| Growing up, we almost always had a cat in the
family. Sometimes outside, sometimes inside. Unfortunately, we
lived way too close to a busy street for proper animal safety,
and lost many of our earlier pets to the road or some other
unknown peril. Eventually, we made the decision that our next
pet would be inside or leashed when outside. Buffy was with us
for many years, until she escaped from the house without the
leash and was severely injured on the road. Sadly, the vet could
not repair the damage, and Buffy had to be put down. Because
the loss of our beloved Buffy was so traumatic, my parent's
decided 'no more cats'. I tried gerbils as a replacement, but
although they are furry, it's really hard to cuddle a small
rodent, much less sleep with it. Eventually, I grew up and left
home. My sister, who was living alone in my parent's house,
adopted two kittens, Chester and Princess. Not to be out-done,
several years later, I found an apartment where I was allowed to
have two cats. Labor day weekend, 1987, Pagos and Peaches took
up residence with me and promptly sole my heart.
The three of us shared the apartment until 1993, when my
sister and I bought a house and became a 4-kitty household. Life
went on, with a few bumps along the way. First we lost Princess
in 1994 to a cancerous tumor, and then Chester in 2001. At age
14, Peaches was diagnosed with a hyperactive thyroid. She fought
the condition (and taking the pills that helped control it) for
three years, finally succumbing in August, 2004. Pagos became an
"only kitty" until we began to take in the stray
kittens. Then in November 2008 we lost her at the
advanced age of 24. Surprisingly, she had become quite tolerant
of the youngsters who invaded her space, and for that I was
glad.
In the Spring of 2007, we started feeding two feral strays on our deck.
Over the summer, they each produced a litter of kittens. As soon
as we saw them, we knew we had to rescue them from the risks of
a feral existence. It took awhile, but we were finally able to
collect the kittens. Then, the following summer, two new feral
females were "kind" enough to deliver their babies to our deck.
While the count varied a little over the last two years, today
it is now 15 kitties living inside with us. Because this
makes life so interesting, I decided to start a blog to share
the joys, concerns, frustrations, and loves of my life. Each cat
also has their own photo gallery page, where you can meet them
and watch how they develop.
Just in case, even after looking
at each cat's individual slide show, you still have
doubts that this person could be so crazy as to live
with fifteen cats, then take a look at the "group"
slide show. There are lots of pictures, roughly in
chronological order, showing life in the herd. It's
hard to get a full group shot since they won't stand
still very long (unless sleeping), and they are
somewhat territorial, but I think you will see that,
yes, I do indeed have a large, happy, furry family.
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