JENN McKINLAY: Happy National Cat Day to all who celebrate!
True confession. I did not grow up in a cat house...wait, that sounds weird. Let me rephrase. I didn't grow up in a house with cats. My people were bird people and as such they did not like cats. It just was the way it was and I didn't question it. We always had dogs and a menagerie of other critters so I wasn't deprived.
The first cat I cohabited with was in college when my roommate brought home a tiny little orange fellow that he named Chubby in the hopes that as the runt of the litter, he would bulk up. Spoiler: He did.
I adored him. Having never had a cat, I had no idea how funny, smart, snuggly, and all around charming cats were. I lived in a three family house, second floor, and usually got home from bartending at two in the morning. Chubs would sit on the portico roof waiting for me, which meant I had to climb out the window and retrieve him on my way into my apartment. Good times! Still, Chubs was an excellent ambassador for feline kind.
My roommate took off to be a waiter on Martha's Vineyard for the summer, and naturally Chubs became mine. When I moved to Arizona a few years after graduation, Chubs rode shotgun. Here we are in 1992 having just arrived in our desert digs.
Chubs passed in 2005 at the age of 17. I was devastated. The house just wasn't right without a cat so the Hooligans picked out the next two, Patsy and Loretta.
Then, of course, I found King George abandoned on our front stoop at just a few days old. Next I found a litter, three of the four of which stayed with us--Shackleton, Wynona, and Tiger--and then tiny Henry climbed up into the skid plate of Hub's car and now he's ours as well. Patsy and Loretta passed a few years ago, so it's just the five gray tabbies now. Just five. LOL.
Oh, wait, then there's the yard cats that we share with our neighbors. Collectively, we trapped, spayed or neutered 25 cats in the hood. A tuxedo named Pepe, who never leaves our yard. We even got a collar on him. Then there are two Siamese old men, Sinatra and Deano, Mama (the mother of our found litter), Scooter, Pearl, Smoky, Tony, and Tom (aka Big Boy, who also rarely leaves our yard). None of them are homeable (way too feral) so we have built a cat sanctuary on the side of our house with little houses and a cat tree nestled under our grape arbor. Meals are served twice a day and they all show up - it's like a cat soup kitchen. A few of them let me pet them, the hairier ones allow me to brush them, and Pepe lets me pick him up. Just me, though, no one else.
So...I think it's safe to say I have become a cat person. Just don't tell my dogs!
How about you, Reds and Readers, are you a cat person or no? No judgement (well, maybe from the cats but not from me)!
From a calico cat named Missy to a black cat named Mouser, we've shared a home with many a cat so I guess we are definitely cat people [as well as dog people] . . . .
ReplyDeleteAw, I've never had a calico...hmmm.
DeleteNot a cat person. You do you.
ReplyDeleteThat's my mom, too, although I see her sneaking treats to my cats when she visits.
DeleteI love cats. My husband does not. We've had cats in the past and he believed he was allergic. Naturally, our cats liked to sleep on our bed, preferably on his pillow. When our last house cat died at 17, for his sake I switched to having barn cats. I was given a pair of grey tabby kittens, nearly identical, that I named Freddie and Flossie. Freddie was the greatest cat I've ever had. When I went up in the hayloft and lay down, he'd sit on my chest and purr. He would follow me outside when I worked on fencing. (My vet observed, "You like a cat who acts like a dog.") I was devastated when Freddie disappeared at age 2, undoubtedly a victim of a coyote. His twin Flossie is still with me, age 15. Earlier shy and aloof, after Freddie's death she took on many of his ways. I was shoveling gravel yesterday far from the barn and she picked her way out, tail high, to join me. She still goes up and down the hayloft ladder most of the year, but now in winter I keep a heating pad in a rubber feed trough in the tack room for her comfort. (Selden)
ReplyDeleteI can't complain about my husband not liking cats. He loves dogs and has tolerated every sort of creature in our house for varying lengths of time, from chicks and goslings and turkey poults to bull calves ... and dozens of lambs in boxes on the kitchen counter.
DeleteLove the Bobbsey Twin kitty names, Selden!
DeleteAw, your Freddie is my Pepe. He's my garden buddy!
DeleteI love your outdoor quarters for the yard cats! We are Cat persons all the way, although the two my family had when I was small didn't last. My first cat as an adult was when I moved to Boston at age thirty with my shiny new PhD. Then a series: Jakuma, Neko, Gatinha (all the word for "cat") in various languages, plus Zipper and Biscuit.
ReplyDeletePost divorce I adopted Birdy, who got the starring role in all of my Country Store mysteries, and poor neurotic Athena, both of whom I had when Hugh and I combined households. He had Preston (Parkhurst III, a noble fellow) and Cristabel, so then there were four, which made my asthma kick in during the winters. All of them had been indoor-outdoor cats, until we lost Preston and Cristabel to a combo of old age and outdoor accidents. Now we're down to big gentle Martin, who stays inside. No dogs, ever.
The Boston cat was Vanessa (Redgrave).
DeleteLove your cat names, Edith!
DeleteI lived with a dog, once, briefly, very unsuccessfully, so: Cat lady here! With each successive cat that has come into my life, I have learned that my heart will expand to love this new four-legged one, while keeping their predecessor tucked in there, too. That has been a very good life lesson.
ReplyDeleteSo true!
DeleteYes, we live by the "love is multiplied not divided" credo. Clearly.
DeleteI grew up with cats but when I moved out any cat that I took home caused my allergies to spike up, so alas no more cats until I moved down south. My sister has a cat but the cat stays in her room.
ReplyDeleteThat works!
DeleteYes cat person for sure, and I love that photo of you and Chubs Jenn! Tbone will confirm this:). The most we ever had was 9 with a roommate--it was awful and won't happen again!
ReplyDeleteYeah, five inside is a push.
DeleteAnyone who knows me knows I'm a cat person. I adore dogs, but have only owned one, and he was certifiably insane. Currently, Kensi Kitty runs the house and is my social media darling, although she hates being photographed, which makes her look chronically judgmental in her online pictures. She's 15, and I cringe every time some new geriatric condition crops up. Thankfully, she has no idea she's old. Her zoomies just don't last as long as they used to.
ReplyDeleteAnnette, I can't believe Kensi is 15! I remember when you got her--is it possible we have known each other that long?
DeleteI can't either. She was a kitten when you and I met!
DeleteKensi!!! Love her!
DeleteJenn, I love the photos of your cats! I have been a cat person all my life. My last 2 were Ethan, big, gentle black cat with a white bib and fig leaf, and Napoleon, a grey tabby. Ethan was my familiar who followed me around the house and yard, and came when I whistled. And until the day he died (at 17) he was waiting for my husband to go home. My Napoleon fell in love with my husband when he first met him, I became just the woman who fed him. I miss them dearly but my husband is allergic AND has asthma so Napoleon was our last kitty. I think of them all the time.
ReplyDeleteAw, cats definitely love who they love.
DeleteNope, not a cat person here. Growing up I didn't mind cats but we were a dog family. And then I got scratched by a cat (nearest the docs could figure) and ended up getting an infection that came within 36 hours of killing me. And my mom developed a late in life allergy to them as well.
ReplyDeleteMy friend Ann had a cat that was actually pretty cool for a cat but I would have no desire to have one of my own.
Oh no! My sister-in-law (a die-hard cat person), was scratched on her eyeball by her own cat and it was touch-and-go for almost a year if she would keep her eyesight and eye! She is still a cat person… 🤷♀️
DeleteThat's terrifying, Jay!
DeleteCats, I've had a couple. There was Striker, a striped gray kitty. I don't remember where he came from, but he wandered into my life when I was 20 and I took him up to college, to the basement apartment in a professor's house where I lived with a roommate. Unfortunately, he disappeared almost immediately after the move--probably breakfast for a coyote or other predator. My 2nd kitty showed up a couple of years later. I was moving my last box of stuff out of a house in the same wooded neighborhood near the college when 4 tiny kittens ran up. My roommate (who already lived with 2 golden retrievers, 3 cats and a rabbit) took them in. After she had taken them to the vet, she found homes for them. I took one, an all back kitten I named Justin. Justin turned out to be a female kitty, but the name stuck. She lived in 4 different places with me and loved to be petted until she got tired of it and then would bite. Since Justin passed on, I've been more of a dog person.
ReplyDeleteI would be lost without my dogs. I totally get this.
DeleteWhen I oved into my own house I decided I would get a kitten. Gizzy was all black and was born to be an indoor-outdoor cat but I didn't think that was a good idea, although he really wanted to go out and sometimes he managed to. A year later I got Kokie, primarily to be company for Giz. A year after that my son's girlfriend moved in with her kitten, Chewy. It wasn't long before Chewy decided he would be my kitten and that's who he chose to sleep with. The girlfriend didn't work out, so she moved back to wherever, but I told her Chewy was staying and the girl didn't seem to mind.
ReplyDeleteWithin a few years I had deep thoughts with myself and knew if I wanted a happy kitty I would have to let Gizzy run free. I knew what it could mean but I bit the bullet for him. Somehow he thought it was his job to provide for the others and often brought home the results of the hunt. The other two were not at all interested in going out. I moved house a few more times and all three adapted beautifully. For reasons I never understood Kokie and Chewy passed on and Gizzy was lonely even though he had made friends with the neighbor's cat and he would follow us when I went out with the dog.
I moved into this house in the woods, a hunter's paradise! Although I wasn't thrilled with the idea my granddaughter found a kitten and brought her to me. I may not have been thrilled, but Gizzy definitely was. His maternal instincts kicked in and he took care of that kitten. What a sight they were together - all black Gizzy and all white Swee'Pea. Gizzy lived to be 17, the best kitty ever! Swee'Pea is gone now too but I have Rosie and Rowdy, now twelve, who have gone from aloof to rather affectionate. It only took them about ten years!
Aw, I love this. And, yes, sometimes it takes years for a cat to decide they like you.
DeleteI think we have had 35 or so cats since we were married. It started with Floss - the Cutest Cat in the Whole Wide World who was part of my dowry. She, within a year met Mike (a girl), Jack’s old cat who lived to 22. She just lived – did nothing. Then came Mollie – a wee kitten being thrown out of a car by a woman to land on the side of the road in front of her crying children. We went back, scoured the area and took her home. Her back was nothing but a line of fleas – it took two days of her living in the garage to finally ‘wash them right out of her hair’. So, the list went on. Almost all were throw-aways – we lived at the end of a dead-end road about an hour each way from Montreal and Ottawa, so September was a lot of ‘kitten not so cute anymore’ tossing. They all were spayed and stayed. Seventeen was the most we ever had at one time. We moved with thirteen – yes, that was a lot of cat carriers to obtain.
ReplyDeleteIt was in 2021 that we got our first-all-our-own kittens. Two brothers – Pip and Squeak. Bounce, bounce, bounce, run, run, run. In 2022, just before Christmas, we trapped Free Willie. He lived in an extra-large dog cage in the living room, while he got used to us. We rassled him to have him neutered in April, and he has been with us ever since. At this point, he will take a pat and rub against your legs only if he wants to. He knows where we are at all times. I cannot feed him, or let him out the window (cat entrance) as he jumps and bolts. There have been a lot of dishes hit the floor! However, now he takes over the chair (if Lupin is not in it) and sleeps there watching tv for the evening. There are 8 cats in the living room…
Our latest is Prue (2024), our darling deaf white kitten. We have learned so much animal behaviour with her! She is a delight, but terrible to call in at night! All our egg customers know to watch when driving to make sure they can see her, as she has no fear of cars. Willie loves her.
I expect that we will be getting two more with the demise of my sister. I told her when she told me she was ill, that I wanted to inherit the cats and the golf cart…
Margo, your cats sound adorable. Thank you for sharing. Diana
DeleteYou are clearly my people, Margo. Always room for one more.
DeleteMy childhood consisted of a menagerie of different animals and pets (soft-hearted father who took in any animal in need of a home, including cats). We had both indoor and outdoor cats. I was a dog person from a young age, even after I was gifted with an adorable gray kitten when I was 5. But I also loved our bunnies and ducks. Guess who do not like my bunnies and ducks? Yup. I have also recently witnessed a neighborhood cat kill a young bunny and an adult bunny in front of me despite me screaming and trying to get the cat to leave. Additionally, we lived in the Santa Cruz mountains for a bit and we had large-cat problems there. They killed deer, coyotes, people’s pets etc.leaving their remains in yards. My current neighbor’s cat loves to hang out in our yard and terrorize my beloved birds and chipmunks (and use our garden as a toilet). Cats have just not redeemed themselves for me over the years. So…….. I guess you could say I am strictly a dog person. I have never met a dog I do not love!
ReplyDeleteDogs are exceptional, for sure.
DeleteNot really a cat person, and mildly allergic to them as well. However, I currently feel deeply indebted to a calico named Maggie who is making my sister's life a lot more pleasant.
ReplyDeleteMy sister is an animal lover in general, but usually had a dog over the years. (Now that I pause to remember, that's because my mother actively disliked cats! But she's been gone for 10 years now and I had almost forgotten that tidbit.) Anyway, when my sister's last dog died, she was so terribly lonely! But with her dementia diagnosis, I really felt there was no way it made sense to get her another dog. After a few weeks, we came up with the idea of a cat as a companion instead. It took several visits to the cat shelter to find just the right one, but the minute she picked this one up, I knew she was going home with us. She now reigns over my sister's small apartment in assisted living with an air of noblesse oblige and we are all happy. (And I only start sneezing if I'm in the apartment for more than an hour or two.)
What a good pivot! I’m glad your sister has a companion.
DeleteOh, I'm so happy for your sister and her cat.
DeleteFor all the cat people and older people – can you imagine getting another kitten? I look at our dog who is 15, and suspect that he will be our last dog. Maybe we might adopt an older used dog, but really, now I consider that should we check out, who will take the pets. That being said, I cannot ever imagine not living with a cat – but will we ever again have a brand-new kitten? (we are 75-ish. Add 15 to 20 years, and the math suggests that they will outlive us. Apparently old folks places don’t take pets and I would hate to see them go to the SPCA.)
ReplyDeleteWe shelter-adopted a pandemic kitten I didn't mention earlier, and I wondered if he would outlive us. When Ganesh was about six months he developed a ferocious appetite for biting - holes in cardboard boxes, the strings on the blinds - but when he turned it on my wrist night after night, we gave him back to the shelter. I just couldn't live like that. After a no-cat winter that felt lonely and resulted in mouse turds in the kitchen every morning, we adopted sweet four-year old Martin, now seven or eight. Sadly, he might be our last cat - we are 75-ish too.
DeleteI'm only in my 50's but I don't think I'll get kittens/puppies in the future. Give me the mellowed out senior pets who need care for the final years.
DeleteSo many kittahs! Margo, aren't all-white cats often deaf, or did I make that up?
ReplyDeleteJenn, your music-related cat names! Love it.
No cats here, as I'm sure I've mentioned I am deathly allergic, the only life-threatening allergy I have, alas. Naturally, most of my friends, including 90% of the members of our book club, have cats. And naturally, they all want to jump on MY lap. I have learned a lot of defensive behavior around protecting myself, including not touching my face while in a kitty's home.
Middle daughter, who has always loved cats, has Ella, a petite Siamese who has the perfect personality for Robin. She is cuddly only with Rob, and sits on the window sill above her home workstation or on her lap to keep her company. Also, the boyfriend/housemate's dog can't get to her there. Ella, when she was still an older kitten, once possibly welcomed a rat into the house via her cat door. Which Robin discovered when she awoke to a rodent on the pillow next to her, and Ella on the floor looking pleased with herself. A present, Mom!!
Yes Karen, all white kittens do have a proclivity to inheriting a deafness gene, but it is usually with two coloured eyes or so I thought. We never suspected or even thought that she might be possibly deaf when we choose her, but about 10 days into her being with us, we noticed that she did not react like other kittens should. It was within a day of clapping and making lots of noise that we realized that she reacted to only what she could see, and not what she could hear. Apparently the SPCA had not noticed (or told us) when we adopted her. Amongst other good things for her, is that because of the deafness, she really goes to sleep - nothing wakes her except touch. Watching her sleep in complete repose is like watching a new baby sleep with his hands above his head - full into it and sated!
DeleteWe had a Siamese cat and we named her after an actress/dancer from the movie South Pacific. It was showing on TV the weekend we adopted Mitzi. Our cat walked like a dancer, which reminded me of the dancers from the movie.
DeleteMercifully, no one has brought me any rodents. I think it's because they're satisfied with the soup kitchen.
DeleteCat Story
ReplyDeleteWhen I was just about to fly on my own, I found a calico kitten. She was named My Little Kitty, because it took me so long to get a proper name. I had her for quite a few years, and then went home for something, and my father fell in love with her – he treated her like a dog. What could I do? Yes, I gave him my kitty. (There were many more of ours that he tried to adopt, but I learned to stand my ground! Something about him going around with his pockets full of Temptations!)
He would travel from our house to Gran’s house (across the backyard) and so went My Little Kitty. She would go in the house, mosey around and make herself at home. Gran would eventually let her out, and she would go home. Grandad was becoming more and more just the person who sat in the chair with a cigarette in his hand. He rarely smoked more than the first puff, but always had one at hand. The Kitty would sit on his lap – covered in ashes. At first when the door at night was opened to go home, she would head off, but then one night she didn’t. She just stayed and stayed with him. She slept on his chest at night. She was always there.
When he died, she moved back to my father and again took up residence in our house. She would travel back and forth and visit with Gran, but she was back to living with my father. We had a dog – a Welsh terrier named Llanni. There is a whole pile of stories about that dog, who was such a feature in our young lives. Llanni was getting old, and like a number of Welsh Terriers, he was afflicted with an eye disease that left him poor sighted and eventually blind (he had one eye removed because of the tumour). My Little Kitty would jump on the kitchen counter, and like a hockey player, she would slap-shot Temptations down to the dog. One at a time, so he could catch or find them. The sport would go on as long as the Temptations lasted.
She seemed to be aware, that he was losing more and more eyesight. She took to leading him around with her tail – she went ahead of him just enough that he could follow her tail. It was deliberate. As nature took its course and Llanni died, she mourned with my father.
It was not much later that she moved back to be with Gran. Gran needed her. She stayed with Gran until her demise.
A most extraordinary feline.
She was a caretaker cat. Not for nothing do cats have reputations as witch familiars, etc.!
DeleteOh, what a wonderful cat. I love this story, Margo.
DeleteWhat a delightful post Jenn! So nice to follow your journey with cats.
ReplyDeleteTo quote P.G.Woodhouse, "The real objection to cats is their insufferable air of superiority. Cats, as a class, have never completely got over the snootiness caused by the fact that in ancient Egypt they were worshiped as gods."
I love cats but we've only had three. The first cat (I don't remember his name) was the unadoptable baby kitten of my first cat Carmen. He hated our family and walked across the street to live with our grumpy neighbor. They were a perfect match. Our next cat was Beale who our daughter found on Mt. Tabor (Portland, Or) abandoned as a newborn kitten. She was the best! She lived to be around 17 or so. My 15 yr old grandson fostered 5 kittens - found homes for 3 and kept 2. They are so well loved.
Cats are wonderful.
The Egyptian quote - 100% true - I'm certain of it. LOL.
DeleteCat and dog person here and I would love to have a crow friend as well. Our mini-dachschund Nemo passed away at the end of August--he was 16 and is missed by all, our oldest cat PK moved into the basement and stayed there 6 weeks after he died. We currently have four other cats--all rescues and the baby is crying right now as I write this because he's apparently dying by degree of loneliness. Mr. Baggins (a variation of his actual name) is all black, comes to me (and only me) lifting up his front legs to be picked up and held against my heartbeat with his head tucked beneath my chin. Sometimes he falls asleep like that. Wherever I am for any length of time, they will congregate and keep me company. Outside we have Sadiebelle and two of her kittens that we couldn't place in adoptive homes--all fixed. And various strays that always show up no matter how many we find homes for. No more dogs, though, as their care invariably falls to me.
ReplyDeleteFlora, forgot to switch myself from Anon.
DeleteAnd Jenn, that photo of the hooligans with the cats speaks volumes! Love it!
DeleteYes, our two dogs feel like more work than our five cats, so I'm over the dog thing (she says until she gets another - lol).
DeleteI'm allergic (highly!) to cats, which I found out 20+ years ago when Diane moved in with her sweet kitty Cole (named after Cole Porter). I had a cat of my own at the time (Mooring, because, well, she was my mooring at the time I adopted her). Somehow having two cats in the house instead of one set off a bigtime dander allergy. I took medication to deal with constant congestion until they both went to kitty heaven. Mooring was the second to go. We were sad to have to become a cat-less home, but it was a huge relief to be able to breathe normally in my own house.
ReplyDeleteHappily, I am not allergic to dogs (though we don't have one). Someday, perhaps.
Jenn, I love kitty-cats but have never owned one. You can tell me that your cats don't like anyone, they never go to anyone but X member of the family, but if I come to visit, they will all eventually end up in my lap.
ReplyDeleteThat's my mom. All cats come to her and she doesn't like them - I think they know it and try to win her over.
DeleteJENN: Happy National Cat Day to all who celebrate! As a child, I was allergic to cats, though I loved loved loved cats. At the time, we lived in a two storey house with a big backyard, which had a bird bath. Often, cats would visit our backyard and look for birds. I would play with the cats outside. Sometimes I took photos. I am amazed the cats managed to reach the backyard despite my unfriendly dog. My dog definitely did Not like cats.
ReplyDeletePerhaps he was either jealous or territorial. I remember when you adopted King George who was a tiny kitten at the time. I love these cat houses you built for the feral cats. I was reminded that those of us, who drive cars, have to remember to check under the cars before driving to make sure there are no cats sitting under the cars.
Because of my allergies, I remember getting a stuffed animal (a cat). I also remember Christmas cat-themed gifts too. Good news is that Now I am not allergic to cars anymore. Bad news is now I'm allergic to certain breeds of dogs. Sad because I love dogs too.
It's always something, isn't it? Allergies are inexplicable to me as they pop up whenever they feel like it.
DeleteAw, so sweet, Jenn. Love the cat house pix. Like you, I'm multi-lingual when it comes to critters. Cats, dogs, birds, ducks, you get the picture. They all make a house a home.
ReplyDeleteExactly, Kait!
DeleteNot a cat lover. And I’m a little afraid of them.
ReplyDeleteBut they ARE cute! Just keep them away from me.
DebRo
LOL - I have a friend who likes cats from twenty feet away.
DeleteLove cats, dogs, fish and birds. At one time I had 6 cats and a golden retriever. That was great fun. They got along splendidly, each with their own self-appointed role. I can't have a pet where I am now, and I miss that terribly. There is something quite comforting in cats when they choose to spend time with you, because you know with cats it is definitely a choice. Love all the pics, especially the hooligans. So precious! -- Victoria
ReplyDeleteThank you. They loved their girls, who slept with them, so much. A wonderful relationship for all concerned.
DeleteFirst of all, Jenn...I am in tears reading your story. You are indeed a very kind and caring person and a responsible one, too. Not only giving a loving home to your own pets but providing shelter, nourishment and healthcare to all your feral buddies in the neighborhood, too. Trying to stay ahead of the game by spaying/neutering the feral ones is so commendable on your part. That's an ongoing battle for sure. I grew up in a home where animals were always a part of the family. I'm grateful that some of my best friends during childhood were "mutts"....usually a mix of German Shepherd and a smaller breed. I learned early on about respect, loyalty, responsibility and love..."gifts" given to me from sharing our home with these special family members. As a young person on my own I found it hard to convince any landlord/landlady to allow me to have a dog but I could usually convince them that an indoor cat would cause zero issues. I knew nothing about caring for a cat having been around dogs most of my life but I quickly learned the difference between the two which always made me chuckle. Just like humans the differences were sometimes very comical and I loved that. My first away from home pet was a beautiful angora cat named Cloudy and over the years there were other "loveys"...Elycia (Lisa-Girl), Phoenix (Buddha Bear), Bo (Butter) and Leonora (HRH Lee Lee). When worlds were colliding...which life often hands to all of us...these wonderful family members represented stability and normalcy. Bo was adopted at 3...the only male cat we ever had...and he lived to be nearly 23 years of age. Built more like a small dog he weighed in at 21 pounds and was a handsome orange bundle of both gentlemanly ways and a sweet spirit. Leonora, his 3-legged sister, was a squawker, both needy and loving and she gave us 17 years of antics and touching memories. Losing her during a particularly difficult period in our lives still lingers with me and it is the first time our home has been without a fur baby in the household. Seventy years of always having either a dog or a cat has brought so much joy but this latest loss still has me in a state of grief. Thank you for being such a good person, Jenn, and thank you all for sharing your family pet stories, too. Clearly these beautiful creatures in our lives are very important to our health and well being.
ReplyDeletePumpkin, my current only cat is a tripod too, adopted as a kitten and raised by my other female orange sweetheart, who died last year. Punk is so spoiled and so expressive and so affectionate that I feel like her faithful servant most of the time. She has made it clear no other feline shall share her kingdom, however.
DeleteSusan ~ If there is no sharing of the kingdom then your Pumpkin is an HRH, too....(HRH ~ Her Royal Highness) :-) Love the feistiness!
DeleteHugs, Evelyn. I'm so sorry for your loss. It took me years to get over Chubs. When they own your heart, they take a piece of it with them.
DeleteI gotta admit, I am still more of a dog person. Although my kids have cats and they adore them. And if I got a cat like the stray who was here in Ligonier when we moved in - super friendly and snuggly - I'd be up for that.
ReplyDeleteThe thing with cats is you just never know.
DeleteP.S. You can certainly guess why the Broadway Musical "Cats" will always be my favorite. :)
ReplyDeleteIndeed!
DeleteI'm definitely a dog person, but one who loves cats too. Well... I'm ambivalent about the $15,000 kitty.
ReplyDeleteLooking at the various names of your cats makes me realize how much our age, place in life, and interests are reflected in what we name our feline friends. In our family, we've had Big Mac (the first meal Ross gave to the starving kitten who approached him while he was washing his bachelor sports car) George/Georgia/Georgina (yes, the cat was initially sexed incorrectly,) Anastasia (Virginia was VERY into the movie) and Neko (Spencer was VERY into manga.)
I love seeing cat pics and videos online, and I'm particularly fond of cats with over-the-top names, like Sir Puffy Pantaloons or Scrumptious, Destroyer of Worlds.
Destroyer of Worlds is a terrifying moniker to contemplate. LOL.
DeleteWe live in the Best Little Cat House on Nome Street. Like Jenn's mom, mine was an avid bird watcher. Her other issue was wandering cats tended to use our back yard as a pass through. Hate to admit, along with squirrel traps, she kept a sling shot and pea gravel to 'warn' the cats. Obviously my cat ownership started when I moved out. We tend to own 2-3 cats at a time. The rule always has been one per bedroom. Currently, we have Roshi (old teacher in Japanese), Kitsune (fox in Japanese) from her coloring and bushy tail. Finally our newest member Oksanna (hospitality in Ukrainian) came to us this August. 'Sana has settled in, which is why I typed some of this one handed. On Cat Day stroking one is mandated.
ReplyDeleteLove those names, Coralee!
DeleteGrowing up, we were a dog household and my dad hated cats. After my parents retired to Arkansas, my mom volunteered at the local shelter and a parade of cats made their way home. I enjoyed visiting them and learning their personalities. I was glad they still had one when my mom died so my dad would have some company.
ReplyDeleteExposure to cats seems to win the reluctant folks over. I've seen it a few times - very rewarding.
DeleteJenn, I love the photos, especially of you and Chubs. If anyone was 90s cool, it was you! Also love your "cat yard." We have a cat house on the south side of our house, under a bridgeway, for strays who need winter shelter, but currently it's unoccupied. Its last tennant eventually became an indoor cat and led a very pampered life until one day she died suddenly on her way to the kitchen for a snack. What a way to go! (Horrible shock for me, though.)
ReplyDeleteMy mom disliked cats, so I had no experience with them until I brought home a little orange bit of fluff when I was about nineteen. That bit of fluff turned into an absolute terror who hated everyone but me, and I've been a cat person ever since. We have cohabited (because you don't own cats) with too many to name here, but currently have the three grey tabbies, Yasu (the tail-less), Lucy (Queen of Cats), and Ella. As much as we love dogs, I can't imagine living without a cat.
Cats and dogs are like the yin and yang we need to maintain balance in our house. That's my theory, at any rate.
DeleteI became a cat person when my sister and I got a Siamese kitten, Grimalkin, when I was five and she was three. He moved with us to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and survived roaming around Old San Juan. He was very sociable and acted fond of us girls (I say acted because you never know with cats, do you?) He died when I was almost fifteen, when we were just moving to Vancouver, and I cried and cried. We got another cat a few years later, an all black one we named Bagheera, but I left for college soon after that and didn't get attached to her. Since then, no cats, even though I still like them. Or dogs. We travel too much--I don't think it would be kind.
ReplyDeleteTraveling is so hard on pets, but at least you got to love them while you had them.
DeleteStrictly dog people. Cats trigger allergies in certain family members. However, the neighborhood cat is always welcome to lounge on our front porch furniture.
ReplyDeleteI love a good neighborhood cat. Brings the community together.
DeleteI have three cats. I didn't think I was much of a cat person until we got our first black kitty, Dio. I love and miss my little dude. He almost made it to 16 before cancer got him. We currently have three now. When Dio passed, it was decided our Leela girl needed a friend so she got two (although sometimes she would like to return to sender). Leela is almost 9 with one eye and a sassy personality. She's not doing well health wise right now and we're waiting on test results to see if that gives us any answers before we do anything more invasive so fingers crossed. Winnie and Wessie are two. Winnie is our fearless black kitty who likes living on the edge and is our interior decorator. She's the one that gets on top of the fridge because why not? Things on your dresser or nightstand? Nope, not allowed. On the floor they must go. Especially in the middle of the night. Wessie is our gray and white tuxedo who is as polite and cheerful as can be. When he wants to be petted he comes over and gives you a little tap on the shoulder. But don't come between him and food or treats then all that politeness goes right out the window.
ReplyDeleteThey sound adorable! I'll keep a good thought for Leela!
DeleteDog people here. The first dog I ever owned was creatively, not, named Spot. My next door neighbor Jimmy and I got the puppies from a liter in the neighborhood. His was pure white and called Snowball. He stepped it up some in naming his dog. My mother was in the hospital when I got Spot, and she wouldn't have agreed to it if she'd been home. My dad was too busy to realize that I was sneaking a dog into the basement, the large room where we stored things. Daddy rarely went into that room or the laundry room; he stayed in the TV room when in the vicinity. But, of course, my mother ended up loving Spot as much or more than any of us. When he disappeared a few years later, my mother was the one who rallied us to keep searching. Never did find him. We think he was stolen.
ReplyDeleteWhen Philip and I got married, our first dog was Barry, a cocker spaniel that my sister-in-law found wandering the streets of Louisville and an owner never came forward. Before we had kids, we traveled to my parents' house for Christmas one year in our small car. The back seats and small back storage space was filled with wrapped Christmas presents, so I was in the passenger seat, holding a cake and with Barry in-between my legs. Yes, we did stop for breaks in our four and a half hour trip..
We've had quite a few dogs over our forty-nine years together. Our last two have been Brittany Spaniel rescue dogs, seniors. Lulu died a year ago, and we haven't gotten another yet. We're waiting until after the trial is over in January. We will probably get another rescue Brittany.
My mom is a dog person all the way, Kathy. I'm glad you're considering another but, yes, you have a lot on your plate right now. I'll be keeping a good thought for you and your family.
DeleteI was raised in a one-dog family (we got the dog I related to just before I went into second grade and he lived until I was out of college) because my mother didn’t like and was allergic to cats. She was also allergic to dogs but very willingly got the shots so she could have the dog.
ReplyDeleteWhen I moved in with my boyfriend, later husband, he had a cat. She was named Ubu, for the dog shown at the (tail) end of Gary David Goldberg TV shows. It was made very clear that the cat was #1 in the hierarchy. She was a sweetheart who was happy to have me as a stepmother because my husband worked really long hours so I was home in the evenings to provide a soft lap. Ubu lived to almost 17. She lived almost two months after our son was born.
Since then we have had dogs, though our last one died two months ago. We are still heartbroken from the loss of our beloved dog so we aren’t planning on adopting any other pets, at this point. — Pat S
Pets are members of the family and need to be grieved because it is such a loss. Hugs to you, Pat.
DeleteWhat a great thing you and your neighbors did for stray cats. Getting them shots, and building a really cool cat house (!) and feeding them twice a day. You're wonderful!
ReplyDeleteVery kind of you to say. Thank you. I love critters more than most people, so it's not a hardship.
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