Rocket, the Queen

Rocket gets what she wants around our house. Her brothers protect and pamper her. Tonight she wanted to cuddle with Nightfury. You can tell how excited Fury is about the whole thing. LOL [emoji]128514[/emoji]

     @Kieka...You know what these photos remind me of...Especially the look on Fury's face, and his eyes saying it all...

Have you ever had a cat just come up and lay down on top of you, the human, and you cannot possibly move.. ...since that would disturb your cat, and you lay there wondering...how long should I stay here, until I move?? 

Fury has that same look in his eyes, and with Rocket's paw on top of him...he cannot move. 

The only thing that I'm wondering is what is Fury thinking ?....It cannot be shopping lists, and "is there anything important that I have to do today?"    

LOL

I am pretty sure he is trying to figure a way out. When she's in that mood if he moves any she just snuggles in closer.

Kieka said:

LOL

I am pretty sure he is trying to figure a way out. When she's in that mood if he moves any she just snuggles in closer.

Click to expand...

Lol..."figuring a way out"...    Poor Fury, any move causes more snuggles.

He's hoping that Rocket goes into a deep sleep, so he can use the blanket, make his own little shape, so he can slowly inch away. Probably falling out of bed looks good to him, at this point.

Sweet, though, that he doesn't just get up and leave.  He sounds like a thoughtful cat.  

He usually ends up just falling asleep and she'll leave before he wakes up, most times.

He is pretty patient and gentle.

I've heard him hiss at her a few times when she was younger but not in over a year. Even the times when she's full on flopped on top of his head (ouch) or inserted herself between his face and body when he is grooming himself demanding he cleans her and now. Its funny to watch because she just kinda slides in while he is mid-lick and it takes him a few licks to notice (shes 3 pounds lighter and a good two inches smaller in all directions so she can fit in small spaces). He just gives us a look and keeps grooming her before settling down himself. She loves her cuddle brother. 

He loves her despite it too. He'll catch crickets and lizards for her. Bring them right to her and drop them on her feet. She doesn't share back though and he'll just find a spot to watch her play with whatever he brought her. When Link was missing he upgraded to mice for her.

This was a beetle he brought her when she was 5 months old.


This is what she did when Link tried to steal aforementioned beetle, the beetle is under her paw on the ground: 


This was the first time she was trying to cuddle with him and trying to figure out how to get in, about a month or two after I got her (about same time as above). 


And these are two times he was settling on my Moms lap and she jumped up and slide in for some cuddle/grooming: 

Oh, wow, those are adorable kitten photos of Rocket!

Those first two are hilarious. The beetle looks to be as big as her tiny paw.  And the way she has her left paw on Link, is too cute. It's like she's giving Link the universal stop sign, until she finishes with her bug.

I can't believe how your two boys definitely treated her with gentleness and patience.

Also amazing that NightFury will bring home 'presents' for 'his princess: Rocket".

She looks adorable in your mom's lap, and how she slides in for grooming sessions.

(It's so opposite of my cats, who are siblings, with the girl cat liking to lick and groom everyone, while the boys, just groom themselves.

And they never, never share any centipedes, moths, flies or mice that they catch. It's basically, they just catch and go off and want to enjoy on their own.

The one girl and boy cat, used to bring me mice to show, but I would take them away, and give them treats instead. I guess it was not a fair trade for them, so they don't do it anymore.)

How did you come up with the names for your cats?

Nightfury was found in a box at 3 weeks old. He was so skinny and he had huge eyes on his little head. My Mom instantly thought he looks like Toothless the Nightfury Dragon from How to Train Your Dragon. But she couldn't call him Toothless because that was silly.... thats my Moms logic.... so he is Nightfury. Although we usually just call him Fury or Furry.

Link was going to be Lynx but people kept thinking I said Link and I like Zelda so I went with it.

Rocket, we thought was a boy at first so Rocket the Raccoon in Guardians of the Galaxy. For the face mask of a raccoon and the fighting spirit she had. When we figured out she was a girl it just already fit her personality and energy level so it stuck.

Rocket is tiny though, shes almost 7 lbs. Link is 13 lbs and Fury is 9 lbs. Its funny seeing them line up because there is such an obvious size difference. Fury is her cuddle brother and Link her play brother. She gets very confused if Fury tries to play or Link tries to cuddle. But shes small enough that she can dive under Link when they are playing and he just sits on her when he gets tired.

Here is Fury trying to convince her to play, that look from her says it all. In her defense Fury is horrible at play. He lasts about 10 seconds and as soon as it is his turn to be chased he runs crying to my Mom and hides on her lap (not exaggerating). When Link (cause Rocket doesn't play his game) walks away Fury will jump on him and run off to the top of the dryer. Link can't jump so Fury just stares at him until Link walks away. Every time.


We got lucky with personalities. Fury is the oldest at 3.5 years, Link 2.5 and Rocket 1.5. I had time to devote to my two as kittens to work on manners, socialization and training (recognize name, boundaries, acceptable behavior, etc). Fury just thinks hes a small fuzzy human sometimes but bottle baby and my Mom is retired so he grew up practically attached to her. I was hesitant to keep Rocket but she really filled a gap between the boys we didn't know existed. Link has an energy outlet that plays nice and Fury can dote on his sister.

Oh and Link is a restless sleeper. If he isn't awake he is stretching and repositioning frequently. So he doesn't cuddle with anyone. He does sleep with others, one paw touching, just not curled up with.


He patrols and protects the house and Rocket. When its bedtime he checks the whole house and if your door is closed he yells until it is opened to check. He gets up every few hours at night to patrol again. But he watches out for his sister big time.

Just a week ago I picked up Rocket to put her collar back on. She protested greatly (hates being picked up) and he came from nowhere charging at me. He skidded to a stop, bumping my leg, when he saw I had her. Gave himself a lick and went back to where he was. But he's her protector outside too. She got sprayed with a hose or sprinkler one time and came home whinning and wet. He got up from his nap checked her over, went off in the direction she came from and came back 10 minutes later. The whole time he was gone Fury was cleaning her. When Link got back he licked her head and settled back down. Another time, recently, he was housebound from a broken leg and sound asleep on my bed. I went to the kitchen and heard Rocket yelling outside. I went to the back of the house to check (I should mention we have a microchip programed cat door so all the cats can come in but nothing can follow them in, they have a safe haven always). I opened the door and she came bolting in a Tom on her tail and before I could react Link with his broken leg bolted out. He chased the Tom up a small tree and over the fence into the alley. I had to go into the alley to get him because he couldn't get back into our yard with his leg.

As you can tell I have stories for days.... lol. But all true. I spend way too much time with my cats if you can't tell. I usually sit on the back porch reading after work to unwind and they keep me company.

This is Link not making a face or twisted up. He is a character in his own right. You always know where he is because he walks heavy, cleans loudly, eats loudly, thumps his tail or talks to himself. He is my gentle giant klutz.

He has seriously missed a lap trying to jump and ended up in a heap on the floor.

And yes his paws are as giant as they look in the photo.

I love how they all got their names.      

I seriously thought that maybe you were a 'Matrix' fan, movie with Keanu Reeves, and in the second one there was a character named Link, and some type of rocket looking ships.

Your reasons are way, way better. (I'll have to look up those 2 movies you mentioned, Guardians of the Galaxy, and How to Train Your Dragon. Zelda, I do remember was a video game.)

Photos are really hard to tell how small or large a cat is, because of angles and all, but yes, Link's paws do look enormous, since you pointed them out.     I didn't notice them at first, since his eyes are so blue, and his chin is so cute.

Link does sound like quite a character. Great that you have your very own security cat, to patrol the house, unless you are trying to get a collar onto Rocket. Or accidentally upset Rocket, in any way.

So interesting how they each have such different styles of play, too.

And compliment each other in different ways.

The stories are great.

And I totally agree with the part of just spending time with our cats to unwind. It's the best part of each day.

Nothing better than having a cat nearby, on top, or beside you, while reading, or just relaxing.  

LOL, not a huge matrix fan. Geeky fan and you must watch Guardians and Dragons; totally missing out on both of them.

I take way too many pictures of each of them. Here are the first photos of each of them.

Nightfury was found with a brother in a box (the grey kitten) we didn't keep the grey kitten. It took three or four baths for them to be clean and both were well under a pound. We figure 3-4 weeks old maybe. We gave them KMR for a few days until they showed interest in wet food. This was after their first bath and the first time Fury stood up on his own. When we picked up the box he was under the grey kitten and my Mom had to force the bottle into his mouth to get him eating.


Rocket was flea covered and stank. This is after her first bath too. She was terrified it was also the first time she had human contact.


Link was clean. The people I got him from seemed to have taken good care of him even if they rehomed him too early (5-6 weeks old). It was this huge (I'm 5'9" so my definition of huge) Hispanic guy with tattoo and a bullet wound in his arm. But the guy was hold Link like a precious package and got real worried as he handed him over because I didn't have a cat carrier with me. I assured him I was going into the pet store we met at to buy kitten food and a carrier, he followed me to make sure. I have always thought that the guys wife/girlfriend made him get rid of Link.

Lol...okay, I'll try to watch those movies...as long as you promise they don't have extremely sad scenes, where I'll be crying for 5 minutes, like in Finding Nemo: I love that movie, just certain parts were unexpected. But I guess the writers put that in, to make the movies great. (And they better not kill off any favourite characters, either. 
Queen Rocket may want all her subjects laying down at her feet, if we get her 'proper title' wrong.

I also noticed that all the cats get darker fur as they age, which I never really noticed before.

Do Rocket and Link continue to get darker, or change, or is that just a kitten to adult change?

:lol3:  I am sure Rocket will forgive you. I call her a prissy princess when she is being a brat enough for her overlook it occasionally. Although she usually gives me this look when I do.


No promises on the crying at those movies. They are fun, funny and uplifting but most good stories have a few heart strings pulled too. 

As to coloring, Fury was little and his fur was sparse when we found him. So as he got stronger and his fuzz healthier it got thicker and looks darker. He's always been a black void though. He has seriously scared me a few times when he is sleeping in a closet or under the bed and opens his eyes when I didn't realize he was there. 

Link and Rocket are both pointed cats. The pointed coloring is a enyzme mutation that is color sensitive and weakens with time. Essentially you can think of any pointed cat as an temperature sensitive albino, if they weren't pointed then both cats white spots would still be white but the rest of them would be black or dark brown. Both were born pure white because they were evenly warm in their moms. Once they got out the colder spots got dark (ears, tail, arms, face) while the rest stayed lighter. Since Link and Rocket go outside they get exposed to variable temperatures. Indoor only pointed cats won't show as much color change. Rocket is in her first winter right now (as an adult) so we will see how dark she ends up going. Link is in his second winter (as an adult), his first winter he got really dark and during the summer he lightened back up. He didn't lighten up to the point he was before the winter so he will probably get successively darker each winter and slightly lighter in the summer. There is a real chance that both of them will be almost the same color across most of their body as they age.

Since I got Link at the youngest age and he is more closely related to a purebred pointed cat his gene is more active than Rockets. He will likely show more dramatic changes over time than her. But I could be wrong, we will see how Rocket looks come summer. Here is a time line of Link: 

Ahh, Rocket's got the sweetest eyes in the above photo.

But maybe you're lucky, too, that she did not have a tiny bell, laying near her, so she could summon the 'staff' and have you taken care of.

That head-turn can mean so many things.

"... most good stories have a few heart strings pulled too."

^^ You know, this is like the best advice, ever. I am so going to try to change my perspective while watching movies, now, and try to remember this.

"...a few heart strings pulled"....versus, my usual, "what the heck are the writers thinking! Do they even care about people, here."....while tears are rolling....         

A change in perspective is always good.

(Yeah, all my 3 cats are black, and looked identical to little Fury, but some had more white guard hairs, or kitten fuzz, whatever you call it, when very young. Also those faint tabby looking stripes.

As they aged, now 1.5 years old, they are all solid black, with the odd white hairs in ears, or white hairs on chest.

They also tend to scare me, like you mentioned, since I don't notice them sleeping on anything that is dark. And sometimes mistake a dark piece of clothing, or blanket for a cat. They blend in very well.)

Thank you for that explanation of pointed colouring. It's fascinating.

I would have thought I was looking at a few totally different cats, by his photo time line.

Only Link's eyes, ears, nose and front legs, plus that dark patch, that looks like a rectangular tattoo on his back left leg, seem to be the same.

Such a difference in how light, and dark his coat gets.

(Almost like us when we change coats or change hair colour.) Amazing.

Link is super smart to be sitting on a cushion, in that last photo. Tiles can get super cold under feet, without slippers, at times.

Awww, three black cats. I can imagine them being hard to tell apart.

Our neighbors son was visiting last Christmas. One day my Mom sees him going around our front yard and crouching down before hurry to another spot. She goes out and asks whats happening. He says his cat must have found an open window and she was loose in our yard, could my Mom help? So my Mom gets down and looks under the bush he pointed at. All she sees is a black blur and Fury buries himself into her jacket.

The neighbors son had mistaken Fury for his black cat (who was still safely inside). His cat even had the same collar with hang tag that Fury has. Don't ask me why Fury was giving him a merry chase instead of his typical running in the house or up a tree. But there you have it.

Do you have any pictures? I know black cats are hard to take pictures of... I barely get any good ones of Fury. He tends to end up looking like eyes in cat shaped void.


Of course have to include the queen if I post someone elses picture

Yes, they are a tad difficult to tell apart. More so, from a distance, since when they are close to you, they are all unique. They are similar to your fur gang, all different in size or weight when lined up. The girl cat Tepaul is about 10 lbs, Archer is 11 lbs, and Tripp is 12 lbs.

We do keep different coloured collars on them, so it's easier to tell them apart. Except 2 of the cats always manage to take them off. They are break-away collars, and I've tried the one's with elastics, too. Sometimes the collars are found near water bowls, or sleeping beds, so it's not that bad.

Your above story about your neighbour trying to catch Fury is hilarious.   At the time, your mom was probably thinking, what the heck is this guy trying to do. Lucky your mom, did not go out there with a broom and chase the guy off. Fury was probably thinking..."this guy needs to run around some more, since he's calling out some strange cat's name, and following me everywhere."  

Something similar happened to me, but I was the one who grabbed the wrong cat.  

My mom's best friend lives next door, it's a duplex with shared back yard, and she also has a black cat, but a few years older than my cats. Well, it was raining, I went to the back door, and saw him, called him, and wondered why he would not come inside. I picked him up and brought him in, but he hissed at my lab/retriever dog, which I thought..."that's odd"...until I realized that it was her cat. yikes. I was lucky he did not scratch me. I think he, and I, were both shocked and stunned. But it all ended well. He gets along with my cats very well, too, just does not trust the dog.

(I do have some photos, but I am rubbish at photo taking. Out of 50, maybe 2 are okay.

I like your description of the cat..."looking like eyes in a cat shaped void"....that is dead-on correct.      Mine are like ..."it's supposed to be a cat, but it's a blur".

I don't want to take away from your 'Rocket thread', and post some terrible photos, so I'll look at my computer files and camera card tomorrow, and see if any are decent.

I should really update my profile, and post some new photos of the new fur crew, but I'm so, so lazy.

The cats in my profile are my rainbow cats, tuxedo cat Spotty 2000-2015, and black cat Sparky 2011-2014.)

I think because I see my cats everyday, that I get a kick out of seeing other people's cat photos.

The photos totally remind me of my cats, anyhow.

Do you photograph your cats on a regular basis? Like every week, two weeks, or monthly? And are they taken with your phone, or camera?

And yes, you definitely MUST include a photo of queen Rocket, if you post someone else's photo.

I'm sure that is written in stone, somewhere.    

I take photos with my phone pretty much whenever the light is right. LOL

I had a cat middle school to early college who was taken too soon by cancer. All I have now are photos but that was the days of film so there are only a handful and most towards the end of his life. So with my cats (and humans in my life) I constantly take photos. I usually save about 100 a month (assuming there aren't any extra special events) but probably take 5-6 times that. Probably 50%-70% are cats depending on whats going on. Right now most are, my brother actually gave me a hard time about all my cat photos. But I see them everyday so I get lots of chances. I have an instagram for just the cat photos. Partially to keep from annoying family and friends with me going "Look! Rocket did this today!" Lol

I know I always have my memories but photos enhance them or can even remind us of them.

These were some today while Rocket and Link were enjoying the windy day.

Ahh, yes, the days of film. You could never tell how a photo would turn out, until actual printing.

It's so much easier and better now with things being digital, and able to store things on computer, external hard drive, usb sticks or sd cards.

Although I did lose some photos of a previous dog, when my old computer hard-drive failed. I had not backed them up.

You remind me that I should scan some of the physical photos of previous pets, if only to keep them together, in one file.

So true, that a photo can bring back a memory, so clearly, to actually remember the event, time, surrounding, weather, what happened previously, and even how you felt taking the photo.

'Enhancing and Reminding' us, for sure.

If your brother still gives you a hard time, tell him that you'll create long 'slideshows' that he will have to watch, and write critiques/reviews at the end.

Photography is a good hobby, and very enjoyable, too.

Sometimes people just cannot understand the enjoyment of different things, or their tastes are different.

How do you decide to only save 100 photos, and get rid of the rest? Do you create different folders for them? Sorting by events, themes, or just by date/time?

(Because I don't take as many, I keep most of them, unless they are too blurry or too dark.)

I did not realize that Link's ears were so long. That's like 'super-hearing', there.

And Link's blue eyes. So intense.   I have no idea what shade of blue that would be...azure, cerulean.

Rocket's eyes look like sky blue or arctic blue.

Fury's were yellow.

(I have to go check my cat's eyes now. I know they're no shade of blue. LOL )

I have folders for different things. Family trips (sub folders labeled with event and date), cats (each has their own), and folders for each person or subject not related to specific events. I usually end up getting rid of blurry ones and ones that are so close to others that they aren't worth keeping. Usually take three or four shots from slightly different angles to see which works best.

Link is very long and narrow. Its a common trait in Siamese so best guess is he is within a few generations of someone purebred Siamese. Also why his eyes are sure a clear deep blue. Natural pointed cats that haven't been selectively bred have the gray blue or light blue coloring. But selective breeding has given purebred pointed cats a richer darker blue. Another mark towards Link being closer to a Siamese.


This photo is Rocket in one of her favorite sunning spots. On top of our avery patio. Its kinda funny because she climbs up the side of the avery to get there and climbs head first down (the cage is double layer chicken wire siding to protect the birds from hawks).

Oh, I forgot. Link is notorious for taking off the breakaway collar. He was so bad I couldn't keep it on for more than an hour. Good news is he would bring them back to me with a few days after he took it on a trip to who know where (one time it can back covered in mud). After he broke his leg I looked around for a collar he'd keep on. I found the Beastie Bands with a tag on it at http://www.boomerangtags.com/store/?A=S&ID=38

So far, 3 months and its stayed on. Rocket has pulled it off a few times while they are playing but he hasn't been able to. It is super stretchy so it should enable him to slip it off if he gets caught on something. But hopefully that is never tested.