Harold as a kitten; no picture available yet of his brother Gordon, who was pure black
Posted on 10/02/2008 3:12:52 PM PDT by franksolich
I'm wondering how others came across the cat (or dog), or cats (or dogs) they currently have. I grew up in the Sandhills of Nebraska with dogs, although once in a great while there was a cat around.
Then I went away from home after graduating from high school, and no more pets until many many many years later, when I moved back to the Sandhills (but not the same part where I had grown up), and involuntarily began acquiring cats.
I wish I had pictures of all the current cats to post here, but I'm still learning this "scanning" thing, and while I have photographs in real life, I don't yet have them all scanned, imaged, and photobucketed.
The first cat who came here was Abbie, in January 2002. Abbie, the senior cat, is mostly grey, with a little bit of white and a little bit of black, and probably about 8 years old.
One dark night, while looking out the window, I saw a van drive down the gravel road nearby, and a cat tossed out of it.
Now, I'm not a cat person, but this irked me, especially since a domesticated cat would have problems surviving in the wilderness. It's an all-too-common practice for people, when tired of a cat or a dog, to take them out into the country and simply dump them.
The next day, I borrowed an animal trap and baited it, setting it out for this cat. Two days later, during a heavy winter rainstorm, the cat took the bait. And so Abbie, who was immediately shot and neutralized, and has always been comfortable here.
About a week later, when glancing out the window, I saw another cat--the exact same cat I had seen dumped.
Ooops, I had caught the wrong cat.
So I borrowed the animal trap again, and some days later, during one really bitter-cold night, the cat took the bait. Snow is grey-and-white, about half and half. She was too young yet to be neutralized, but got her shots.
Then a few days before she was scheduled to be neutralized and shot, she got out of the house and came back enciente, and so one had to put a "hold" on that.
In September 2002, she bore Junior, Apricot, and Floyd, all of them spitting images of herself, although Apricot was more black-and-white, than grey-and-white. They were great kittens, great cats.
Alas in May 2003, Apricot was crushed by a motor vehicle when crossing the road, and has since been missed very much, as she was quite a saucy personality.
And then in November 2004, Junior abruptly took off, never to be seen since.
I have already told the story of Floyd here, last week.
Noticing my discouragement at the loss of Apricot, a neighboring farmer presented me (without my asking) Gordon and Harold, two long-haired kittens.
Harold as a kitten; no picture available yet of his brother Gordon, who was pure black
Harold is still here, and now the senior male cat. Gordon like Junior before him, mysteriously evaporated in May 2008.
George came here in summer 2003; actually I stole him, from a primitive, a DUmmie, who had neglected him. Horror of horrors, she had named him "Sunshine."
George in the summer of 2008
Unwilling to tolerate animal abuse, I simply took him, and the primitive, the DUmmie, never even knew it, and probably does not know to this day. George has always had ample opportunity to return to his old home, but even after more than 5 years here, he shows no inclination to do so.
Ellie came here on Christmas Day 2003; a city councilman driving down the highway had seen her, and as I lived in the house closest from the highway, dropped her off. She was a very tiny all-orange kitten, so small one could hold her inside the palm of a hand without any overlap. She also had a broken tail, weighed less than a pound and a half, and was infested with all sorts of parasites. Ellie has since remained pretty small for a cat, but remains healthy and chipper.
Ellie in summer 2008
Sometime after she had been shot and neutralized, during a late-March snowstorm, Ellie disappeared for some days, coming back with a busted-off back leg. The leg was successfully set, although it was a long spring, as she so wanted to romp and play in the great outdoors, but the cast and splint were about the same size as she was then, and such was not possible. But by early summer, she had healed, and has since remained healthy and vigorous.
Leo came shortly after Ellie, within weeks of January 2004; Leo was obviously a feral kitten (about the same age as Ellie), and refused to come inside. One night, however, when it was -20 degrees F with a 50 mph wind blowing, Leo came inside.
Leo the summer of 2008
I had hoped I was done acquiring cats; even though by this time, the time Leo came here, I had already lost Apricot and Junior, the number of cats here, and those two losses, sapped more out of me than I had thought possible.
But then.....in May 2008, about five years later, Gustav showed up. Gustav is about 10-12 years old, an ancient among cats.
Gustav in July 2008
Gustav came here dangling a busted-off front leg, which was repaired by the veterinary the following morning, in addition to the shots and neutralization. Gustav really really really wanted to be wandering the great outdoors, but was incarcerated here until the splint and cast were removed some weeks later.
Unlike Ellie, who had recovered use of all four legs instantly the splint and cast had been removed, perhaps because of his Great Age, it took Gustav some weeks to re-discover his fourth leg. Once he started romping and racing in the meadow here, I figured Gustav was leaving. Since late August, Gustav has shown up for supper perhaps six times, and I'm hoping as the weather gets colder, Gustav will make it a point to stick around here, inside, more.
While Gustav was still on the mend, when I was in the "big city," someone dumped a cat inside my motor vehicle (fortunately all four windows were down a couple of inches, and fortunately I got back to the car less than an hour after I had parked it).
William, the latest and youngest cat, the summer of 2008
Well, I hope that's all the cats for now, as it gets crowded in the wintertime, when all are indoors. The house is large, with plenty of acreage for each cat, but for some reason they always want the same space all the other cats want.
This place is, really, a paradise for cats.
The river that runs near; I am the only house on this side of the river
The cat terrain to the north
The cat terrain to the west
The cat terrain to the south, getting to the river; there is a grove of walnut trees on the right, outside of this picture
On the east of the house is the famous William Rivers Pitt, circa 740 cubic tons of antique swine excrement dating from 1875 until 1950, looking very much like a miniature Jungfrau; no photograph available yet.
About the time we were due to return home, the husband got a better job offer in New Hampshire, all the way across the country. They couldn't take the kittens with them. We figured we'd have to leave the kittens with another daughter.
The day we were to leave, the kittens were all over me. I had the uncanny feeling, they know!. I couldn't leave them. We ended up loading the kittens in the RV and taking them home with us. They're still with us, and spend a lot of time on my lap.
I found all three of my cats right here on my property - the first in 1989, the second in 1992 and the third in 1999. They are all still alive and well.
Then I found a Pug just last year. Because I am already maxed out per our city code (three animals per household are all that’s allowed), the Pug went to my Mom’s house. He is a handful (very strong, disobedient, etc.) but he’s very affectionate, and we just love him!
We got Wednesday from someone who sent an email out to the homeschool association. He was moving. She was about 9 years old at the time; we’ve had her about a year and a half. She’s not very friendly, so we adopted Shannon from a cat-rescue group that was at the PetsMart. She was 4 months old when we got her about a year ago. She’s a little more friendly than Wednesday, but not a lot.
Our snake is more sociable than either of the catz. Go figure ... of course, she likes our body temperature.
Alleyxandra Purrdita Po' Tabby Trash Cat literally climbed out of a tree into my arms.
Pollyanna Rivanna Luxapalila Chincoteague Dot Org(andy) was given to us because we needed a mouser, since Alley was more ornamental than useful.
Clint Junior Lightning got himself stuck in a pile of lumber when he was just a weanling form one of the feral cats who hang around here. He needed help recovering from exposure and now he tries to catch the cursor when I type. His motto is certainly "Go ahead, make my day," ever since his bedroom was a Boca Java box and when I reached in to medicate him he would raise a diminutive paw and hiss.
I got my cat Mantacore on my birthday the same year. He was just a kitten who apparently had been abused, the whiskers on one side of his face had been cut off, but this didn't stop him from following a coworker nor did it stop him from putting on a full scale charm offensive at any prospective new owner.
I inherited Carrot Face from my grandmother when she died in June 2006. He has a extremely fat brother that I also took in but the two hated one another and would beat each other up constantly. Hard to believe the two had to live together for ten years. The brother now lives with my aunt.
The moral of this story is that I should stop going to work!!
I’ve found that planting a cat will generally produce two more. If the ground ia good even three.
Jones is the gray one. 
You are evil!!!
Love all the photos. Argyle came from an ad in the newspaper. I always heard that cats chose you and not the other way around. Getting Argie was the luckiest thing that’s ever happened to me. He’s my lap cat and enjoys his cuddle time.
Currently we have some local stray Toms (males) who just drop in. It took two years for us to get one of them to let us pet him. Now he sleeps with me. Another yellow cat comes in occassionally to eat but he won't let us pet him --- yet. We call him TOYC which is "The Other Yellow Cat."
Sneezy just jumped in front of the monitor.jxkkjc I am accepting donations to get more fixed.....
Gee, I thought your area was only famous for the great filly Sandhills Diamond or all those cranes we love to view along the Platte in the spring.
But now, we’ll be on the high alert for the cats, and of course that heigth-challenged trooper who ticketed me for going 65 near Broken Bow on Highway 2 at 5am on a Sunday morning. And to think he had the nerve to ask if I was a Husker fan-—only when they lose I told him :)
Lew, in Kansas
Elliott in 2006
Speaking of pets. Anyone got a dog or cat with unique qualities?
My Golden Retriever, Sam, enjoys a happy hour Corona from his beer bowl. We leave out the lime. Sam’s taste buds aren’t that particular. A Marine friend of mine has a Golden named Coco. She likes her scotch at the end of a hard day.
You don’t really adopt them, you let them keep you.
First 2 kitties, brother and sister, I got from my boss’ neighbor who was going to kill them if they weren’t adopted. When the sister died of cancer, I got another one from Peto in Santa Monica, CA. I recently adopted my puppies from PetSmart in KC.
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