Maggie: The Inspiring Journey of a Rescued Ragdoll Cat

Maggie The Raggie – a Rescued Ragdoll Cat

Hello! I submitted a story about Rajah recently and mentioned his sister a few times. At that point she was still shy and hiding quite a bit. Since then, however, she has REALLY come out of her shell and I think it’s time that I share little Maggie’s story! I attached some photos (they would not attach in the order I wanted them to, unfortunately) as well as a video here.

Some of you may remember the story of Rajah featured on June 12, 2017 — Rajah and his sister were rescued from a shelter about two hours away from me. I stumbled across their photos on a shelter’s Petfinder page and ran out of the office to meet them so fast that I think I left a trail of dust behind me. . . I had been hoping to rescue a Ragdoll for years and I felt such a strong connection to these babies! I originally intended to adopt one (1) cat. I repeat, ONE Ragdoll. Single. Uno. And now I’ll begin the story of the SECOND Ragdoll that I adopted that day… her name is Maggie the Raggie.

Now, Miss Maggie was really not a nervous or shy cat at first. I will never forget my first impression of her — she was like a little warrior princess. Rajah (her brother) was handed to me, while Maggie was handed to my boyfriend to hold for a photo. Rajah was so nervous that he was shaking. I was petting him and trying to comfort him when I noticed that Maggie was watching him very intently. She stood up and walked right across my boyfriend’s lap to settle in right beside her brother, and she laid her little head on his back. She was like his little protector.

After the photo, we put each cat in their individual carriers. We faced them toward each other on the floor boards of the backseat for the long (2-hour) ride home. Now while Rajah meowed until I put him in my lap, Maggie (who was unnamed at this point) slept. SHE SLEPT. The whole way home, folks. She even slept through our gas station/McDonald’s stop. She slept through Rajah’s attempts to steal our fries. We just kept talking about how calm she seemed!

Once we got them home, it was immediately clear that Maggie (No-Name at this point) would be more independent than her brother. She did not “talk” to us, she didn’t follow us around the house, and she didn’t really like to snuggle up at first. In fact, she mostly just stayed under the bed for about two weeks. She would come out to eat and use the litter box, and occasionally snuggle up to her brother, but that was about it. I did catch her doing “The Flop” a few times (see below), but it was as if she had no personality other than being Little Miss Independent.

We struggled SO MUCH with naming her, mostly because nothing “fit” her. She hadn’t really shown us any quirks. It was almost like she was refusing to let me be her human for a while, but I felt so bad not naming her when Rajah was named instantly. I mean we went through maybe 8-10 names for her within a span of about 2 weeks. Anabelle, Belle, Rose, Harper, Arya, Jasmine, etc. She never acknowledged our calls to her (Rajah comes running the second I make eye contact with him.) and she never really seemed quite settled for those first 2 weeks. To be honest, I questioned whether or not I should’ve adopted her at first because she just didn’t seem… happy. I’m sure you’ve all heard the saying about cats choosing their owners… Rajah absolutely chose me. Maggie did not choose me. (At first.)

And then one evening, I was laying in bed cuddled up to Rajah when little No-Name hopped up onto the bed and looked me straight in the eye and CHIRPED at me. She chirped. Like a bird-cat. Then she plopped down, exposed her belly, and gazed up at me with her little tongue sticking out. It was the cutest display I have EVER seen. I immediately texted my boyfriend and said, “Maggie the Raggie!” This was the moment that Maggie accepted me as her human, and it was also the moment that I knew exactly what to name her. She didn’t LOVE me quite yet, but she accepted me. We had about 2-3 good days with Maggie Raggie before it ALL went to hell for a day or two…

I had noticed (now that Maggie was letting me pet her consistently) that she had a couple of bumps on her skin. One on her back and one on her side. It felt sort of like a human pimple. I made an appointment with the vet for the weekend and kept an eye on it. Then one day toward the end of Week 2, I came home from work to find that her belly was COVERED in a rash! I then proceeded to call the closest 24-hour vet — about 45 minutes away — since it was about 8 PM before I discovered it.
After explaining the rash to the vet, I was told that it probably wasn’t emergent, but that they obviously couldn’t guarantee that. I worried that she would get worse in the middle of the night and that something awful would happen before I could get her to the on-call vet. So I packed her into her little carrier with Rajah’s ducky (PetLinks — the one he carries around and hides from his sister and me) so that she could smell her brother and drove her to the vet. Maggie was SO good at the vet, but SO scared. I picked her up at one point so the vet could get a good look at the rash (she goes limp when I pick her up — Rajah does not do this), and when the vet was finished I just laid her against my chest and she stood there and hugged me for about 30 seconds (LOL — photo included). Definitely a bonding moment for Human-Mom and Fur-Baby. She looked at me like, “You know what, Human? You’re okay.”

Apparently Maggie has sensitive skin, and her bare skin (where the shelter shaved her to check for a spay scar) against the dusty floor under my bed mixed with frequent grooming (stress) caused a rash. So they gave her an antibiotic shot and some instructions for keeping the area clean. Surprisingly she did not hide when we got home — she walked out of her carrier, sniffed around, greeted her brother, and promptly fell asleep in our 3-body pile (Me, Rajah, Maggie). After the visit to the vet, I seriously think I brought home a different cat — Maggie’s loving twin sister.

It is now the middle of Week 4, and Maggie could not be more loving! She is an absolute sweetheart, and she is definitely a morning cuddle-bug. In fact, she cuddles with me more than Rajah does! She is also a goofball — flopping everywhere, sticking her little tongue out and making air-biscuits the whole time. She’s just so funny to watch! I think that MagRags has some trouble trusting humans, especially since she got left at a shelter due to a breeder “downsizing” (that’s the story we got, at least). It’s almost like it took another massive, stressful event where I STAYED for her to realize that she was home. The last big stressful event in her life left her homeless, so maybe she just needed to see that at the end of the day, I’m still coming home to her. So now that I know her personality a bit better… let’s talk about Maggie Miss Raggie:

1. She has the most adorable name. I mean, seriously. I cannot believe we didn’t think of it sooner! Her nicknames are: Mags, MagRags, Maggie the Raggie, Maggie Miss Raggie, Maggie Mae, Mae, Miss Mae, etc. The list goes on, and on, and on, and ON.
2. Maggie has a very, very long tongue. In fact, it pokes out of her mouth about 1/4 of an inch (maybe a bit less) when she’s sleeping, flopping, or being goofy.
3. She’s a little goofball. She likes to do “The Flop” during her play sessions with her Go Cat Da Bird and Go Cat Teaser Cat Catcher. She actually ripped that poor little mouse to shreds… she killed it. Twice. And then sat daintily next to it.
4. She is protective of her brother. If Rajah meows in another room, she will run to go see what’s up immediately.
5. She is a dry food ADDICT. Holy Hairball Control, Batman. Maggie loves her Natural Hairball Control dry food by Wellness. I’ve been trying very hard to get her interested in wet food.
6. Maggie prefers to eat out of the same bowl as her brother. In fact, they both seem to prefer eating from one, large bowl, rather than their own individual one. I have just now gotten them to eat out of separate bowls SOMETIMES. Unfortunately, Maggie eats all the dry food from hers while Rajah eats all of his wet food. And then… they switch. *eye roll* My little tyrants.
7. She has GRINCH FEET. Yes, you read that correctly. She has the feet of a Grinch. Her little foot hair tufts are out of control, guys. That’s probably my favorite thing about her. We even call her Grinchy on occasion.

And that is the store of my Maggie Mae. Thank you so much for reading! These two babies are warming up and coming out of their shells so nicely. I’ve had them for almost 4 weeks now, and I cannot imagine how I ever lived without them! It feels like they’ve been mine all along — Maggie Mae the Grinch and Rajah Bear the Silver Lion.

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