My Cats!
Having seen hundreds of tribute pages made by proud cat owners, I realized I have nothing like that. Hmmm... Now, I don't have the pictures on my cell phone- believe me, Neko and I take 'baby' pictures constantly- uploaded, but I CAN describe rather well, and as this particular computer seems to hate Geocities, I figured I'd write an entry devoted to my cats.
Item One: The Twins
Living in Las Cruces, at the two-bedroom apartment Neko and I shared with several roommates, I randomly adopted a beautiful Siamese who I named Seraphie. A month after this- in our 'no pets' apartment, no less; since when I have listened to the rules? Breaking them leads to interesting developments: i.e. living here in Lubbock- Neko was late coming home. He knocked on the apartment door- odd enough in itself; people came and went through our apartment all the time- and when I opened the door, he had a cardboard box under his arm, two creamers from McDonalds in his hand and an adorable 'don't kill me' look on his face. All I could say was "How many?" "Two." "Come on, let me see them."
What was in the box were a pair of three-week old kittens. The first- erroneously named Laurence, because for some reason I believed it was male- was a tiny calico. The other was an equally small fluffy grey ball. Neko had found them with the guard dog behind the auto shop he worked in at the time. The dog, rather than trying to eat the helpless babies, had been desperately trying to keep them warm. So Laurie and Cricket entered our lives.
Now, at this point, I'd had NO experience in raising kittens. Baby guinea pigs are easy: they're born fully-furred, eyes open, with teeth and are able to eat solid foods an hour after birth. The flock of guinea pigs we had were fantastic, and the only baby creatures I'd helped raise. For Cricket and Laurie... Well... It was a bit more work. Work meaning Mommy waking up at six a.m. every morning to mix a rather loathsome looking/smelling concoction of wet cat food and milk, warm it up and stuff the kittens into the dish set on an increasingly icky towel. Cricket had a tendancy to run THROUGH the low dish, while Laurie always ate too fast, made me think she was drowning and then rolling in what was left of the meal. Needless to say, our babies got a LOT of bathing in their first months.
By the time they were two months old- and galloping noisily through our bedroom at two a.m.- Cricket had already developed into a bit of a cling. Laurie was more aloof and preferred attention at sporadic intervals. Both of them imprinted a LOT of feline behaviour off of the tolerant Seraphie, and ended up being as vocal as Siamese are reputed to be. (We don't know their parentage, but they're both utterly beautiful and oddly skinny, no matter how we've tried to fatten them up.) When Seraphie chose the outdoor life, Cricket and Laurie had already formed very tight bonds with each other and us. Cricket still prefers me- and makes a habit of slithering in front of whatever I'm reading to gain attention- and Laurie is still our aloof princess. She does, however, like Neko enough to perch on him quite often.
Cricket is about three pounds with medium-length fur. She has white markings around her eyes, nose and mouth that look like smudged clown makeup, and is a champion purrer. She's also more of a 'parrot' cat, and tends to paw or meow loudly when she wants attention. (Read: constantly.) More skittish than her sister, Cricket doesn't like strangers, but will allow herself to be approached if Neko or I are holding her. Musically, Cricket prefers soft rock or rock ballads. She loves "Stairway to Heaven."
Laurie is, thankfully, four pounds now. (We thought she'd NEVER gain weight.) She is a long-limbed, elegantly fashioned calico with pale silver, gold and charcoal markings on a pristine white coat. On her forehead is a symmetrical copper patch which looks remarkably like a crown. (One of the many reasons we call her our princess.) She prefers sleeping on the bar, and when she wants attention, she'll hop onto Neko's lap and settle herself. Laurie is a bit of a groupie in that if you're playing Guitar Hero/Rock Band/a CD and you begin singing along, she'll wake up, run to you, hop up onto your lap or paw your back and meow. She prefers heavy metal, like Rob Zombie, and often pulls my headphones off if I'm listening to Metallica on my MP3 player.
Item Two: The Tiny Terror Cometh
Not long after Seraphie left us, and Neko's acquisition of a tailless grey we called Tempest didn't work out, our former roommate told us about a woman she worked with who'd had a recent litter of kittens. I asked if there were any females left- Neko has a thing about daughters; he loves calling them his 'girls'- and there was one. That one arrived when I was half-asleep, brought by Chela in a small cardboard box. What I pulled out was an absolutely tiny ball of tabby fur and white paws. This little bundle of adorable was promptly 'adopted' by Neko- he's always wanted a cat to absolutely adore HIM above all; we're still trying for that- and named Chi by me. (She was so damn cute, she was 'chibi' and 'kawaii' for a month. Gotta love anime influence, no?) Chi- who's full title is Chibi Tora Toe-White Trouble Swinford; she has my surname because she's my little bitch- was Neko's adored baby for a month.
With two semi-grown cats already in the house, we thought it best to keep the baby isolated in our bedroom until she was old enough to defend herself against any rough and tumble play. Therefore, Chi ruled our bedroom like a tiny tyrant. For quite a while, she was Neko's little darling, and would ONLY sleep when he nabbed her up, told her 'Chi, it's time for bed,' and rolled over to his side to cuddle her. Otherwise the little hellion would hop on and off the bed, slide down my face- I had quite a few painful scratches on my eyelids thanks to the tiny nutcase- and meow loud enough to wake the dead.
As always happens, I was the cat disciplinarian and Neko was the softie. One day, he *had* to discipline her- we established rules about eating Mommy's books, Daddy's 360 cords or the shower curtain early on- and Chi considered him an utter traitor. All of a sudden, *I* was the shining star in her universe, and I was, quite honestly, delighted. I have a weakness for grey tabby cats, and I adored the little hellcat. From then on, Chi was my tempermental darling, and yes, I think everything she does is right and good. (Except biting my pen while I'm writing.) When we moved, Chi was the one who explored the house first, and she's ALWAYS getting into something interesting.
Of all our cats- current babies included- Chi is the smallest. Barely two pounds, she looks like a grown cat in miniature. She's a lovely steel tabby with black stripes- they form into clean tiger stripes on her legs- soft white paws and HUGE anime eyes. The white markings around her petite muzzle make it look smaller, and she's my tiny tiger. Chi is, of all our cats, the most tempermental. One minute she'll cuddle in my lap, purring and 'love me!' and the next second she's clawed my arm, hissed and gone chasing after Laurie, intent on biting her head off. We understand each other perfectly, and if I poke her tail once in a while to laugh at her hissing, she gets back at me by jumping off of my head.
Chi is also the most...acrobatic cat we have. Our ceiling is fake wood paneling with beams running from one wall to the other, and it's about eight feet high. The bar separating kitchen from living room is about four feet high, with cabinetry overhead. Chi, in pursuit of a bug, leapt from the edge of the bar ONTO the ceiling and somehow latched onto one of the beams, dangling there while Mommy dove over the coffee table to save her tabby ass. Without a doubt, Chi is our wildest girl, and the apple of my eye.
Item Three: Bad Luck?
So, with Cricket, Laurie and Chi established as our children, Neko's lifelong want of a black cat came back up, and Chela once more knew someone with a young female black cat available for adoption. Enter #4: Sekhem. Incidentally, she chose her own name. (So says Neko.) When she arrived, Neko took her into our bedroom and wouldn't let me go in, on the argument all the cats liked me best, and she was his. He took with him my copy of the Book of the Dead, and a book of Egyptian mythology. The name choice was made by him turning pages, letting her see what was on the page, and reading various names out to her. Apparently Sekhem was the word that made her purr loudest. Thusly: Sekhem. (We call her Sekkies.) Neko's black-furred love was in the house.
Of course, we didn't get her quite as young as we did Cricket and Laurie, or even Chi. Sekkies was about three months old when she came to us, and it showed. She was the most stand-offish cat we had, avoiding laps, tolerating petting and preferring to cuddle with Cricket or Chi. An excellent hunter, she was the one who'd smack jingle balls around at three a.m. and a decided glutton. In the apartment, I tripped over her hundreds of times because a black cat is freakin' HARD to see in a dark room.
When we moved up to Lubbock, it was Sekkies who was most interested in the 'great outdoors' which could be viewed from the windows, and while she'd warmed up a bit by January- all of the cats had to settle after the upheval of moving- she was still wilder than the rest of them. Neko was despairing of ever having his 'baby cat' the way I did Chi. (And Cricket. She's always going to be my cling.) Naturally, Sekkies and Cricket managed to open the back door and went exploring. Cricket returned after being outdoors for several hours, and was scolded, bathed and loved on. Sekkies, however, seemed to revel in the freedom, and Neko was heartbroken that she didn't come back.
Granted, we DID see her quite often. She'd be hanging out with that no-account fluffy grey tabby tomcat from the barn, or running across the yard, but she'd never come up for pets, and always ran when Neko approached her. Well, as an unfixed female cat on her own, you can guess that she got knocked up. Neko and I weren't aware she was pregnant when she began hanging around the house, staying under the porch and joining our three outdoor cats for their daily meal. After two weeks of this new cuddly nature, and Neko growing a bit more forlorn every time he petted her outdoors, Mommy hauled her back in, bathed the living hell out of her, picked all the icky bugs- i.e. ticks- off of her ears and let her reacquaint herself with indoor life.
Sekkies has been an absolute love since then. (I say she learned her lesson.) Neko says she simply needed to be a mother, but we'll have to come to that later. Needless to say, she's still his special darling, absolutely beautiful and thoroughly spoiled. Sekhem is beautifully formed, with jet-black fur and large greenish-yellow eyes. Her face is very sculpted, and she wears a gold collar with rhinestones that Neko picked out for her. There is, of course, an Isis charm attached. She's not as cuddly as Chi can be, but she loves to be petted, has established herself as a fixture on the back of the couch and purrs LOUDLY when her chin is scritched.
Item Four: ...it's a boy?
When Neko and I moved to Lubbock from Las Cruces, we had quite a hard time getting up and running. Granted, we were looking for work in the 'off' season, but it was disheartening to have such a difficult time. Regardless, we kept looking, took care of our cats- they ate better than WE did during those months- and kept scouting for jobs. A temporary job that Neko found was working in a cotton gin. (...that is HORRIBLE work, lemme tell ya. He'd come home and his skin was like ICE.) One night, while he was working, I got a frantic call because two kittens had run into a seed grinder. Needless to say, Neko was UPset, as was I. We sobbed a little together over the phone, and he had to go back to work.
Well, I woke up at seven thirty in the morning with an ice-cold Neko standing over me, holding a ball of black and white fur. One of the kittens had managed- we don't know how- to make it THROUGH the machinery and into a broken-down Coca-Cola soda machine. Neko cornered it there and brought it home. Firstly named Pepper- short for Dr Pepper- we raised the little purrball as we had the others: make sure it can eat dry food safely, isolate it from the other cats to allow for 'get to know each other' time and to make sure no illnesses come up and love the living hell out of it. This resulted in having Pepper sleep in our bedroom for a month, and many adorable pictures of the tiny salt-and-pepper ball peering at Mommy and Daddy's sleepy faces through cell phone pictures.
Pepper as a name didn't last very long, simply because the baby had a habit of 'noming' on everything in sight, including our hands. (Just baby behaviour, true, but enough to give a permanent name.) So 'Pepper' became tha Nom. Naturally, as the baby grew, it became pretty clear that what I'd thought was a SHE became a HE. *snerk* Well, in a house with four girls- none of whom have been fixed- it was a bit of a concern. We kept an eye on him for months until it got to the point that he wouldn't leave the girls alone, and they were half-pulling off his face for sniffing at them so constantly. Nom now has his own room, and is given quite a bit of preferential treatment. He's an absolute LOVE. Adores being cuddled and petted, purrs like a motorboat and drools while he does it. *snerk*
Nom is, quite frankly, the most beautiful cat we have. He's a medium-haired black and white with huge green eyes. Until we got him, I'd never noticed how feminine the other cats look. There is a definate difference between boy and girl cats! He's very masculine, and certainly has a healthy body weight. Nom is just... striking. His stark black and white colouring is glossy, silky and fairly gleams. We got him a G.I. Joe name tag that says "Nom The Sexy Wonder" and you can hear it jingle when he's bounding around his room. He knows he's a beauty, and he'll often pose if you call his name and hold up a cell phone. He's also very friendly to everyone, unlike the rest of our twitchy girls. He doesn't have favourites, like Chi or Laurie, but loves to be cuddled by Daddy or me.
Item Five: "Hey, um... Neko?"
It took a little while, but both Neko and I found gainful employment. Neko began working for a security company in January, and I was hired on at the local truck stop in February. (It's not glamorous, but it's money and it's honest. *shrug* I'll take that any day.) Well, working at the truck stop has lead to a lot of hilarity, but I didn't expect it to lead to yet ANOTHER cat. May was surprisingly hot, and we tried to keep the truck stop doors closed all the time- the AC isn't meant to cool the outdoors- but after a propane leak nearly knocked me out and stunk up the whole store, I had to keep the doors open all day one Sunday afternoon.
Around eight-thirty at night, three kids walk into the store, look down, look at me and say "There's a cat in here." ...greaaaaaaaaaaat. I tell them to give it to me, thinking if it's full grown, I'll just tuck it out back where it won't get hurt. The truck stop has several feral cats that like to prowl the parking lot. What do they give me? A six week old grey kitten. *facedesk* I check to make sure the kitten is female, get a bottle of milk and give her some, and then call Neko. We agreed that it was okay to bring in yet ANOTHER cat- I swear... The gods need to stop putting helpless animals in my path!!- and I play with her a bit until I get off work.
Enter the Grixis. (Yes, I was playing WAY too much Magic the Gathering when we got her.)
We kept her in our bedroom for a month or so, giving the other cats time to get used to her scent and letting her get big enough to handle their rough and tumble play. She ended up cuddling with me- Neko was disappointed that yet another cat had chosen Mommy over Daddy- nigh constantly and prowled out of the bedroom within the month. She's proven herself to remain a constant CLING- I cannot sit down for more than four minutes before I have a Grixis in my lap- and is oddly enough the only cat we have who has rather noxious gas. (Reminds me of the Shetland Sheepdog, Meg, that my parents and I had when I was in high school. That dog could clear a room!) She's a uniform slate grey, but has four dark grey bands at the end of her tail. Her nickname is Pudding simply because she has what I'm guessing is a tabby trait: that flabby belly that dangles and is fun to prod. Of all of our cats, Grixis is... well, she looks like a Tzimisce experiment. Her face is very finely boned and almost more Egyptian than Sekkies, but she has that flabby belly and very long, muscular limbs. Her eyes aren't as big as Chi's- I don't think any cat has eyes as big as Chi's!- but they are a lovely dark greenish-gold
She is, point in fact, on my lap right now. Grixis is an insta-purr. Just add cuddle. ^_^ She loves to play, and has kept the kitten biting trait into her later months. Of all the cats we have, she's the easiest to get to know because Grixis doesn't understand the idea of strangers. If it's there and it's new, then it's fun! We're not sure on her musical preference yet, but she actually likes Stephen King. (She purrs very, very loudly when I'm reading one of his books, and will often bat the page to get me to turn it.) Grixis will also wake up if I call her name, and immediately dash over to hop onto my lap and begin the rumble purr that Neko loves.
Item Six: "...what was that?"
With Sekkies back in the house, Neko was finally happy that his black baby had come back to him. We wondered if she was pregnant, as she was developing teats, but she never complained or fussed when we gently prodded her belly. We thought it might have been a "I got laid" thing, or even a miscarriage had started her cycle. Well, one Saturday night a little over six weeks ago, Neko and I came home, switched on the lights and heard a very, very faint mew. Lo and behold, Sekkies was curled up in the corner by the couch, and there was a TINY tabby bundle nursing away. She'd popped, and we had baby number 7.
Sekkies was, and still is, a *wonderful* mother. She was very attentive, very protective and very careful of her baby. She did, however, allow us to handle the baby without a problem. Neko and I love having cats that aren't spooks, so we made sure to give the baby a lot of gentle pets and affection. (I know you're not supposed to handle the babies for a while, but Sekkies never protested when we- gah, Grixis stink. Must boot cat off of lap before I gag to death!- approached her and the baby.) Neko and I had raised Cricket and Laurie from a young age, and we wanted to see what the difference was if the kitten had Momma there to help with the development.
...wow, is all I can say. Remembering what the twins were like, and doing a little research, the baby ended up being WAY ahead of the curve. His eyes were open a week early, he was bounding around a week early... Everything seemed to get a week jump-start! Now he's a finely fleshed kitten- definately male; Nom is slated for fixing in the next month or so, and the baby will get it when he's six months old- and a bundle of wild energy! I dubbed him 'Dante,' simply because all of our other cats are named for some sort of enthusiasm- Laurie is short for Laurence (you know about the mistake I made already,) and Neko had always wanted a cat named Cricket; Sekhem is for Egypt, Chi is for anime, Grixis is for Magic the Gathering and Nom is for the lolcats- and I both love the poem and the video game that's scheduled to come out in February.
He is absolutely adorable! A clear grey tabby with very pronounced black stripes, a hint of that lovely reddish-brown on paws, ears and face, and with a white bib, and a little white around his eyes and muzzle. Neko's hoping his eyes will stay the same bluish-grey they are right now, but I'm guessing he'll end up with green. He's VERY energetic, and VERY playful. (He is, of course, a baby.) It's hilarious to watch him figuring out how to hop sideways, and Grixis is teaching him how to box. (She's the only cat we have who sits on her haunches and boxes with her forepaws.) As I write, he's bounding around the living room, sniffing at everything and tackling his momma's tail. We're working on litterbox training at the moment, so it's *write, watch the baby, is he squatting? nab the baby, dash to the litterbox, drop him in, praise, show him how to dig and cover, pet and praise* which is amusing to watch.
There you have it. A full account of our household of felines and how they came to join our family!
Item One: The Twins
Living in Las Cruces, at the two-bedroom apartment Neko and I shared with several roommates, I randomly adopted a beautiful Siamese who I named Seraphie. A month after this- in our 'no pets' apartment, no less; since when I have listened to the rules? Breaking them leads to interesting developments: i.e. living here in Lubbock- Neko was late coming home. He knocked on the apartment door- odd enough in itself; people came and went through our apartment all the time- and when I opened the door, he had a cardboard box under his arm, two creamers from McDonalds in his hand and an adorable 'don't kill me' look on his face. All I could say was "How many?" "Two." "Come on, let me see them."
What was in the box were a pair of three-week old kittens. The first- erroneously named Laurence, because for some reason I believed it was male- was a tiny calico. The other was an equally small fluffy grey ball. Neko had found them with the guard dog behind the auto shop he worked in at the time. The dog, rather than trying to eat the helpless babies, had been desperately trying to keep them warm. So Laurie and Cricket entered our lives.
Now, at this point, I'd had NO experience in raising kittens. Baby guinea pigs are easy: they're born fully-furred, eyes open, with teeth and are able to eat solid foods an hour after birth. The flock of guinea pigs we had were fantastic, and the only baby creatures I'd helped raise. For Cricket and Laurie... Well... It was a bit more work. Work meaning Mommy waking up at six a.m. every morning to mix a rather loathsome looking/smelling concoction of wet cat food and milk, warm it up and stuff the kittens into the dish set on an increasingly icky towel. Cricket had a tendancy to run THROUGH the low dish, while Laurie always ate too fast, made me think she was drowning and then rolling in what was left of the meal. Needless to say, our babies got a LOT of bathing in their first months.
By the time they were two months old- and galloping noisily through our bedroom at two a.m.- Cricket had already developed into a bit of a cling. Laurie was more aloof and preferred attention at sporadic intervals. Both of them imprinted a LOT of feline behaviour off of the tolerant Seraphie, and ended up being as vocal as Siamese are reputed to be. (We don't know their parentage, but they're both utterly beautiful and oddly skinny, no matter how we've tried to fatten them up.) When Seraphie chose the outdoor life, Cricket and Laurie had already formed very tight bonds with each other and us. Cricket still prefers me- and makes a habit of slithering in front of whatever I'm reading to gain attention- and Laurie is still our aloof princess. She does, however, like Neko enough to perch on him quite often.
Cricket is about three pounds with medium-length fur. She has white markings around her eyes, nose and mouth that look like smudged clown makeup, and is a champion purrer. She's also more of a 'parrot' cat, and tends to paw or meow loudly when she wants attention. (Read: constantly.) More skittish than her sister, Cricket doesn't like strangers, but will allow herself to be approached if Neko or I are holding her. Musically, Cricket prefers soft rock or rock ballads. She loves "Stairway to Heaven."
Laurie is, thankfully, four pounds now. (We thought she'd NEVER gain weight.) She is a long-limbed, elegantly fashioned calico with pale silver, gold and charcoal markings on a pristine white coat. On her forehead is a symmetrical copper patch which looks remarkably like a crown. (One of the many reasons we call her our princess.) She prefers sleeping on the bar, and when she wants attention, she'll hop onto Neko's lap and settle herself. Laurie is a bit of a groupie in that if you're playing Guitar Hero/Rock Band/a CD and you begin singing along, she'll wake up, run to you, hop up onto your lap or paw your back and meow. She prefers heavy metal, like Rob Zombie, and often pulls my headphones off if I'm listening to Metallica on my MP3 player.
Item Two: The Tiny Terror Cometh
Not long after Seraphie left us, and Neko's acquisition of a tailless grey we called Tempest didn't work out, our former roommate told us about a woman she worked with who'd had a recent litter of kittens. I asked if there were any females left- Neko has a thing about daughters; he loves calling them his 'girls'- and there was one. That one arrived when I was half-asleep, brought by Chela in a small cardboard box. What I pulled out was an absolutely tiny ball of tabby fur and white paws. This little bundle of adorable was promptly 'adopted' by Neko- he's always wanted a cat to absolutely adore HIM above all; we're still trying for that- and named Chi by me. (She was so damn cute, she was 'chibi' and 'kawaii' for a month. Gotta love anime influence, no?) Chi- who's full title is Chibi Tora Toe-White Trouble Swinford; she has my surname because she's my little bitch- was Neko's adored baby for a month.
With two semi-grown cats already in the house, we thought it best to keep the baby isolated in our bedroom until she was old enough to defend herself against any rough and tumble play. Therefore, Chi ruled our bedroom like a tiny tyrant. For quite a while, she was Neko's little darling, and would ONLY sleep when he nabbed her up, told her 'Chi, it's time for bed,' and rolled over to his side to cuddle her. Otherwise the little hellion would hop on and off the bed, slide down my face- I had quite a few painful scratches on my eyelids thanks to the tiny nutcase- and meow loud enough to wake the dead.
As always happens, I was the cat disciplinarian and Neko was the softie. One day, he *had* to discipline her- we established rules about eating Mommy's books, Daddy's 360 cords or the shower curtain early on- and Chi considered him an utter traitor. All of a sudden, *I* was the shining star in her universe, and I was, quite honestly, delighted. I have a weakness for grey tabby cats, and I adored the little hellcat. From then on, Chi was my tempermental darling, and yes, I think everything she does is right and good. (Except biting my pen while I'm writing.) When we moved, Chi was the one who explored the house first, and she's ALWAYS getting into something interesting.
Of all our cats- current babies included- Chi is the smallest. Barely two pounds, she looks like a grown cat in miniature. She's a lovely steel tabby with black stripes- they form into clean tiger stripes on her legs- soft white paws and HUGE anime eyes. The white markings around her petite muzzle make it look smaller, and she's my tiny tiger. Chi is, of all our cats, the most tempermental. One minute she'll cuddle in my lap, purring and 'love me!' and the next second she's clawed my arm, hissed and gone chasing after Laurie, intent on biting her head off. We understand each other perfectly, and if I poke her tail once in a while to laugh at her hissing, she gets back at me by jumping off of my head.
Chi is also the most...acrobatic cat we have. Our ceiling is fake wood paneling with beams running from one wall to the other, and it's about eight feet high. The bar separating kitchen from living room is about four feet high, with cabinetry overhead. Chi, in pursuit of a bug, leapt from the edge of the bar ONTO the ceiling and somehow latched onto one of the beams, dangling there while Mommy dove over the coffee table to save her tabby ass. Without a doubt, Chi is our wildest girl, and the apple of my eye.
Item Three: Bad Luck?
So, with Cricket, Laurie and Chi established as our children, Neko's lifelong want of a black cat came back up, and Chela once more knew someone with a young female black cat available for adoption. Enter #4: Sekhem. Incidentally, she chose her own name. (So says Neko.) When she arrived, Neko took her into our bedroom and wouldn't let me go in, on the argument all the cats liked me best, and she was his. He took with him my copy of the Book of the Dead, and a book of Egyptian mythology. The name choice was made by him turning pages, letting her see what was on the page, and reading various names out to her. Apparently Sekhem was the word that made her purr loudest. Thusly: Sekhem. (We call her Sekkies.) Neko's black-furred love was in the house.
Of course, we didn't get her quite as young as we did Cricket and Laurie, or even Chi. Sekkies was about three months old when she came to us, and it showed. She was the most stand-offish cat we had, avoiding laps, tolerating petting and preferring to cuddle with Cricket or Chi. An excellent hunter, she was the one who'd smack jingle balls around at three a.m. and a decided glutton. In the apartment, I tripped over her hundreds of times because a black cat is freakin' HARD to see in a dark room.
When we moved up to Lubbock, it was Sekkies who was most interested in the 'great outdoors' which could be viewed from the windows, and while she'd warmed up a bit by January- all of the cats had to settle after the upheval of moving- she was still wilder than the rest of them. Neko was despairing of ever having his 'baby cat' the way I did Chi. (And Cricket. She's always going to be my cling.) Naturally, Sekkies and Cricket managed to open the back door and went exploring. Cricket returned after being outdoors for several hours, and was scolded, bathed and loved on. Sekkies, however, seemed to revel in the freedom, and Neko was heartbroken that she didn't come back.
Granted, we DID see her quite often. She'd be hanging out with that no-account fluffy grey tabby tomcat from the barn, or running across the yard, but she'd never come up for pets, and always ran when Neko approached her. Well, as an unfixed female cat on her own, you can guess that she got knocked up. Neko and I weren't aware she was pregnant when she began hanging around the house, staying under the porch and joining our three outdoor cats for their daily meal. After two weeks of this new cuddly nature, and Neko growing a bit more forlorn every time he petted her outdoors, Mommy hauled her back in, bathed the living hell out of her, picked all the icky bugs- i.e. ticks- off of her ears and let her reacquaint herself with indoor life.
Sekkies has been an absolute love since then. (I say she learned her lesson.) Neko says she simply needed to be a mother, but we'll have to come to that later. Needless to say, she's still his special darling, absolutely beautiful and thoroughly spoiled. Sekhem is beautifully formed, with jet-black fur and large greenish-yellow eyes. Her face is very sculpted, and she wears a gold collar with rhinestones that Neko picked out for her. There is, of course, an Isis charm attached. She's not as cuddly as Chi can be, but she loves to be petted, has established herself as a fixture on the back of the couch and purrs LOUDLY when her chin is scritched.
Item Four: ...it's a boy?
When Neko and I moved to Lubbock from Las Cruces, we had quite a hard time getting up and running. Granted, we were looking for work in the 'off' season, but it was disheartening to have such a difficult time. Regardless, we kept looking, took care of our cats- they ate better than WE did during those months- and kept scouting for jobs. A temporary job that Neko found was working in a cotton gin. (...that is HORRIBLE work, lemme tell ya. He'd come home and his skin was like ICE.) One night, while he was working, I got a frantic call because two kittens had run into a seed grinder. Needless to say, Neko was UPset, as was I. We sobbed a little together over the phone, and he had to go back to work.
Well, I woke up at seven thirty in the morning with an ice-cold Neko standing over me, holding a ball of black and white fur. One of the kittens had managed- we don't know how- to make it THROUGH the machinery and into a broken-down Coca-Cola soda machine. Neko cornered it there and brought it home. Firstly named Pepper- short for Dr Pepper- we raised the little purrball as we had the others: make sure it can eat dry food safely, isolate it from the other cats to allow for 'get to know each other' time and to make sure no illnesses come up and love the living hell out of it. This resulted in having Pepper sleep in our bedroom for a month, and many adorable pictures of the tiny salt-and-pepper ball peering at Mommy and Daddy's sleepy faces through cell phone pictures.
Pepper as a name didn't last very long, simply because the baby had a habit of 'noming' on everything in sight, including our hands. (Just baby behaviour, true, but enough to give a permanent name.) So 'Pepper' became tha Nom. Naturally, as the baby grew, it became pretty clear that what I'd thought was a SHE became a HE. *snerk* Well, in a house with four girls- none of whom have been fixed- it was a bit of a concern. We kept an eye on him for months until it got to the point that he wouldn't leave the girls alone, and they were half-pulling off his face for sniffing at them so constantly. Nom now has his own room, and is given quite a bit of preferential treatment. He's an absolute LOVE. Adores being cuddled and petted, purrs like a motorboat and drools while he does it. *snerk*
Nom is, quite frankly, the most beautiful cat we have. He's a medium-haired black and white with huge green eyes. Until we got him, I'd never noticed how feminine the other cats look. There is a definate difference between boy and girl cats! He's very masculine, and certainly has a healthy body weight. Nom is just... striking. His stark black and white colouring is glossy, silky and fairly gleams. We got him a G.I. Joe name tag that says "Nom The Sexy Wonder" and you can hear it jingle when he's bounding around his room. He knows he's a beauty, and he'll often pose if you call his name and hold up a cell phone. He's also very friendly to everyone, unlike the rest of our twitchy girls. He doesn't have favourites, like Chi or Laurie, but loves to be cuddled by Daddy or me.
Item Five: "Hey, um... Neko?"
It took a little while, but both Neko and I found gainful employment. Neko began working for a security company in January, and I was hired on at the local truck stop in February. (It's not glamorous, but it's money and it's honest. *shrug* I'll take that any day.) Well, working at the truck stop has lead to a lot of hilarity, but I didn't expect it to lead to yet ANOTHER cat. May was surprisingly hot, and we tried to keep the truck stop doors closed all the time- the AC isn't meant to cool the outdoors- but after a propane leak nearly knocked me out and stunk up the whole store, I had to keep the doors open all day one Sunday afternoon.
Around eight-thirty at night, three kids walk into the store, look down, look at me and say "There's a cat in here." ...greaaaaaaaaaaat. I tell them to give it to me, thinking if it's full grown, I'll just tuck it out back where it won't get hurt. The truck stop has several feral cats that like to prowl the parking lot. What do they give me? A six week old grey kitten. *facedesk* I check to make sure the kitten is female, get a bottle of milk and give her some, and then call Neko. We agreed that it was okay to bring in yet ANOTHER cat- I swear... The gods need to stop putting helpless animals in my path!!- and I play with her a bit until I get off work.
Enter the Grixis. (Yes, I was playing WAY too much Magic the Gathering when we got her.)
We kept her in our bedroom for a month or so, giving the other cats time to get used to her scent and letting her get big enough to handle their rough and tumble play. She ended up cuddling with me- Neko was disappointed that yet another cat had chosen Mommy over Daddy- nigh constantly and prowled out of the bedroom within the month. She's proven herself to remain a constant CLING- I cannot sit down for more than four minutes before I have a Grixis in my lap- and is oddly enough the only cat we have who has rather noxious gas. (Reminds me of the Shetland Sheepdog, Meg, that my parents and I had when I was in high school. That dog could clear a room!) She's a uniform slate grey, but has four dark grey bands at the end of her tail. Her nickname is Pudding simply because she has what I'm guessing is a tabby trait: that flabby belly that dangles and is fun to prod. Of all of our cats, Grixis is... well, she looks like a Tzimisce experiment. Her face is very finely boned and almost more Egyptian than Sekkies, but she has that flabby belly and very long, muscular limbs. Her eyes aren't as big as Chi's- I don't think any cat has eyes as big as Chi's!- but they are a lovely dark greenish-gold
She is, point in fact, on my lap right now. Grixis is an insta-purr. Just add cuddle. ^_^ She loves to play, and has kept the kitten biting trait into her later months. Of all the cats we have, she's the easiest to get to know because Grixis doesn't understand the idea of strangers. If it's there and it's new, then it's fun! We're not sure on her musical preference yet, but she actually likes Stephen King. (She purrs very, very loudly when I'm reading one of his books, and will often bat the page to get me to turn it.) Grixis will also wake up if I call her name, and immediately dash over to hop onto my lap and begin the rumble purr that Neko loves.
Item Six: "...what was that?"
With Sekkies back in the house, Neko was finally happy that his black baby had come back to him. We wondered if she was pregnant, as she was developing teats, but she never complained or fussed when we gently prodded her belly. We thought it might have been a "I got laid" thing, or even a miscarriage had started her cycle. Well, one Saturday night a little over six weeks ago, Neko and I came home, switched on the lights and heard a very, very faint mew. Lo and behold, Sekkies was curled up in the corner by the couch, and there was a TINY tabby bundle nursing away. She'd popped, and we had baby number 7.
Sekkies was, and still is, a *wonderful* mother. She was very attentive, very protective and very careful of her baby. She did, however, allow us to handle the baby without a problem. Neko and I love having cats that aren't spooks, so we made sure to give the baby a lot of gentle pets and affection. (I know you're not supposed to handle the babies for a while, but Sekkies never protested when we- gah, Grixis stink. Must boot cat off of lap before I gag to death!- approached her and the baby.) Neko and I had raised Cricket and Laurie from a young age, and we wanted to see what the difference was if the kitten had Momma there to help with the development.
...wow, is all I can say. Remembering what the twins were like, and doing a little research, the baby ended up being WAY ahead of the curve. His eyes were open a week early, he was bounding around a week early... Everything seemed to get a week jump-start! Now he's a finely fleshed kitten- definately male; Nom is slated for fixing in the next month or so, and the baby will get it when he's six months old- and a bundle of wild energy! I dubbed him 'Dante,' simply because all of our other cats are named for some sort of enthusiasm- Laurie is short for Laurence (you know about the mistake I made already,) and Neko had always wanted a cat named Cricket; Sekhem is for Egypt, Chi is for anime, Grixis is for Magic the Gathering and Nom is for the lolcats- and I both love the poem and the video game that's scheduled to come out in February.
He is absolutely adorable! A clear grey tabby with very pronounced black stripes, a hint of that lovely reddish-brown on paws, ears and face, and with a white bib, and a little white around his eyes and muzzle. Neko's hoping his eyes will stay the same bluish-grey they are right now, but I'm guessing he'll end up with green. He's VERY energetic, and VERY playful. (He is, of course, a baby.) It's hilarious to watch him figuring out how to hop sideways, and Grixis is teaching him how to box. (She's the only cat we have who sits on her haunches and boxes with her forepaws.) As I write, he's bounding around the living room, sniffing at everything and tackling his momma's tail. We're working on litterbox training at the moment, so it's *write, watch the baby, is he squatting? nab the baby, dash to the litterbox, drop him in, praise, show him how to dig and cover, pet and praise* which is amusing to watch.
There you have it. A full account of our household of felines and how they came to join our family!