All Our Cats

Life can be boring sometimes; at other times it can be stressful. But, when we are at home with all our cats, the world stops for us. This page is about all out cats. I forget how many cats have come into our lives, but maybe I can count them up as I show and tell you about them all. No, we don't have that many cats. These are just the ones we've had live with us as part of our family or in some case as foster cats, at one time or another.

Angel

The first cat I had all my own was Angel. Actually, she belonged to the daughter of one of my landladies. But when the daughter moved out of the apartment and I moved into it, I inherited the couch-sleeper, and the kitten. She was the first inside cat I had known. I had grown up with cats outside, but inside you get to know a lot more about the character of a cat.

She was certainly a house cat that required human attention. In her very earliest years she learned to sleep either on my chest or across my neck. Since I lived alone, I was the only human she had much contact with. I lived in a second floor apartment that overlooked a fairly busy street, and had plenty of window space for her to look out. Oddly, I don't even remember what she looked like, though I think she may have been long-hair calico.

Two

My second cat was a stray we adopted at the apartment we moved to here in Tyler. We were standing in the doorway talking and this cat came up, rubbing and looking for some attention, and I'm sure some food. Soon after I met a girl that later became my wife. When we talked, she told me about her cat and I told her I had a cat, TOO. Since she was my second cat, Two became her name. Two was a smoke gray cat that lived outdoors, but was allowed inside. I was living with several roommates at the time, but soon moved out to prepare for a wedding, mine.

Tosha

Tosha was the name of that girl's cat. She was a really beautiful calico. She wasn't allowed inside the room that she was renting, but she was an outside cat until we moved into our house. It was then that she became an inside, and eventually an inside/outside cat. That was when we had a cat-door installed. In order to do that we had to buy a new backdoor into which we installed the cat's entrance.

On occasion we've had to keep kittens for a short time before they were adopted. Tosha here is encountering a couple of those kittens.

Samson

Samson born on New Year's Day, and adopted on Valentine's Day. He was a long hair, like Dana, mostly black with white "markings". He was fairly well built. so the name seemed to fit very well.

We decided to get Samson, so Tosha would have someone to play with. That worked for a short time but she was too independent. A few months later, we adopted another playmate for Samson.

Freeda

Freeda is a short hair tri-color. We got her to as a playmate for Samson. About her name, we were in Petland looking at the kittens for sale. We'd only been married for a couple months and apparently we looked destitute. Anyway, Toni kept begging to get her. As an excuse I mentioned that I didn't have enough money, so after a bit one of the girls got Freeda out and just gave her to Toni, for free. So the name Freeda just fit perfectly.

While we .. ...

She was killed a few years later when neighbor dogs got out and attacked her as she was sleeping on the porch. With spinal arthritis, she couldn't make the quick escape that so characterizes the feline nature.

Tom

While we were living in that neighborhood we had contact with several of the cats. First, our neighbors on the right got two tabby cats. After a couple years the cats left home for several months. Eventually, the male of the two starting coming around our house and we started feeding him on the back porch. It wasn't long until he became a part of our family, and accompanied us when we moved into a new house. Tom's a gray long hair tabby.

Joseph

On the other side of that neighbor lived another cat that later joined us. When they found a new house and were trying to get him caged for the trip, the cat was quite fearful and they were afraid he might hurt himself. Anyway, we took him in, even though he didn't play well with the rest of our cats. Actually, it was more that one of ours did not play well with him.

Joseph is a short hair orange tabby. His owners moved and he didn't want to. I don't blame him. I wouldn't want to be couped up in a carrier and moved across the country. He is tough, so I fight with him all the time. That is, until I'm tired, and then I'll lie down close to him and we'll both take our cat naps.

Simon

Simon was a Siamese kitten that lived with us when we had six or seven felids. As best as I remember, he was a neighbor cat that came back to us after they had moved.

Charles

While we didn't adopt him, we did keep him until we found him a home. When she came along we had some neighborhood kids that used to hang around our house. One of those kids, a girl, named this cat after a boy she liked. He was a mostly black longhair. We placed him with an older lady that we used to attend church with, someone Toni met through someone she worked with who was a relative of the lady.

Midnight

There have been two Midnights in our home. This is the first one. She was all black if you haven't guessed. One of Toni's friends brought her to us. Over time she developed a urinary problem (crystals). Eventually she was adopted by a family that lived near Lake Palestine. Unfortunately she escaped and hasn't been seen since.

Bob

Bob was a cat from the old neighborhood that just showed up. He apparently lived in an apartment across the street. He had been declawed and was probably an inside cat. Although he was slender, he was the longest cat we've had. We kept him only briefly since out cats were indoor/outdoor, and managed to find him a home. Bob was also the only cat we had that wasn't afraid of the vacuum cleaner. We couldn't push him out of the way with it. All the others run and hide when it starts up.

Sally/Casey

Toni and our adopted grandmother were at KFC when they saw a cat plundering through the trash for food. Eventually, Toni started feeding this cat and others in that area. One of the kittens that showed us was Sally. She was a black and white tuxedo type cat. Over a couple years it grew up, and had a mate join her/him. Eventually that mate had kittens. To shorten the story, that was when we decided we needed to catch them. We brought them home and the next day discovered that Sally was a male cat. We named him Casey. Other than Tom that visited with us for a short time, Casey was the biggest cat we had. He was long, not wide. His mate was Kelly and their mutual companionship was really romantic.

Kelly

Kelly came to us with Casey (above) and is still with us. She is the most "feral" of our cats, although she will allow us to pet when she is hungry. She is a finicky eater that doesn't like can food and will only eat dry food a few bites at a time.

Midnight II

Midnight was initially adopted by a friend of ours, Martin. When Martin moved and couldn't have a pet, we took her in. She had been beaten up when Martin first took her in. She had kittens and managed well. One of her eyes was missing, so we had it sewed up.

Samantha

Samantha is one of the "twins". We had a similarly colored black and white that we named Samson, so something similar was in order.

We adopted her and Olivia in 2002. They came from Tonya Griffith's shelter. That shelter houses numerous cats and dogs. One of the things we have learned about mixing cats of different ages is that kittens need playmates, so we adopted them to play with each other. Although, they did mix well with the other cats as they aged. These two are particularly fond of Kelly.

Olivia

Olivia is the most colorful of our cats. She is also the most independent. Both Samantha and Olivia are long-hairs. Olivia's hair is so long that it extends below her paws so she has trouble getting traction when she needs to make a quick getaway.

Tabitha

Tabitha is the most vocal. When she speaks, it's more of a Meow-ow. That's right, two syllables. She was our neice's cat and didn't get a name until we took her in. As our first grey tabby, tabitha seems like a perfect name for her.

Bonnie

I brought Bonnie and Becky home from the disc golf course. Someone had apparently dropped them off. I was told about them on a Thursday, and brought them home on a mid-October friday afternoon. Both were kittens, though Bonnie was a bit bigger than Becky. Looked like they were two weeks different in age. Bonnie was a regular long hair tabby except for one detail. She was polydactyl. That is, she had six toes on her front paws and five or her back paws. Cats normally have five front and four back. Reading about that anamoly is fascinating. At nine months now, Bonnie is by far the most aggressive/inquisitive of all our cats. She's the only one that doesn't run and hide when visitors come by.

Becky (Clyde)

We had initially named them Bonnie and Clyde, thinking they were male & female. As we found out Clyde was a female as well, she had to have a new name. When they were young, we kept Bonnie and Becky in a separate room and occasionally let them meet. It took a couple months before they mixed with the other cats and now they are comfortable with all of them. The funny thing about cats and kittens I've found is that the cats are afraid of the kittens. When a kitten approaches, they hiss or growl and run. Yet, kittens are much easier to integrate into a cat family than full grown cats. They just play with each other until one of the cats wants to play with them.

Although it's nice to be able to select a cat (or two) for adoption, you may have noticed that most of the felines in our family have come from strays, family, and neighbors.