Monday, February 2, 2009

Cats in the House

Well, I'm a dog person...but you'd never know that these days. I now have more cats than dogs.

Poor Smudge, my #1 cat, has been so tolerant of all the dogs I've brought into the house over the years. He's only been afraid of one dog, and because he came up out of the woods at the ripe age of about 4 weeks old, I think he thinks he is a dog himself! He's never been around other cats until last year when I got Topaz.

Topaz was trapped at a local shopping center by my friend, Gail, and she had him neutered and vaccinated so he could be released again. Usually where you see one cat, there's an entire colony. After he was released she saw him again across the road in the parking lot of Applebees following people for attention and a handout. After she told me about how worried she was for his safety crossing the busy road, I told her that he could be released on my property if she was able to trap him again. Well, it wasn't long before she had him and brought him to me. He was so sweet that I brought him into the house and he's been a happy indoor kitty ever since. He wasn't very nice to Smudge for a while, but they worked out their differences and became very good friends.

Then Leo came into our lives. Same location, another cat, and Gail, the kitty angel. While I was helping Gail in her Christmas shop I met Leo and fell in love with him right away. He is gorgeous and not a big cat and so very sweet and loving. I told Gail I could foster him for her. He was just too sweet to be released in the busy shopping center.

Poor Smudge. Here was another cat upsetting his domain. Leo is half his size and picks on Smudge. Smudge, in turn, takes out his frustrations on Topaz. In the mean time, Topaz and Leo are starting to be good friends. Here is Topaz (the black one) grooming Leo. Please notice one of Dawn's images on the floor of my work room (sorry Dawn - the cats did it)

And here they are on the day bed. If you look closely, you can see their notched ears. That's how you can tell if a stray cat has been neutered or spayed and vaccinated.

Smudge trys to keep his distance from Leo as much as possible.

I have three more cats - my "outside/mouser" cats; two males and one female. You can't even touch the two males but the female is quite friendly. She started crying non-stop at the front door and windows and made me feel horrible. Then last week when we had all that snow, she wouldn't leave the porch and was freezing. Yes, now Wendy is in the house too. I don't have any pictures of her yet to share, but she is your ordinary, run of the mill tabby cat. She will play with Leo and Topaz but Smudge doesn't want anything to do with her or her friends. He's been insulted enough lately and wants to go back to being just one of the dogs.

5 comments:

lime said...

well even if you're a dog person i am glad these cats found a happy home with you.

thanks for your comment at my place about working with flannel. do you have suggestions as to how to avoid that stretching?

meg said...

Hi, I just came to see your lovely Hollyhocks quilt, & found all your deilightful posts about your pets!
We have 2 dogs, & I keep telling my DH that we need a cat, but he thinks he is the only one we need! He is a Leo!
Dogs are my first love, but the more I see of the kitties of blogland, the more I want one!

nikkicrumpet said...

I think that constitutes a "herd-o-cats" lol..And I bet you're never at a loss for one of them to cuddle with.

Charmingdesigns said...

We were never really "cat" people..when my daughter moved out she brought us two kittens...its been the best thing! Laurie

Four Paws and Co said...

What a sweet angel you are! We lost our 12 1/2 yr old kitty last August. It just broke my heart. 3 of my dogs would adjust to a cat, the the last 2 are just a couple of pills & would make the poor kitty miserable, so no more cats.
Here's my dog story, Murphy is a almost 13 yr old black cocker. He was an only dog child until 2004. Because my last cocker has health issues & I was worried about him being an only child, I found 8 wk old Bailey to help Murphy in his senior years. Now I wanted a female really bad, my friend had a female chihuahua along with all the wonderful stories, and another friend at work had a relative with a litter of chihuahua pups. So we brought home 7 wk old Sammie. I retired in 2006, & had always wanted to be a dog foster mom & had a chance to foster Chief, a terrier/chihuahua or he was going to the shelter. No one expressed any interest in him & after awhile my hubby said to just adopt him. In 2007, I saw Roxy's picture on FurryFriendsRescue.org courtesy post for the shelter. She was marked URGENT. I waited a couple of days, called & ran down there. She & I clicked & I adopted her... Then dropped the bomb on hubby that #5 was coming home...
So there's my fur baby story, hope you enjoyed it! ♥ Diane