How I learned to love cats.....

[poltr1]

Growing up, we always had dogs in our house. We always had only one dog at time. The list: Jockey (a French poodle, from 1963?-1974), Scamp (another French poodle, from 1985-81), Smokey (a Sheltie mix, from 1983-94), to Carmilla (a poodle, unknown-2008). Mom was a dog lover. She'd wipe their paws, their back ends, and their "parts" after they went outside. She didn't care for cats. "They go after my birds", she'd say.

But two of my great aunts had cats. And I'd try to play with them when we visited. My great uncle Veneard and great aunt Norma had three cats: Osan (a Siamese, named for the American air base in South Korea), Greymalkin (a grey cat), and Pye (a Siamese, short for Pyewacket). Pye was an old grouch who didn't want to play with young children. And my great aunt Francis and great uncle George had a Siamese cat named Smokey. She too was not into playing with young children, and often hissed at me.


Then in 1981, I dated a girl named Erin. She had a grey tabby cat named Tigger, that she was very fond of. She lived on my newspaper route, and when I went by her house to deliver her family;'s newspaper, Tigger was often in the door,waiting for me. One of the cuter things she did was to put Tigger in a closet and stick her hand under the closet door. Tigger's paw would come out, and she'd say "Tiggie piggie". (She called his paws "piggies", as in "this little piggy went to market".)

In college, one of the guys at the fraternity house adopted a gray cat and named him Astro. He became the chapter house mascot. He got into some fights with neighborhood cats, and also liked to trashpick for food. One night, he dragged a ham bone into the house. Sadly, he found a chicken wing bone in the trash one day, choked on it, and died.

When I first moved out on my own in the summer of '89, I wanted a cat. But it would be several months before I would adopt one. In March of 1990, I came home late one night, after a night out with co-workers. And I saw this beautiful gray-and-white longhair hanging around the parking lot. I called for the cat, she came over, started petting her, and she wouldn't go
away. So I took her in -- it appeared that she had adopted me -- and named her Bubastis (after the genetically-engineered lynx from the Watchmen comic book series). Soon after, I discovered that Bubastis was pregnant, so I set up a cardboard box with shredded newspapers in my bedroom closet. There she gave birth to five kittens: Garion (black with white mittens and chin), Bart (also black), Tigger (tabby stripes), Hobbes (tabby stripes), and an unnamed stillborn kitten. I found homes for 3 of them, and kept Garion until he did of kidney failure a few years later. Bubastis died in 2002, due to hyperthyroidism.

Soon other cats came in to my life. Oreo (black and white) and Lady (a Norwegian forest cat) belonged to Rebecca, my ex-wife. We adopted Marcus (orange) and Merlin (black) in June oof 1999. Mercury (a grey cat) came in to our household in the spring of 2003. Her former owner -- the daughter of our wedding photographer -- could no longer keep him, so we took
him in. Lady died at the end of 2002. Oreo died in 2004. Merlin died in 2007 (kidney failure). Marcus died in 2012 (flea infestation). Mercury died earlier this year (lung cancer). I still have the cremains of these cats.

Then last year, I aqcquired Pippin (a black-and-white shorthair Manx), when my ex-wife could no longer keep him. He kept getting out, and her apartment management didn't care for that. But he didn't want to be roommates with a dog. He still sneakas out, but he doesn't wander off too far.

I should write LJ entries for each of these cats, and include some pictures. But that will be for another time.

Comments

[zorya-thinks.livejournal.com]

As you know, Tom and I have had a lot of cats over 22 years. We lost Hiway in 2006. She passed at the Emergency Animal Clinic and we paid for them to bury her in a common grave. We lost Tigger in 2007, the day after my father died. He is in a spot of side yard at the house in Huber Heights where we unsuccessfully. The other cats we lost to age related illnesses were cremated. We brought them down to Nashville and when we get the yard landscaped there is a section with a tree and a dog created hole near the garage where we will have a water feature. That is where the cats and Josh will go. Probably next Spring.