Friday, July 10, 2009

"You will always be lucky if you know how to make friends with strange cats." - Colonial Proverb

Remember about a year ago we had a delivery of kittens hanging on the Court? Since then we have randomly seen several kittens around, but none of which have been seen hiding in our garden our under grills for me close enough to rescue. Phew. Because me and stray animals is just a mess. My heart crumbles if I see a stray. I immediately want to give it shelter and a bowl of warm milk.

I even give my neighbors inside/outside cat, Peanut, a bowl of dried food every now and then. Peanut is the wiry gray and white long haired cat that just walks around our little neighborhood. If you visit often, you have seen him. All the kids know his name and he can be often found sitting on the roof of someones car, basking in the sun. Peanut loves to visit our home. Many times I have said, wrong house Peanut, and he saunters back down the porch steps, mad that I didn't give him a snack.

Sometimes, I will leave our sliding door in our kitchen open a crack so that on nice days Lily can get in and outside to lie on the porch. One afternoon, after playing outside with the kids, I walked in to find Peanut fast asleep on our couch. Lily HATES Peanut with an extreme passion. If she had taken notice of this event, her head would have spun around 10 times and her eyes would have popped out of her head. I think that she has made it her life's purpose to beat the fur balls out of that cat. If she even sees Peanut from a distance, she charges the front door to try and get out growling and clawing because he simply walked into her sight. Many times in the evening we will be watching tv and hear the front door open and close. Andy would creep back upstairs ready to attack some intruder only to find out that it was Lily charging out the door and across the front lawn, after Peanut who stopped by for a visit. After the first three times, it became a normal noise and now no one moves from their activity, but will only comment, 'Peanut's here'.

Lily has in fact been known to smack, hiss, and growl at me, for even saying in that sickly high voice you use to address animals and babies, 'Hello Peanut.' And you better believe that Peanut runs away as fast as he can. Can you blame him? You too would take off if a 30 pound raging ball of fur was charging you. I have no idea why I am rambling on about Peanut, perhaps only to explain that if you are over our house and Lily starts acting like she was possessed, or thrashing around shrieking and growling like a flea is stuck up her nose, it is only that Peanut is around. Or maybe it is to tell you that if you see a gray and white cat in our home acting like it is his, do me a favor and kindly remind him that he is at the wrong house. He will swagger out of the house and down the front steps with his nose in the air as if to tell you that he knows and that his rump can be anywhere it wants to be. He'll get over it.

So I wrote all about this cat in my blog last year. We say that Mom Mom's is his Foster home, since, a. that is their last name and b. I still stake claim to him. We just clearly cannot have another male cat in our home, unless of course we claim Lily to be a rabid beast for the rest of her life. Andy Kitty is the lucky member of the Black Cat Family. The Black Cat Family was donned the name by Kendall who decided that the stray cats should have a name, and since they ALL have Black fur, the name was created. So original, a genius I tell you. The Black Cat Family resides in the woods near the Court, and was clearly here before our homes were. You won't see or hear them unless there are kittens, because one gave birth in the bushes of our home, or one got smushed by a car on the main road through our development and I am pulled over on the side of the road in tears at the sight of such a terrible tragedy. All in all the Black Cat Family pretty much dislikes humans and avoid us. I think they hold resentment over the fact that we built our homes on their land. But I don't mind them, they mind their business, we mind ours, for the most part, such is cohabitation.

Andy Kitty, however, clearly loves farm life. He is the ruler of the roost. A cat. Really. He struts around the farm like he is in charge of all walks of life there. I could not have picked a better home, he is thriving. Ok, so at one point a 1/4 of his tail was mysteriously chopped off, but really it was much to long and fluffy. This cat though is a beast. I am writing this post to commemorate his first year of life, and when you see the photos you will not believe that he is only one year. Maybe you don't really even care to commemorate such an event, and you can go and crawl back into your little hole and be miserable all day long.

Did you get a good look at the size of that beast? No, he isn't dead, just all sprawled out in this really indecent shot...sorry 'bout that, just wanted to get the full effect of his grandiose size for you. I think he really needs to start watching the middle, high cholesterol, diabetes, we can't have that...diet time. But I mean really, do all species of males have to sit with their legs spread out like this? I am beginning to think I should do a study...regardless...

So, Happy Belated Birthday Andy Kitty. This is a little overdue, he turned one in about May or so, and we had a little Party for him. We brought over a ball with Cat Nip in it from Lily, since she declined the invite, she's a snob like that, and dined on Fancy Feast...ok, so we ate Tuna Fish sandwiches, but all his foster brothers and sisters munched happily on the wonderful canned cat food cuisine. No, I really don't believe in pet birthday parties, but thought this would be a fun activity for the kids on a rainy day. People that order dog food cakes from a special bakery and send out invites inviting all their canine friends over for the party simply, needs lives, or a hobby, or to get rid of their animal, this is abuse. Dogs in party hats is not nice.

So if you aren't a cat person, shame on you, and you most likely hated this post, double shame on you. Who doesn't like themselves a furry little creature that has more attitude then my daughter on a bad day?

"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs
should relax and get used to the idea."
~Robert A. Heinlein

1 comment:

Blessed2Serve said...

Loved this post! What a cute kitty. I had a black Maine Coon cat growing up. In other words, he was HUGE! His name was Dani, short for Danino (tilde over the first n)... which means "mischevious" in Spanish. ;o)