My entire adult life, I've taken in stray cats who choose adopt me. I never hold them against their will. Some stay for a week or two before moving on. A few choose to stay inside and become housecats. Others only come inside to eat. Most fall somewhere in between. Some cats in my life have come and gone with roommates. One time, one cat came with one roommate and left with another roommate. There is no doubt in my mind that cats adopt people. A cat who comes to you and stays will never run away.
Trixie was the first stray who gave me the honor of adopting me. She showed up as a barely mature, barely pregnant cat with an upper respiratory infection, curled up around a potted banana plant on a chilly Miami-winter day. Crash course in Cat Slavery 101, thanks Trix. Anyway, she passed on about 4 years ago, at the ripe old age of about19. Did I ever love that little shrew! In true Trixie fashion, she walked off to die while I was away on vacation. She was wicked; she could sense if a person didn't like cats and would promptly jump onto their lap. She'd catch a mouse and repeatedly fling it up as high in the air as possible and watch it bounce a few times before catching it again, ad infinitum until the poor little rodent's demise. My Trixie was really something special.
Fast forward to current day: "we" is my SO and I, plus his kid roughly every other weekend. Right now, we share our daily lives with 3 cats. Dora (yes, the explorer, the nosey little brat!) and her sister Bitsy (full name, Itsy Bitsy Blue-eyes), who used to be part of "the triplets" until their brother Buddy died at about age 2 one New Year's Eve, probably from playing chicken with a car. Just a few nights before, we almost hit him ourselves. You could tell it was a game for him. He had a death wish, apparently. It's a pity, because with his temperament, he would have been an amazing, gentle, affectionate adult cat. Dora is super smart, talky, annoying, affectionate, hyper and anxierty-ridden. She is my SO's other girlfriend, dirty looks and all when I walk into the room while she's grooming him. Bitsy was the runt of the litter, significantly smaller than the other two. The three of them were making their way to our backyard through the hedges one steamy July evening. We were watching TV, indoors with the windows shut and the A/C running, when we clearly hear the cry of a kitten in distress out back. We go out to investigate with a flashlight, following the sound to its source. My SO reaches down into the hedge and pulls our a fistful of calico with stripes and spots in the colored patches. She was so tiny and skinny! I ran inside to get a handful of Trixie's food, not even knowing if she was even old enough to eat solid food, and I don't think she cared! She immediately started chowing down. A few minutes later, we hear another kitten in distress in the hedges. Again, SO reaches in and pulls out a fistful of brown and black tiger stripes. This boy was just as tiny and skinny as his brave sister. Same story, we put him down in front of the food and he started eating ravenously. A few minutes after that, we hear another kitten in distress! This time, SO pulls out a fistful of grey fur with beautiful blue eyes. But this one is even tinier and skinnier than the first two, and the tip of her tail was missing a ring of fur, as if she had been trying to nurse on her tail for a while. To this day, you can still feel the bump on the tip of her tail. And then there's Ginger. Ginger is, well, a ginger. But there is something exotic about her face, almost like a lioness. She's not too smart, but she sure is pretty! And, she's a copycat. She won't figure a lot of stuff out for herself, but if she sees Dora doing something clever or innovative, before you know it, Ginger is doing it too! You can learn more about Ginger in the thread I created in the health category, where I'm trying to figure out why she sometimes scratches herself a hole in her neck. So Ginger is the reason I came to TCS this morning and I've been reading about everyone's kitties all day and being otherwise unproductive today.
I'll look for some pictures of my furry framily in the coming days and add them in.
Trixie was the first stray who gave me the honor of adopting me. She showed up as a barely mature, barely pregnant cat with an upper respiratory infection, curled up around a potted banana plant on a chilly Miami-winter day. Crash course in Cat Slavery 101, thanks Trix. Anyway, she passed on about 4 years ago, at the ripe old age of about19. Did I ever love that little shrew! In true Trixie fashion, she walked off to die while I was away on vacation. She was wicked; she could sense if a person didn't like cats and would promptly jump onto their lap. She'd catch a mouse and repeatedly fling it up as high in the air as possible and watch it bounce a few times before catching it again, ad infinitum until the poor little rodent's demise. My Trixie was really something special.
Fast forward to current day: "we" is my SO and I, plus his kid roughly every other weekend. Right now, we share our daily lives with 3 cats. Dora (yes, the explorer, the nosey little brat!) and her sister Bitsy (full name, Itsy Bitsy Blue-eyes), who used to be part of "the triplets" until their brother Buddy died at about age 2 one New Year's Eve, probably from playing chicken with a car. Just a few nights before, we almost hit him ourselves. You could tell it was a game for him. He had a death wish, apparently. It's a pity, because with his temperament, he would have been an amazing, gentle, affectionate adult cat. Dora is super smart, talky, annoying, affectionate, hyper and anxierty-ridden. She is my SO's other girlfriend, dirty looks and all when I walk into the room while she's grooming him. Bitsy was the runt of the litter, significantly smaller than the other two. The three of them were making their way to our backyard through the hedges one steamy July evening. We were watching TV, indoors with the windows shut and the A/C running, when we clearly hear the cry of a kitten in distress out back. We go out to investigate with a flashlight, following the sound to its source. My SO reaches down into the hedge and pulls our a fistful of calico with stripes and spots in the colored patches. She was so tiny and skinny! I ran inside to get a handful of Trixie's food, not even knowing if she was even old enough to eat solid food, and I don't think she cared! She immediately started chowing down. A few minutes later, we hear another kitten in distress in the hedges. Again, SO reaches in and pulls out a fistful of brown and black tiger stripes. This boy was just as tiny and skinny as his brave sister. Same story, we put him down in front of the food and he started eating ravenously. A few minutes after that, we hear another kitten in distress! This time, SO pulls out a fistful of grey fur with beautiful blue eyes. But this one is even tinier and skinnier than the first two, and the tip of her tail was missing a ring of fur, as if she had been trying to nurse on her tail for a while. To this day, you can still feel the bump on the tip of her tail. And then there's Ginger. Ginger is, well, a ginger. But there is something exotic about her face, almost like a lioness. She's not too smart, but she sure is pretty! And, she's a copycat. She won't figure a lot of stuff out for herself, but if she sees Dora doing something clever or innovative, before you know it, Ginger is doing it too! You can learn more about Ginger in the thread I created in the health category, where I'm trying to figure out why she sometimes scratches herself a hole in her neck. So Ginger is the reason I came to TCS this morning and I've been reading about everyone's kitties all day and being otherwise unproductive today.
I'll look for some pictures of my furry framily in the coming days and add them in.
Wonderful stories about all your kitties. 
Yes, please post some pics of them. 
We love pictures. 
