The Cats In My Life

It all started when I was a child. I know we had cats before I was ten but I do not remember any of them.

I have pictures of cats that we had in Japan but my parents cannot share any memories of them.

The first ones I remember were when I was twelve. We had a Siamese in Lincoln, Nebraska. I remember the first time he saw snow. He put his paw on it to check it out but wanted nothing more to do with it.

This same cat jumped in the bathtub one day when there was water in it. He just stood there as though nothing was different. Then, he just jumped back out. It never seemed to occur to him that he had been in water.

Rocket came to join us next. She was so named because she was my high school's colors and they were the Rockets. She was supposed to be my brother's cat but she warmed up to me.

Just within the last few years, I have been blessed with cats again.

While wandering around the property one day, I kept hearing the meows of a kitten who seemed very scared. It was a couple of days before I saw it. Then, I did the only thing I could do. I offered it a bowl of milk. Well, we all know what followed. All of a sudden, I had a cat. I don't know where she came from. She may have been a "drop off" from the highway I live on.

She went on to grow up and have kittens. There were at least five. She had them outside and I did not see them until she brought them in. Four were alive then. She moved them inside after something had gotten to them the night before. Sadly, I found the remains of one outside.

She deposited them in the sink in the front bathroom. I tried offering her more comfortable "lodging" for them but that was of no interest to her.

They were such fun to watch grow up. Before long, she had them in the bedroom and I put a baffle at the door to keep them in. That did not last long. They were climbing over it in no time. There was no keeping them in.

Finally, they "talked" me into letting them go outside. It was such fun to watch them run this way and that. They never went very far. The funniest thing to watch was when they would run straight at each other and just before they collided, they would jump straight up in the air.

One day one of them thought they were jumping up on top of a bucket. Well, it was full of liquid fertilizer. I have never seen a kitten come back out of something so quickly. It was all I could do to keep from laughing and crying at the same time. I did go get a towel and try to dry the wiggly kitten dry. They were never still except when they were asleep.

One evening, one got up on the roof and would not come down. So, I gave up and came in. At two in the morning I heard a plaintive cry at the front door. I figured when it got hungry it would
figure it out.

I have a large cut glass basket and they thought that was the place to sleep. I was expecting one of them to slide into the bottom at any time. None of them ever did. I don't know how they would have gotten out if they had.

All four of those cats are now gone. Two of them have new humans to watch over them in this neighborhood. I see one occasionally when he comes to visit. The other came once and stayed four days.

Other cats have amused me.

One day I had taken a bowl out to put ice cream in it. I turned around to the freezer to get the ice cream. When I turned back around there was a kitten curled up in the bowl already asleep. I got another bowl out. LOL

On cold nights, they are the best sleeping buddies. The first four used to all spend cold nights inside. When I would wake up in the morning they would all be asleep on top of me. they were a nice blanket warmer.

I will be sharing more about cats as time goes along.