My Cats ~ The Fabulous Felines {I can't count that high anymore!}

**UPDATED 5/12/21 to include the latest move :) 

SIX cats!?!? Well, I have since moved back in with Tom, so with his cat Lily, that makes six.  Whew - in a nutshell I had to move as Tom needed to move back to the East Coast and now I am cat mom to EIGHT cats!!! Thank goodness this is a big house; it rarely feels like we have so many cats, except at feeding time.  Other than that, they have plenty of room to spread out and each of them are finding their own personal hiding spots. I have LOTS of updating to do! Stay tuned!!

Mew - she is the only girl and going to be 5 this August {2018}

Well, not anymore since Lily has joined the pack :) {actually we joined her in 2019} And we have since moved in with 2 other female cats, so right now I am even - 4 girls {Emmy, Sasha, Lily & Mew} and 4 boys {Sylvester, Bud, Junior & Max}

This is a work in progress.  I have SO many pictures of my past and current furbabies that it is taking me much longer than I anticipated to get this page done - but, I really wanted to share my kids with you, so, here they are (so far)

  The Current Cats 

First, let me introduce you to the current Fabulous Feline Five Four Five  EIGHT ~

Max is right at home

• Today {literally 1/28/18} we went to the Dumb Friends in Denver to get my friend Tom a cat. And there was a beautiful boy, looks like a Creamsicle, affectionate as all get out and now he is sleeping on my bed.  As soon as I get to know him & name him I'll let you know :) We have named him Max and I will be sharing pics very shortly! (BTW, Tom has named his cat Lily & she's also VERY happy to have a great home!)

He's a very lovey boy!

• Bud was acquired the same day as Junior. We got these 2 boys at the same time from the Dumb Friends League in Denver.  Bud is a big, sweet lovable boy; he likes to play, but when things get rough, he is the first one to meow & literally run to his mommy. He is a lover, not a fighter.  And he absolutely adores boxes - above and beyond the normal amount cats like boxes. Bud is about 2 years old and named after Spike.

Bud is also quite a daredevil -

Bud is walking the curtain rod - that's Sylvester on the cat condo

• I had always wanted a black cat and I happened to be on Craigslist and saw an ad for a free black kitten.  So we went and got Mew.  We had a heck of a time naming her, but if you ever get to meet her, it will be obvious why we chose the name we did.  She literally "mews" - she mews running up and down the hallway, trills as she walks, and makes all manner of cat noises but rarely meows.  She could fit in one hand when we got her and now she is a little over 2 years old.  Poor dear got spayed and blew up like a balloon (I can relate). She is one of the most affectionate cats I have ever had and loves to be picked up, cuddled and having her belly rubbed. She loves to get and give attention to the other cats. She bathes everyone (except Monster, who at least will tolerate being in the same room as her now) and will seek out the other cats to get a bath. She'd be happy if I could carry her around all day long. We clipped all of their nails recently (such fun!) and Mew literally lay on her back and stayed there while I clipped her back nails - I promise to get a picture of this next time so you can see.  There are more pics of her if you scroll down.

Mew as a tiny kitten.
That's Boo & Spike eating with her {RIP}

Junior, Mew & Bud

• Junior on the other hand was not a social cat at all when we first got him.  He and Bud lived together in the shelter, but, he was very freaked out when we got him home.  He didn't hide, but he was very skittish.  Turns out, he had been to the shelter TWICE in his short life  and his last "owners" literally kept him for one year and returned him. That happened to him 2 times - people adopted and returned him twice (can you even imagine?)  So I can understand why he was a bit mistrusting.  He has warmed up quite a bit now.  He is definitely the fighter and protector in the family and vehemently protects our home against any other animals, or leaves, by sitting in the window and meowing up a storm. He will also sit in the window and call to you if you are outside.  Turns out Junior had a dental disease, common in his type of cat, where his teeth were literally crumbling. About a year ago we had all his teeth removed and he is a brand new cat! Talk about social; he LOVES attention, LOVES to play and is never far from a person.  It's amazing how he has turned around!  He is also quite a Casanova - he adores playing with his sisters!!
  

JUNIOR

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Junior & Mew

MEW

                          

• I had sent my roommate out to get litter and dry cat food and he came back with a cat.  That is how we ended up with Sylvester.  He is a VERY large cat, very vocal, very loving, very playful and happily goes along with whatever trouble his brothers get into.  We think he is about 2 years old.  If you hear a crash, you can bet Sylvester had something to do with it.  He settled right in with the family.  He also blew my theory - when people would ask me why I had four cats, I always said to have an even number {when we got him, we had already had four cats}.  Oh well.  He loves to play and sometimes plays a bit rougher than the other cats.  He's very strong and will literally head butt whatever is in your hand out of your hand, if he wants to be petted. He regularly does this with my Kindle, my glasses, the phone; anything that is in his way of being loved.  We found out this year {2021} that Sylvester definitely has Maine Coon in him as he needed a tooth pulled and long story short the cat cardiologist said he has a slight issue with his heart that is exclusive to Maine Coons {nothing serious and nothing that will effect his quality of life - cost me $2,000 BEFORE he even had the tooth pulled!!! But he needed it done and so he has one less tooth and isn't quite as grumpy!
  

SYLVESTER

 
                    

Now, when me & the Feline Five moved into my roommates home there was already a cat in residence.  So I feel it is only fair to include Lily on this page.  For the first year I lived here she literally wanted NOTHING to do with me; but now she seeks me out to be petted! And she will occasionally sit on my lap! I still can't get her to purr for me, but I'll get there.

 I am happy to say Lily is loving living here and her personality has begun to bloom - she LOVES to wrestle with Junior, sleep on the heating pad & look out the window.

So Tom moved back to the East Coast and Lily became my cat and came with me.  We all moved into a home that had 2 cats already, so now there are 8 crazy cats.  I will post pictures of Emmy and Sasha when I get a moment.  I am pleased that we have had no serious issues with all the cats, occasionally a growl or a bit of spitting, but they all get along just fine.  In fact, Emmy seems to enjoy having all this company! Sasha isn't as thrilled, but she lays on the arm rest of the couch and swats at all the others as they walk by - considering she is so tiny (she is even smaller than Junior, but she has long fur so she looks bigger) it's funny to see Sylvester or Max get a swat and jump 40 feet in the air :)

The Furbabies at the Rainbow Bridge

Monster was the last of the Connecticut cats.  Her real name was Almoni, since my two friends, Alison and Monica, bought her for me (at the Humane Society in CT) after Sam passed away.  But, she was SUCH a terror as a kitten, she was nicknamed Monster, and that stuck.  She was so tiny, but such a strong cat; she never let any of the other kitties bully her at all.  She was also very funny.  I had noticed the decline in her health for a few weeks, little things, but nothing serious until one morning she went to get up and go to the kitchen for food (she had been camping out in my craft room and was getting fed in there so none of the other kitties would bug her; she must have been hungry to seek out more food) and she basically just fell on the floor.  At first I thought she had tripped, she was getting worse at navigating around, but, no.  I could tell there was much more wrong with her than that.  Monster went to the rainbow bridge on April 24, 2016 when she was 18 years old.  I'm pretty sure she had a stroke

Peeking out of a suitcase
in the closet

After living in Colorado for about 2 years, we noticed that Baby seemed to be short of breath. We waited a week to see if it would sort itself out, and when it didn't, off to the vet we went (we have a fantastic vet - The Cat Clinic - I will never take my cats anywhere else).  The vet informed us that Baby was suffering from heart failure and we knew we had to let her go.  She was one of my original two cats (her and her biological brother Spike) and was the runt of her litter. She never weighed more than 5 pounds and loved to be held like you'd hold a baby that you were burping, with her paws on your shoulder.  Baby left us in May of 2013, she was 17 years old.

This is Baby & Spike

Spike (who was nicknamed Buddy, hence Bud's name) wasn't the brightest bulb in the bunch, but he was a lovable boy.  The kind of cat that would follow the others and then be the one to get caught.  He would always comfort me when I was upset, without fail.  He was a beautiful boy and welcomed every cat we got after him with cuddles and baths. Bud reminds me of him so much personality

wise.  Unfortunately, Spike began having the same troubles as Baby did, about 6 months after we had to let her go.  I knew right away what it was and promptly made a vet appointment and sure enough his little heart had begun failing. He joined his sister at the Rainbow Bridge in December of 2013.

Spike

He was my first orange and white cat. After I got him, I had noticed that Boo (who was named Damien, but had a crooked tail - his tail literally ended in an "L" - so I started calling him my Boo Boo Baby - and then Boo). The vet agreed that this was a birth defect and Boo didn't seem to mind it at all.  Then was Boo was 16 at the time, had gotten a sore on his lip. He had just had a bunch of teeth removed, so I wasn't sure if it was due to the dental surgery or not. I also watched him carefully because he was prone

Boo

to chin acne (turns out he was allergic to plastic) and the poor boy's chin would get so inflamed; I also cleaned his ears out because they'd get so dirty. But he loved me and Boo was my cat. I had gotten him at the vet after Sam passed - they had a picture of him and not one single person asked about him - so I said I'd take him.   He was very shy and would hide under the bed for at least a day after a vet visit. He also held grudges. If we had visitors he'd hide for hours after they had gone.  My ex mother-in-law never laid eyes on the cat, not once, in 8 years. But, every night he'd sleep at the foot of the bed, on my side.  He was very affectionate and loving toward me and the only other person who he'd allow to touch him was my mother. Back to the sore on his lip, we ended taking Boo to the Emergency Vet, who told me he had cancer.  I insisted that we take him to our vet who tried to treat him with steroids to see if it was cancer or perhaps something else.  When we took Boo to the vet for his check up after his steroid treatment, we also took Spike (Baby's biological brother) for a checkup.  This was in the first week of December, 2013.  We learned that Spike was suffering from heart failure (which I sort of knew having seen his sister suffer from the same symptoms) and Boo did have cancer.  I was unable to lose both of them at the same time, so we said good bye to Spikey Boy and I took Boo home for one more day and then brought him back to join Baby at the Rainbow Bridge. Spike was 18 and Boo was 16.  That first week in December of 2013 was very hard on me and I still miss my boys every single day.

Sam, my mother's cat (who was actually my cat first) who we took in, had passed to the Rainbow Bridge when she was about 18 years old.  She had contracted mouth cancer (the same type Boo died from) and after she passed is when Boo came to live with us.  Sam was an outdoor cat who became an indoor cat, much to her chagrin.  This even describes her perfectly: When we were putting in central air and one of the workers left the back door open.  Sam took this opportunity to relive her days as an outdoor cat and promptly escaped.  My husband was home and he saw her, but she'd let him get just so close to her and then she'd bolt.  He finally called me at work and told me he couldn't get her back inside. I left work (luckily, I worked at a VERY friendly place. When I had to put Sam down the whole staff cried with me) and went home. The house was very rural and I needed to get Sam before dark. I literally walked in the house, went out the back door, called her name once and she ran up to me. I picked her up and brought her in the house.  That's the kind of cat she was. I can't find any pictures of Sam in my computer (I KNOW I have some) so I will update as soon as I get a moment to search all my cat picture files.

 Just Some Random Adorable Pictures
(and there will be more, many, many more)

Boo

Spike (left) and Monster reading up on how to amuse me.