has weighed more when he was a on a dry/wet food diet).  Caymus is a 2-handed Ragdoll – it is virtually impossible to pick him up with one hand because he is truly a Ragdoll when you pick him up – he goes limp.  He is wonderful to force snuggle because of his ability to go limp and not really care what you do with him.

Caymus has the most luxurious coat I have ever felt with my fingers.  It is hard to see how absolutely wonderful it is in photos or in videos.  I have never felt anything like it.  Amy’s Ash comes in a close second, but Caymus’ coat is to die for.

It’s really the entire package of Caymus, though – the other night my 6-year old nephew was talking about what he wanted for his upcoming birthday.  I told him that I ask my mom and Santa for Caymus every year, but I never get him. My dad suggested (jokingly) to clone him.  While cloning Caymus would give me his beautiful coat, his eyes, his nose and whiskers, no scientific cloning would give me his soul and that’s the best part of him.

Happy, Happy Birthday to a soulmate who has taught me a lot in 12 years!  I hope you have 12+ more years in you!