Just wanted to say a quick hello to the other members and introduce myself.
I've had feline buddies for most of my life - growing up in New York apartments didn't leave much room for too many animal roommates; dogs were always out of the question and I always had issues with keeping smaller animals locked up on tiny cages where they were destined to live the same repetitive life day after day after day so I grew up playing with and loving cats! My first two, whom I considered to be MY babies, (as opposed to the family babies), were named Pookie & Sasha. I adopted them when I had just turned 21 and was newly married. Pookie was a calico with an attitude whose disposition to strangers left a lot to be desired but we always attributed that to her having been born the runt. Well, many working hours later (during which time little Pookie could be seen staring out of our 8th floor window), the guilt of leaving her alone all of the time finally caught up with us and we returned to the shelter and came home with our little bundle of love and meows, Sasha - I say meows because, as anyone who owns a Siamese knows, they are quite vocal. Well, many trials and tribulations later, Pookie & Sasha mellowed into a calm existance and went through many moves and changes with us over the years. When we finally moved out of New York into the suburbs of New Jersey, they were introduced to their two new brothers, Barney & Casey, our beautiful sweet Golden Retrievers.
Many fun years later, we had to say goodbye to Sasha at the age of 19. Pookie, who we had expected to pass on first, was with us another two years (strangly enough, the happiest two years of her life - she was a brand new cat with Sasha out of the picture and changed from being surly to affectionate). About 11 years later, we had to say goodbye to Barney & Casey who lived to the ripe old age of 14 and 15; somewhat a long time for Goldens, I'm told. It took me about two years to get over the loss of my little loves and it wasn't until this past year that my young daughter started campaigning for a new pet. So off we went to a new shelter and after being inundated by all of these very social and affectionate cats, we noticed a little black and white one sitting quietly in the corner. She had beautiful silky fur, white paws, black legs and a white dot on the back of her left leg. As all of these other cats were vying for our attention, she sat there looking at us and finally casually sauntered over to us, jumped up on my husband's lap and proceeded to purr and fall asleep. There was no question about which cat had chosen us as her own and little Dottie came home with us that day. Soon thereafter, we found a very friendly stray cat outside a friend's apartment complex who kept following us, rubbing against us, and basically letting us know it was either her house or our house. And so began the sisterhood of Dottie & Chloe - we're two weeks into it now and things are still getting settled but that's our story! We're glad to be a part of this great forum. Thanks for having us!!!
