My Favourite Things: Monday

The category for this week is: favourite four-legged animal.  Thelma's cat threatened all kinds of trouble if that wasn't the chosen category this past Monday, so of course, Thelma obeyed.  That's what cat-people do! :)

My favourite four-legged animal is the Mindy-Kitty - how could I choose another?  I think she's probably my favourite cat of all time, although Grumpy would be a close second.  However, Mindy is alive, so that's extra points in her favour.

Since my blog posts have been rather sporadic of late, I had an idea to make this one a little longer.  I'm going to share the history of the cats in my life.  I've had a cat in the house almost my entire life.  In fact, my parents had a cat when I was born, although she apparently didn't last long with a baby in the house.  The first cat I really remember is Pepper, who was an all-black cat.  I don't have any pictures of her. 
Pepper left our family when she became an escapee at the vet one day.  We were not a cat-carrier kind of family, but rather a "hold your cat tightly" kind of family, and she escaped at the vet.  We think she may have found her way back to our house eventually, as we did see a black cat around the house after a time, but she was wild by then, and never re-joined our family.

When I was about 10, we got another cat.  A very tiny kitten, just barely old enough to leave her mother.  We named her Sasha.

Sasha aka Grumpy

 

Sasha lived with our family until she was about 15.  She really is the cat that I grew up with.  She used to sleep in my room at night, and if she wanted out, she would use her claws to pick at the top of my head until I woke up to let her out.  If she was in Arian's room, she'd scratch at the carpet until I woke up to let her out.  There was no sense scratching Arian's head; he'd sleep through that!  Why she couldn't just scratch the carpet in my room, instead of my head, I do not know!

Sasha also started snoring as she got older, so I'd have to regularly give her a nudge to make her stop snoring, if that was keeping me awake. Then she would start purring a lullaby.

Our experience with Pepper escaping at the vet taught us a thing or two - we began using an old gym bag as a cat carrier for trips to the vet.  Sasha learned to recognize the bag on sight, and would run and hide.  We learned to keep the bag out of sight until the cat was firmly grasped in glove-encased hands, when it would be a two person job to get her zipped into the bag.

However, despite using a bag for carrying the cat for her yearly vet trip, Sasha also became an escapee at the vet.  (Terrible pet owners, weren't we?)  Thankfully, she didn't go far, and about two weeks later, someone near the vet found her and we brought her home.  She was about 13 at the time, I think.  However, in Sasha's absense, another cat had adopted us.  We noticed a stray cat hanging around, and started feeding it.  This cat was clearly an abandoned cat - the first time we let her in the house, she went straight to the master bedroom for a nice nap - she knew about houses!  We named this cat Annie, and she still lives at Mom and Dad's now.

Annie

So, Sasha came home to find this new-comer, and she wasn't too happy about.  Annie had not yet been named, so for awhile, Sasha became Big-Kitty and Annie was Little-Kitty, since Annie was just a big kitten when she came.  (Although we always gave our cats names, we usually just called them 'Kitty'.)  However, Annie kept growing and growing, and soon Annie was bigger than Sasha, so the Big-Kitty, Little-Kitty wasn't working so well.  Calling both cats "Kitty" would clearly lead to great confusion, so some name changes were in order.  By then, Sasha had become most definitely grumpy about Annie's very existence, so we renamed Sasha to Grumpy, and Annie became Annie.  I'm not sure why we didn't just start using the name Sasha, but to this day, we refer to that cat as Grumpy.  We had both cats for a year or two, until Grumpy became quite old and sick, and had to be put down.

It was fun having two cats.  We would always let our cats clean off chicken bones, if chicken had been on the menu.   One time, both cats were around after dinner, so we gave them each their own pile.   What was so funny was they both sat there, gnawing on their bones, but also growling away!  Each wanted to make it very clear that the chicken bones were NOT to be shared!

When I moved out, to my house, about five months later, I got a cat.  I went to the local SPCA and picked out a pussy-cat.  I named her Madeline, and I still love that name for a cat!  (My apologies to any readers who are named Madeline or know someone named Madeline!)  Madeline only lived with me for about a year, until she developed some kidney troubles and had to be put down.  I don't have many pictures of her, three of the four below I took the night before she died - I knew she was going to be put down the following day.  Madeline was a nice cat, but there was nothing really unique or special about her.  Not like Grumpy, who purred loudly and did or so memorable things like picking at the top of my head to wake me up.

Madeline

When Madeline died, I went a couple days later to get another cat.  I just loved having a cat in the house - another living creature.  This time I wanted a de-clawed cat, and the Mindy-Kitty fit the bill.  So I brought her home.  She hid behind the washing machine for 4 days, then emerged to explore her surroundings, and take up her position as resident queen.

Mindy has a lot of personality, and a wonderful high-volume purrer that she uses a lot!  There's no way you can miss the fact that there is a cat in the house.  She comes to the bed almost every  morning for some pettings, if she hadn't already spent the night on the bed.  She'll certainly spend the night on the bed if we've left her home alone for a few days.  She's a talkative little beast, meowing all the time.  In fact, she has this dreadful yowl that she does after she eats - it sounds like she's in agony, but she does it every day!  She's a very typical cat, sleeps a lot, but goes 'crazy' at least once a day, and bounces all over the house.  She has a real penchant for Rob's hockey equipment.  When he brings it out, she loves to do the hideout thing inside the hockey pants.   If I'm at my computer, she'll come regularly for some attention.  Always with a meow or two.  She came at least once while I was writing this post.  I've had Mindy for 6 years now, and I hope she lives to a good old age.  I still love having a cat in the house, especially such a friendly one, who almost always comes to say 'hi' when we get home from being out.  I'm thankful for this little furball!  Even if she does try to sneak outside all the time!

Oh, and y'all be happy to know that I am also the owner of a real cat carrier - no more escapees!

Enjoy the rest of your Monday!