Finnish newbie

Hello everybody,

My name's kutoja1987, but I'll also answer to Kutoja, Amanda or "Hey you, crazy cat lady!" I'm a 24-year-old bookworm of an IT student who still lives with her mum because we'd both go stir crazy living on our own (I've tried it, not fun). Besides, this way I have help with the terrible threesome!

I'm a somewhat paranoid first-time cat-mum with three cats. Their names, in order of adoption, are Suzie (age 4, maybe 5), Sammy (also female, aged 3), and Silky (male, also about 3). They all came from the Helsinki city shelter, where they don't actually spay or neuter animals before adoption (we don't have an overpopulation problem, at least not yet), instead they "strongly recommend" you have it done. My cats were all also seized by a vet from their original homes: the girls were both pregnant and/or with kittens (I think Sammy gave birth at the shelter, and she was only about 9 months old at the time!) and Silky had a broken tooth his owner (presumably) couldn't afford to have fixed. The girls, obviously, were still intact when we adopted them (about a month apart): the first thing I did in bringing them home was take them to be spayed. Silky was already neutered when his former owner (presumably) surrendered him to a vet after hearing the price quote for a tooth extraction. I'd like to give him or her the benefit of the doubt because Silky shows every sign of having been somebody's baby before I got him - no behavioural problems at all.

Suzie is a stubborn tortoiseshell slash calico (mostly tortie, but her chest, throat, chin and stomach are all white, and so are her back legs up to her ankles) with enough tortitude to put three lesser cats to shame. Her favourite activities are eating, sleeping and making sure that annoying upstart (Silky) isn't anywhere near her. She's not usually terribly affectionate except when trying to con one of us into giving her Second Breakfast.

Sammy is a cute little tortie who, when not sleeping like the dead, enjoys playing tag with Silky, killing herself chasing after laser dots or dangler pole toys (especially feathers), and snuggling with my mum on the bed (I'm just the tin opener, or the evil person who visits such indignities as worming and claw clipping upon her). She's still pretty kittenish with her tiny, plaintive voice and petite frame.

Silky was supposed to be my granddad's lap-cat (Grandad lived with us), but he went and bonded with me instead as a result of the way we organised kitty intros. Silky was in my room because Grandad was too old and unstable on his feet to keep him from joining the girls and starting World War III during a night-time toilet trip. Just as well: Grandad passed away about five months after we adopted Silky.

Silky seems to think I'm a cross between Mummy, bed-warmer, and indentured tummy-scritcher. He's a food-fiend of the worst order and howls at your feet if you open the fridge and he thinks there's sandwich turkey (his absolute favourite food) to be had. Needless to say, he only gets that particular treat occasionally! Silky's very dog-like: he follows me around the flat (we often refer to him as a "puppy-cat") and even plays fetch, which I never taught him to do. Most likely his former owner had something to do with that. He's also incredibly sweet and patient with people (it takes a lot to get him to nip or scratch, and even when he nips hard out of excitement it never breaks the skin). He's a bit of an overgrown kitten (5.5 kilos): he always wants to play, which the girls aren't always thrilled about, and doesn't seem to know his own strength. Wrestling matches with Sammy (about 4 kilos, often a bit less) usually end with Sammy squawking in pain and me intervening.