The Cats

My history with cats. They have been in my life ever since I married years ago. Our first cat was acquired from my spouse's parents that first summer when we visited them. We took home one that was 10 months old. He was a short haired classic tabby with white paws, a beauty, that I had time to train. He would jump through hoops, climb a ladder, sit, and sit up on his haunches and didn't mind a leash and collar.

 From then into the early 2000's, we always had cats. Our last one died in 2002 or 2003 at about the age of 15. Our life was centered on traveling to car conventions several times a year so we opted to not have any cats for awhile. That "awhile" turned into 10 years.

In the short span of 6 weeks in September / October 2012, two strays entered our rural lives and we ended up with 2 adult cats and 6 kittens. Luckily we were able to find homes for 3 of the kittens so that leaves us with 5. You'll read more about them in the blogs but their names are Rainey, Goldie, Diamond, Gypsum, and Butch.
Rainey

Goldie
Diamond
Gypsum

Butch
Scooter











     Sadly, we had to put Diamond to sleep December 26, 2014 just 2 years, 2 months, and 2 days after she was born.  She now rests in the small field in front of our house under a Live Oak.
     She has been replaced though but not because of her death but of a friend of ours.  The new cat is named Scooter and she is at least 7 years old.  She had been our friend's companion for most of her life and he wanted us to take care of her for the rest of her life.  I have posts about her on the blog.

Scooter has passed away now (Aug  29, 2018) so we are now at just the 4 cats, Goldie, Gypsum, Butch and the "miss diva" Rainey.  Rainey gets along with them much better now but she still will not let them touch her unless she's quite ready.
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     My thoughts about Butch and his personality.  Butch is a chunk of a cat born with just a nub for a tail.  There is extra skin around that area so his rear is well rounded with just a slight bump where his tail is at.  I call him a "needy" cat.  He was the last to quit nursing on his mom, at least a full month after the rest of the kits had quit.  He insists on being in my arms at night when I'm on the computer, purring, resting his head on my right arm, most of the time with his two front paws also resting there.  He's built like a manx cat with a square body.  He uses food as a solace it seems though this winter he seems to have cut back a little bit on his eating; none of the rest of the cats gain weight like he does.   He loves plush fabric and I have a couple of small blankets that he will grab and make love to it for about 10 or 15 minutes, dragging it around the house, purring the whole time.  He also smiles a lot, especially when purring.
     When we had Diamond put to sleep a year ago, he took over Diamond's spot on the bed and even took over some of her other routines for a week so I know he missed her. Sometimes he still "tucks" me into bed as Diamond did, then goes checking on spouse for his whereabouts if he's not in bed already.  He'll stay with spouse until he's in bed, too.
     He still will sleep with his mother (Goldie) or his brother (Gypsum) but I've noticed that even they get tired of his snuggling.  Winter time is when they are most apt to be found sleeping together, mainly because the house is kept colder during the winter than in the summer.

Here's links to my cat posts:

Current cat history:
Update on cats