CAT POST
Time for my long-threatened cat post! I spent about an hour this morning photographing them, so don't expect amazing photographs. The photo above is old, taken at dinner time. (We leave dry food out all the time, but they get two cans between them in the evening.)
I'm going to go from oldest to youngest because why not? That means first up is Smokey.
Smokey, Smokes, Booger, Booger Face (those last two nicknames are only used by my older brother)
Smokey is about 20 and I'm 25, which means I've had her for most of my life. I still remember getting her - she's the only cat (aside from Nousha, but Nousha was still a rescue) we don't have from a shelter. We went to this lady's house and, in my memory, there were kittens EVERYWHERE. Somehow we agreed on Smokey (I mean, how do you get three kids, aged 12, 5, and 3, to agree on anything?!) and man, has she been just the best cat. I mean, really, she is a prime example of lady cats - independent, a great hunter (we put a bell on her collar - didn't stop her), gorgeous and fluffy, lithe... She's mellowed down a fair amount over the years, wanting more and more pets, but she's still pretty capable.
Here we can see Smokey doing what she loves best: eating. She's ravenous all the time, because when her hyperthyroid came back a couple of years ago she was too old for surgery. She has pills to manage it, but getting them in her is hell. Is the stress of giving her the pill enough that it's better we don't? We're really struggling with finding a balance between letting her pass on comfortably and maximizing her lifespan. =\ =\ =\
Pearl, Pearlita, Fatty (the last used only by my older brother), 15 years old
We got Pearl about a dozen years ago after a couple of our older cats had died. Both my brother and I got to pick a cat from the shelter. He picked Athene (below) and I picked Pearl, who had been at the shelter for almost two months! I couldn't believe that such a gorgeous lady was having so much trouble finding a home and scooped her right up. :)
Pearl would be much, much happier in a one-cat household. She loooooves people and likes to sit out on the sidewalk and get petted by passersby. Her other major characteristic is her grumpiness, which mostly manifests in her crankily meowing if she is disturbed in any way.
My favorite time to photograph Pearl is when the acacias behind her are blooming. Her black and white fur is a lovely contrast to the soft pink flowers. I'm digging the bare branches, though!
Athene, Thena, Drooly, 14 years old
And my younger brother, Brian, picked this lovely gal, who had only been in the shelter for like two days. :P Thena is definitely the beauty queen of the group - our only long hair. Of course, she gets worse at grooming herself every year, so we have to brush her regularly to prevent mattes (mats?).
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Look at that coloring!
Of course, Thena is also the biggest spaz and most irritating cat we have. She's always been a bit clumsy - I have a picture of her hanging off a tree branch by her two front paws. Classic. She's suuuuuper needy - always wanting to be around you and be petted by you and sleep right in your face. This wouldn't be so bad, except she also drools a *heck* of a lot (see her last nickname), possibly because of her under bite. I mean, really, it's terrible. Her drool is thick, viscous and so, so abundant.
But I don't want to give you the wrong idea - her need is also endearing and petting her becomes an intense bonding experience because she's so into it. Even though I want to throttle her more than any of the others, I really do love her a lot.
Brett, Bretito, Brat, Mister, Little Mister, 11 years old
My boy! We got Brett and Fanny (below) my first year of high school after my cat, Carissa, died and I was HEARTBROKEN. These guys were the only two kittens in the shelter (it was the off season) and the people there really wanted them adopted together. My mom was a bit reluctant, that would make five cats in the house, but she knew how much it meant to me. (Also, if it's not clear, Brett and Fanny are siblings.)
Brett is a bit of an asshole and pees and sprays in the house when he's upset. He's also the biggest sweetheart of the bunch with the loudest purr you've ever heard. He's also the most playful of the old guys - when we got Nousha, he was the only one who would play with her (and he still is).
Brett is also the cat who had me the most worried, medically speaking - he was infected with the Bartonella bacterium, which, in a rare manifestation, made his paws puff up, crack, and eventually bleed. If I was a better writer, I would be able to evoke how painful it was to watch him walk so tenderly on his bloody, infected paws day after day, not knowing what was wrong or how to fix it. I'd make you feel how it was to fill the bathtub with a couple of inches of warm water every few days and make him move and walk in the water to break up some of the junk he accumulated, hearing his worried meows and his intensely frightened purring. (He's one of those that purrs when he's scared, bless.)
We spent months going to vets (which he HATED, of course - he'd meow while in the crate, then we'd get to the vet and he'd refuse to leave it and purr the whole appointment), trying various medications and treatments, while my sweet boy walked on his painful paws. It breaks my heart to see animals in pain, because they ignore it, they just try to keep going. Anyway, the story has a happy ending - we finally went to a specialist who had seen this before (though Brett's case was the worst he'd seen... :( sorry, buddy!) and guessed that it was Bartonella. With the right medication, his paws got better very quickly.
Fanny, Fancy, Fatty, 11 years
Sorry for this pic's quality - Fanny is *actually* the biggest spaz, so it's hard to get a good pic of her. Fanny and Brett were both brought into the shelter off the street and you can tell. They both have broken tails: Fanny's is broken *just* at the tip, while Brett's is broken two to three times at the end. They're also both jumpy, albeit in different ways. Brett flinches when you put your hand out to pet him, whereas Fanny just lives in a perpetual state of nerves. New things are INCREDIBLY SUSPICIOUS. She likes to go lay in the sun outside, but will take every precaution that outside is Safe and that she won't be locked out. I.e. If I move while she's on her way out, she scampers back into the house.
She, like Brett, has a loud purr (though not AS loud) and loves to be petted, if you can get her not to run away from you. A good tip for that is to approach her a little sideways/diagonally. I don't think I could ever leave and not take her with me because she is almost comfortable around me. I mean, hey, I can sit on the couch while she's on it and she won't move.
One last bit of sense from Fanny: She is the most allergic to fleas, but also the one who hates getting the medication the most. God damn it, cat.
Nousha, Noushka*, Noushkers, Baby, Babs, Miss, Miss Miss
Nousha is the baby at just over 1.5 years of age. We got her last year in September. I was at a friend's birthday party and when I arrived there was a gaggle of girls around a trash can, which just so happened to have an adorable kitten on it. We fed her, took her inside to get comfy and warm, then took pictures and canvassed the neighborhood a little half-assedly to see if anybody had lost her. We couldn't find her owner/s and all the local shelters were full, which presented a problem - one of the occupants of the house was allergic to cats, so the kitten couldn't stay there. The birthday girl (Mia, for you RL friends who inexplicably don't know the story already) couldn't take her as she had somebirdie at home. Zoe was willing, but knew her mom wouldn't be happy. Nobody else could take her. So I called up my mom and asked if I could bring home a kitten, temporarily of course!, and she said yes.
And then we fell in love and couldn't give her up. :P
I think it's kind of funny... Our kitty bookenders, Smokey and Nousha, are both the cattiest cats I know, compared to our other oddballs. I would definitely vote for them as Representatives of our household to the Cat Congress.
Something that will surely only be amusing/interesting to me is that I know Nousha's schedule.
8 am - Come in, wake me up for a second, then sleep with me until I or somebody else gets up.
When someone gets up - GO OUTSIDE YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY
A couple of hours in the afternoon - Siesta!
Post Siesta - GO OUTSIDE YAAAAAAAAY
5ish - Must come in so dinner is not missed!
6ish - DINNER
After dinner - GO OUTSIDE YAAAAAAAAAAY
Between 10 and 11 pm - Come inside for the night.
The problem being evening deviation, which is mostly a human problem. Usually what happens is that I won't let her out after dinner, then she'll rush out when my mom comes home at 8:30 and her four outside evening hours means she won't come in until midnight or 1 or even later.
*Polish diminutives use 'k's - Kamila becomes Kamilka, Robert becomes Robertczik, kot (cat) becomes kotek/koteczek (kitten). ('cz', btw, is pronounced 'ch'. The 'z' in Polish is often used as an 'h' - 'sz' is 'sh'. There, I just made Polish names almost easy to pronounce!) Of course, Nousha is a name I took from Farsi, so it doesn't make sense to use a Polish diminutive on it... Though no less sense that using a Spanish diminutive (-ito/ita) on Pearl and Brett, I suppose!
BONUS KITTY
Jewel, 8ish years?
I just happened to have this picture in my SD card, you lucky things! This is one of my dad's two cats, Jewel. Isn't she pretty? She was suuuuuper shy as a kitten, but now she is a demanding love muffin.