Friday is for Catblogging

Never in my formative years would anybody have expected me to someday be writing about how much I love cats, especially the ones around my own house. I was raised among hounds, so to speak. The first pet in our household was a 90-lb Labrador retriever, followed by a series of mixed-breed canines that we could have, had we the desire and they the tolerance, saddled up and ridden across town. Needless to say, I was unfamiliar with feline habits. And then, one day, shortly after I moved to Virginia (summer of 1986), I met a feral cat in search of a safe place to dump her sole surviving offspring.

I guess I must have looked the likeliest sap, lounging there one hot September afternoon in my 4-foot inflatable kiddie pool, because I ended up becoming the surrogate mom for the gangly teen-aged beast that would become

Shadeypuff.6.92, originally uploaded by leucanthemum b.

Shade.

Shade was with our family, and, by and large, slept on her own pillow at the head of my bed, until the day she passed away, earlier this year. She wasn't very sociable. She hated kids, strangers, and, especially other cats. So it was something of a miracle when she finally accepted the companionship of my brother's cat, Tiger.

And, when I moved away from my place as nanny to my brother's boys, I ended up, through no fault of my own, moving Tiger, too (who, subsequently received his formal name of Vulcan).

So, now the dog lover had two cats.

I moved into my "new" house between blizzards in 2001. Shortly after the weather cleared up, and I was able to go outside to inspect my property, I discovered a kitten, about three months old, living under my back porch. She had those funny ears you see on Scottish Fold cats, but she'd nearly scratched off the tips, due to the mites and the frostbite. I got financial help from my parents, and we took the little waif to the vet's office, where he repaired her and fixed her and gave her all her shots. We couldn't put her back out into the miserable cold with her bandaged ears and bare belly, so, into my house came Proserpina, whose goofball personality required that we call her

"Peanut".

She apparently sprayed the exterior of my house with the scent which cats all recognize as meaning "easy mark", because, over the following years, I have had

a few more

decide they like my front porch for its amenities.

originally uploaded by leucanthemum b.

Such is the strange life of a Dog Person. It's not so bad. At least I don't have to get up before dawn to walk them all.

(Tagged under:cat)