The Kitties

I hadn't realized that I've never talked about the cats, until it was pointed out to me.  So...

Simon...he's half Siamese, half Tabby and the smartest cat I have ever met in my life.  You can't see his eyes too well but they are a startling blue.  We got him when he was about 18 months old.  Sis saw him at a pet adoption show and was just sick over having to leave him.  She contacted the place where he was and we brought him home a week later.  He loves treats and opens the cupboard door to get them out and rip open the package.  He also loves to play with rubber bands, swings them around his head, and will open up drawer (the kind without handles) to dig them out.  He really loves the bathroom; he sleeps in the dirty clothes basket or with his front paws in the heater vent.  He mostly only drinks from the sink and we totally indulge him when he jumps up there, turning on the water to a slow trickle so he can quench his thirst.  He always wants to bother you when you're taking a pee, too, so when he sees me coming, he runs and hides behind the toilet like I can't see him so I don't kick him out.  He's a bit of an attention whore and will demand pets like he's about to die if he doesn't get them.

Tobias...yeah, he's a spoiled brat.  Completely.  And that's all thanks to Brub.  He's a gray tabby.  He's mostly annoying but then he'll do something so completely adorable that your heart just melts.  He'll jump up on furniture as you pass and stick out his front paw asking for a hand shake and pets.  He does shake, just like a dog, and when he gets into trouble we tell him he's a bad dog.  He knows what that means.  Though the most adorable thing he does, in my opinion, is the way he eats treats.  I just hold it out to him and he will stand up on his back legs, and take my hand between his two front paws and eat the treat from my hand.  We've had him since he was about three months old and got him because poor Simon was lonely after having been in a home with multiple cats throughout his life.  He's also got the longest tail I've ever seen on a cat; I measured it once.  16 inches from the base of his butt to the tip.  But he really is an absolute brat, though.

 Anyanka...that's my baby girl.  My little diva.  She has the softest fur in the world and the saddest, most plaintive meow you have ever heard.  I adopted her when I was living on my own when I was 23.  She was found by the river and had obviously been owned because she was already spayed.  She's mostly calico (see her white socks) but has some tabby striping on her legs and forehead.  You can't see her bum but she has a stub for a tail.  They didn't know if it was removed after some sort of injury or if she was born that way.  She's fairly little and everybody dotes on her because of her sad cry and because she's skinny.  She and Tobias don't get along very well and I think that's because Tobias, as a spoiled brat, doesn't like it when his daddy pays attention to her.  He'll attack her with no provocation and sometimes, she will do a preemptive strike and attack him first.  She mostly hides whenever anyone comes over and you know you're apart of our family when she doesn't bother to make herself scarce when you come over.  It's always a big deal when someone who is not family actually sees her, they feel like they've been graced by the queen.  She went missing once, no one had seen her for two days, she didn't show up for breakfast (the one meal where they all get canned food) and Mom and I looked everywhere.  She's pretty old and I was mostly convinced I was going to find her having gone off somewhere to die.  Then, late at night, when she'd been missing for more than 48 hours, Sis came home from work and randomly decided to open the linen closet door.  And there she was, cool as you please, like "what's the big deal?"  We still have no idea how she got in there or how, once she had, the door got closed, but I can't tell you how relieved I was to find her!

Before these three, we had Penelope.  She was my baby.  I was 5 when we got her.  Mom's cousin found a new mother with a tiny litter in her trash bin, how people can be so cruel, I'll never know, and we drove down to pick one out.  I chose her.  She was black and white, with green eyes and I loved her the most in the world.  She was an indoor/outdoor cat and used to beg to be let out and then cry on the porch to be let back in.  She also used to climb up on the back porch roof outside my bedroom window and cry to be let in if she didn't come home before we all went to bed.  We tried to break her of the habit, but eventually, I just gave in.  And she knew if she called to me louder and faster, I would get out of bed quicker.  I'd open the window, pull her in, and she'd jump down and go wait patiently for me to put the window back in order before I'd open the door to let her out into the house.  She was with us for 17 years.  They day we took her to the vet and put her to sleep is still one of the saddest days of my life.  But I was with her at the end and got to hold her as we said goodbye.