My Cats

 

   I think it will come as no surprise to anyone who reads this that I am a cat person. I like cats. My favourite cartoon is the Pink Panther. 

   I actually like all animals and sometimes fantasize about having a dog especially on good weather days when walking a dog looks like fun. It's fun going out to parks like Minnehaha and watching people walking all kinds of dogs. Then I remember that there is a lot of responsibility in caring for a dog. They need to be taken out to do their business, they need to be walked and they need a certain amount of space to roam. The kind of lifestyle I have would not be good for a dog. For much of my life I worked a lot and lived in houses with small yards. Thankfully, I like cats.

   One of my reasons for buying my first house is because I wanted to have cats. I was single and working a lot. I wanted to have something in my life beside my job. I also wanted companionship and cats were just right for me. Working as much as I did left me little time for a social life.

   With the exception of Colby, all of my cats came from people I knew who were trying to find homes for kittens. I got Colby from a rescue group. It's less expensive to get a cat or kitten from someone you know, but the disadvantage is that you don't know how there were treated before you get them and you need to take care of all their beginning health care needs. Cats from rescue groups are spayed or neutered, have had their immunizations and are tested for certain diseases. Rescue groups also know something about the animals they attempt to place and will sometimes have requirements that must be met before they will allow an adoption. I have no problem with this. The goal is for a cat or kitten to have a forever home. The rescue group that had Colby would not allow him to be placed in a home with small children because he was timid and shy. 

   The oldest cat I adopted was Ary. He was six months old when he came to live with me. He was very skittish and scared. I suspected that whoever had him before me did not treat him very well. He  was a very loving cat who insisted that he get at least 20 minutes of cuddling every day. He would act out if he didn't get it. He was not  fond of Nim, the kitten I adopted a few months later. They eventually got along and became friends.

   The cat that lived with me the longest was Scamp. I got him when he was four months old and he died a couple months past his 15th birthday. He was a loving cat and also a difficult one. He started peeing outside his litterbox which finally caused us to have to put in a wood floor upstairs. ( I wanted a wood floor anyway.) It was very stressful and cause several arguments between me and C. I know that most people would get rid of a cat with this challenge, but I was never able to do it. Scamp was a special needs animal. I was a special needs human. No one threw me away, I couldn't abandon him. Losing him was very hard because for the first time in over 25 years, I did not have a cat.

   Willow was a surprise. We had not planned to adopt another cat until after our vacation in the fall. I already wrote about how we got her so I won't rehash that here. She is the first female cat I had. I had heard that females can be a bit snooty and hard to get along with so I was a bit nervous. Willow is not a cuddly cat. She likes to run, jump and play hide and seek. She also enjoys being chased. 

   We got Barnaby just before Thanksgiving. The first time I picked him up he curled up into my arm and purred. I never had a cat to that to me on the first meeting. It wasn't until after I got him that I realized the purring was a nervous reaction. He was soothing himself by purring. I also didn't realize how big a cat he would be. He may be the biggest cat that has lived with us. He is loving and playful. He and Willow get along (although not at first). We hare happy to have him with us. 

   I fee lucky to have the opportunity to care for all these wonderful cats. They have all been good friends to C and me.