Do You Realize?

Meowy Monday--Taylor Mae

Before we get to Meowy Monday, I want to mention my Blogiversary Giveaways again. Today, for Meowy Monday, I'll be drawing a random name from my comments to give away a bag of Feline Greenies and a can of Pet Promise cat food. (My kitties love it. It has no rendered animals, no factory farmed animals, and no animal by-products, like fur or toenails, in it.) You have to comment to be included, though!

And now...

Since you've already met all four of my beautiful kitties, I now get to have guest ambassadors for Meowy Monday. This week's guest is Taylor Mae, one of my aunt's kitties.

Mimi has two kitties, and they look exactly alike. How, then, you may wonder, do I know that this is Taylor Mae (and not Pepper Ann)? Because she let me take this photo. Pepper Ann only tolerates men, for whatever jacked-up reason, and I don't qualify.

My cousin is a veterinary technician, and she is always bringing home injured, abandoned, or otherwise misfit critters (witness Woody the Woodchuck, who weighed at least 15 pounds and had not a single hair on his pink ass). She has the sad, unfortunate job of going to help with her county's euthanizations once a week; if I'm not mistaken, Taylor Mae was in the queue that day. How Beth chooses which animals she takes home to the Farm of Misfit Critters, I'll never know. I could never choose; I want to save them all, even though I know I can't.

Love a stray; neuter & spay!

Meowy Monday--Tybee

You've already met all my beautiful kitties, but I'm far from finished introducing you to the fabulous felines my family has found over the years.

This is Tybee, my sister's cat. Middle calls her "Moonrock," because he says she looks like an alien. I don't remember much about her origins, but I believe she was born a barn kitty. I do remember that she was once small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.

Love a stray; neuter & spay!

Meowy Monday--Rosie

Last week, you met my kitty soul mate, Gilda. This week you meet her sister, Rosie, who looks a whole lot like Gilda; many people get them confused until they get to know the sisters. Rosie is Eldest's kitty; she is never far from her at all. She is quite talkative when she wants something, and although Circus terrorizes her frequently, she always gets respect at the food dish for some reason. She is truly the sweetest-natured cat we have.

When we went to adopt a cat from the rescue group, there were so many beautiful kitties to choose from, but my heart went out immediately to these two that looked alike and were in the same cage. It was obvious they were sisters, and I really felt torn; I asked if Hubby would mind getting both, he said okay, and they were mine.

Their naming process is one I've made scrapbook pages about. They have had so many names. Their adoption certificates say Annabelle and Annalise. Those names just did not really suit them. So for a while, we called them Pink and Red, for the colors of the collars they were wearing. We noticed that one stayed close to us, but one of them shied away from people in general, so they became Hither and Yon. The kids couldn't remember those, as they were very young. So we tried Nearly and Farly. Those names were too comical; these were more regal cats than comical, though, and those wouldn't do, either. After searching the internet I found a site dedicated to naming pairs of animals. Coming across their names, I knew immediately they were the ones for our kitties. And thus they became Rosencrantz & Gildenstern, a.k.a. Rosie & Gilda.

Truth be told, Rosie is the cat I chose that day. If we hadn't decided not to split the sisters up, I would not have found my kitty soul mate. A note of advice for anyone considering splitting up a pair: don't.

Love a stray; neuter & spay!

Meowy Monday--Gilda

Now that I'm somewhat back on schedule, let's get back to another love-- cute, cuddly, fuzzalicious kitties!

You've met one set of our sister kitties, Sapphire and Circus. Today, I present one-half of our other set of sister-kitties.

After Poogan came into the house, I decided it was missing some feline fancy, so I asked to get a cat. As a testament to his love (he was an avowed cat-disliker... not quite a hater, but, well... you get the picture), Hubby went with me to look at the rescues available at PetSmart through the local SPCA. Among all the beautiful kitties, there were two that really caught my eye. They were beautiful brown long-haired tabbies, they were in the same cage, and they were nearly identical. One was aggressively seeking love and rubs, while the other one gracefully let her sister take the limelight. I simply could not make up my mind. Luckily, Hubby came through and suggested we take them both, because had I had to decide, I would never have found my kitty soul-mate.

Gilda (short for Gildenstern, which I will explain next week, when you'll meet Rosencrantz) is definitely my cat and my cat only. Anyone who says cats don't display loyalty like dogs has never met this cat. She is the softest cat I've ever met, she sleeps next to my head every night, and we are like peas & carrots.

Gilda recently inexplicably lost about 30% of her body weight with no other symptoms whatsoever. After several blood panels, two ultrasounds, an endoscopy, a possible cancer, and a several-month-long regime of steroids, there is still no real explanation. It seems that eight pounds is her new "normal", as opposed to twelve. Bizarre, but I have decided to just go with it; I was worried so long that she was going to die, but now I just want to concentrate on how well she lives.


Love a stray; neuter & spay!

Meowy Monday--Sisters

We have 2 more kitties to talk about, but before I do, this week I wanted to share a couple photos of Sapphire & Circus . They are so sweet together sometimes, and at other times, they start out sweet but quickly dissolve into a kitty smackdown. One will start to give the other a bath, and... BOOM! It's on. They both have the most animated tails, too, so when they are duking it up, those monkey tails are going a mile a minute. Very amusing to watch. I cannot imagine having one of them without the other.

Love a stray;
neuter & spay!

Meowy Monday---Circus

Last week, I began my Meowy Monday postings by introducing you to Sapphire, one of our four rescued kitties. This week, I present her sister Circus.

To make a long story short, the day after Eldest & her friend found Sapphire, they found another kitten in the same spot.  It was obvious the two were sisters, both with creamy white fur and sparkling blue eyes. We decided they shouldn’t be separated, and suddenly we were a four-cat family.

Early on, we learned that Circus would play with anything and everything. (She was playing when the girls found her, which led to her name, and, oh, how aptly she is named!) One of her favorite games has been to go into our bathroom & knock random stuff off the countertop onto the floor to hear the noise that it makes. She and Sapphire wrestle and play like sisters still. Circus sleeps on top of me at night. She is the ultimate good "bad" cat; she loves mischief and a good smack-down with any one of the other cats. She is fourteen pounds of fun and love, and she’s a true testament to the value of rescue.

Love a stray;

neuter & spay!

If I had an extra hundred grand or so lying around, I’d have this cat cloned (except it would be a waste of cash, since her clone likely wouldn't act or even look like her).

Meowy Monday---Sapphire

Two things I dearly love are animals and photography. Two things I run low on most days are time and, apparently, non-controversial blog posts. We have four kitties, all of whom are rescues. What better way to share their stories than here in my little corner of the web? Every Monday, you can meet another of my feline friends. (Stay tuned for Woof-day Wednesdays.)

This is Sapphire. My daughter and a friend found her abandoned in our last neighborhood about five years ago. Hubby and I had gone out for the evening, leaving the kids with our regular babysitter. We came home to a kitten, complete with name. She was obviously part Siamese, with her lovely points and sparkly blue eyes. When she came to us, she was much lighter than these photos show; Siamese start life as white or cream, then slowly develop dark "points" (ears, paws, tail, face) and darker cream to tan fur. In fact, when we had her spayed and her belly had to be shaved, the hair shaved off was pale cream, and the hair grew back almost black. I love Sapphire's coloring. Her face is two-toned, half deep brown, half almost tortoise-shell. Her front paws are the same colors, except the sides are switched.

Sapphire is my hubby's devoted friend. She loves the way he smells when he gets sweaty from working out, and she will wallow in his workout clothes when he takes them off. She waits patiently (some days, more patiently than others) for him to get ready for work each morning, then leads him downstairs to the door. On his way, she stops at her food dish for breakfast, where hubby gives her a goodbye rub and is on his way.

Love a stray; neuter and spay!