Now that all the cats are home, please allow me to introduce my family to the humans and felines on the board. I will have to scan in some photos so I can post them.
My senior cat is Rosalind, a short haired tortie calico. She and her sister Celia, also a calico, adopted me when they were 6 months old. My previous cat, by coincidence a calico, had used up her 9th life about 10 days earlier. A friend found 2 half grown kittens thrown down a dry well near the school where she taught. She had the custodian pull them out and put them in an empty aquarium in her classroom. They were clearly not strays, as they were used to people; apparently throwaways. She asked if I would like them. I said it was too early and I was not ready for another cat yet. But it was just before Thanksgiving; the school would be closed and the custodian gone and she was going out of town. She did not want to leave 2 kittens unsupervised with her cat & 2 dogs so I said I would put them up temporarily until a home could be found. That was Thanksgiving 1986. I suppose you could call it temporary in the sense that the entire universe is temporary. I named the cats for the heroines of Shakespeare's As You Like It; Rosalind and Celia, inseparable friends who had all sorts of adventures together. Celia used up her 9th life on March 1, 2004, but Rosalind, who turned 20 years old in May, is still around, a bit creaky and deaf as a post but still able to enjoy the simple things in a feline's life.
In October 2004 I was in my vegetable garden looking for ripe tomatoes when a 5 month old kitten walked up and informed me he was moving in. There is absolutely no other way to describe it. This was a departure in that all of my previous cats my whole life had been female. And counting Rosalind, Celia and their predecessor I'd had calicos for nearly 30 years. But I was given no choice. He had made up his mind he was going to move in. The beloved of Rosalind in As You Like It is Orlando, so the name was a no-brainer. Orlando looks like a Russian Blue except he has white paws and chest. He also has very striking eyes, deep emerald green shading towards turquoise. He is big tomcat now (neutered of course).
Orlando had 2 sisters who did not want to be tamed but I set out food for them. One of the sister disappeared. The other showed up with 3 kittens, in the just weaned age when kittens are impossibly cute. I realized if I did not do something, though, I could end up feeding 20 cats. So I set traps to catch Mama and kittens. One kitten, the one who looked like Orlando, escaped. (I set food for him for a couple of days, then he disappeared.) I put Mama and the 2 kittens in a room overnight, but it still took 3 people an hour and a half to catch them next morning and get them into carriers. A feral female who has had kittens is nearly impossible to tame and Mama was totally wild; gave the vet quite a bite. I had her spayed and vaccinated and then let her go, putting her in my garden shed while she recovered. I kept the two kittens. The male is a dark gray tabby with long hair. The female has the markings of a blue point Siamese and the intensely blue Siamese eyes but she is fluffy. While Mama was just a fur tornado, a destructive force of nature, the kittens displayed such a repertoire of jetes and tours en l'air that it was obvious they were going to be ballet dancers when they grew up, so I named them for Margot Fonteyn and Rudolph (Rudy) Nureyev.
That is my family. Rosalind (20), Orlando (2), Rudy and Margot (10 months).
My senior cat is Rosalind, a short haired tortie calico. She and her sister Celia, also a calico, adopted me when they were 6 months old. My previous cat, by coincidence a calico, had used up her 9th life about 10 days earlier. A friend found 2 half grown kittens thrown down a dry well near the school where she taught. She had the custodian pull them out and put them in an empty aquarium in her classroom. They were clearly not strays, as they were used to people; apparently throwaways. She asked if I would like them. I said it was too early and I was not ready for another cat yet. But it was just before Thanksgiving; the school would be closed and the custodian gone and she was going out of town. She did not want to leave 2 kittens unsupervised with her cat & 2 dogs so I said I would put them up temporarily until a home could be found. That was Thanksgiving 1986. I suppose you could call it temporary in the sense that the entire universe is temporary. I named the cats for the heroines of Shakespeare's As You Like It; Rosalind and Celia, inseparable friends who had all sorts of adventures together. Celia used up her 9th life on March 1, 2004, but Rosalind, who turned 20 years old in May, is still around, a bit creaky and deaf as a post but still able to enjoy the simple things in a feline's life.
In October 2004 I was in my vegetable garden looking for ripe tomatoes when a 5 month old kitten walked up and informed me he was moving in. There is absolutely no other way to describe it. This was a departure in that all of my previous cats my whole life had been female. And counting Rosalind, Celia and their predecessor I'd had calicos for nearly 30 years. But I was given no choice. He had made up his mind he was going to move in. The beloved of Rosalind in As You Like It is Orlando, so the name was a no-brainer. Orlando looks like a Russian Blue except he has white paws and chest. He also has very striking eyes, deep emerald green shading towards turquoise. He is big tomcat now (neutered of course).
Orlando had 2 sisters who did not want to be tamed but I set out food for them. One of the sister disappeared. The other showed up with 3 kittens, in the just weaned age when kittens are impossibly cute. I realized if I did not do something, though, I could end up feeding 20 cats. So I set traps to catch Mama and kittens. One kitten, the one who looked like Orlando, escaped. (I set food for him for a couple of days, then he disappeared.) I put Mama and the 2 kittens in a room overnight, but it still took 3 people an hour and a half to catch them next morning and get them into carriers. A feral female who has had kittens is nearly impossible to tame and Mama was totally wild; gave the vet quite a bite. I had her spayed and vaccinated and then let her go, putting her in my garden shed while she recovered. I kept the two kittens. The male is a dark gray tabby with long hair. The female has the markings of a blue point Siamese and the intensely blue Siamese eyes but she is fluffy. While Mama was just a fur tornado, a destructive force of nature, the kittens displayed such a repertoire of jetes and tours en l'air that it was obvious they were going to be ballet dancers when they grew up, so I named them for Margot Fonteyn and Rudolph (Rudy) Nureyev.
That is my family. Rosalind (20), Orlando (2), Rudy and Margot (10 months).
