Since so many of my drawings
contain cats, it shouldn’t be a surprise to find that we
have a feline contingent to the household.
The Calico Sisters
Fido and Moustache
Our very
first pair of kitties,
Fido at left and Moustache on the right.
Fido and Moustache, the
calico sisters, were the first cats to join our family in 1971.
Both were named when we got them as 10 week old kittens. Moustache’s
name is self-explanatory but we’re not sure how Fido got
hers. She never barked or brought Jeff his slippers or curled
up by the fire. The calico queens travelled with us from St.
Louis back to Chicago, hiding under the car seat for the entire
7 hour trip. They were from the same litter and although they
tolerated each other, they were never close the way that Tobey
and April (our current kitty pair) are. What they did cooperate
on however was cornering Wally, the dog, and generally bullying
him. The one thing that Wally and cats did well together was
cornering mice which Wally would then put in his mouth, its tail
helplessly dangling, and basically scare the poor mouse to death.
Fido developed kidney stones when she was about 6 years old.
She had several removed but finally succumbed. Moustache lived
for 18 years before developing a cancerous growth that ended
her life. Tashi (Moustache II), described below was her calico
namesake.
Meet Ivy
Ivy, our first Siamese mix, came to us in 1983 when she was 5
years old. Her previous family developed severe allergies and
reluctantly put her up for adoption. They had named her Ivy because
she demanded to be held and would hug you and cling like “ivy”.
She would greet every visitor and purr very loudly when held.
Ivy was the cat who taught us how affectionate a feline-human
relationship can be. She had no favorites and was a friend to
all humans who crossed her path, even devoted non-cat-people
who quickly learned to love Ivy. We were very fortunate indeed
to have Ivy in our family for 10 years. She died very suddenly
of a stroke on a Saturday in December, 1993.
Tashi
Tashi, our fourth
cat, came to us in 1989 from an animal shelter where she had
lived the first two years of her life. She was a delicate cat,
in voice, coloring , size, and temperament. Her coloring was
described as “ghost calico”, a muted calico with soft
long hair. Tashi was named in memory of another cat, Moustache
(who we introduced above). Jeff had noticed her hidden in the
corner of the cat cottage where the sheltered cats ran free.
Her card at the shelter described Tashi as “sweet but shy”.
She was easily cowed by other felines, a role she continued in
her 12 years with us.
Her most remarkable trait
was her tenacity in overcoming illness. Tashi definitely lived
more than nine lives. In May of 2000, she stopped eating. We
took her to our local vet who said her kidneys were barely functioning.
There was nothing he could do for her and he said we should treat
her as a hospice kitty, keep her comfortable and let her go as
long as she was not in distress. 12 days later she weakly walked
to the refrigerator. We offered her food and she used all her
remaining strength to begin eating again. Tashi lived another
7 months and died at home, at the beginning of January, 2001,
wrapped in her favorite blanket.
Tashi was
a petite and delicate little lady.
Cocoa
September 2001 marked
the second anniversary of Cocoa’s death. She was a shelter
cat brought in from the Chicago cold and estimated to be at least
5 years old. Later visits to the vet showed her to be more like
8 to 10 at the time of her adoption. Like most of our pets, she
was already named when we got her. Cocoa was feisty from being
on the street, with a partially nipped ear to prove it. She loved
being cuddled but when she’d had enough she would bite;
not just a little warning but a blood-drawing bite. By the time
of her death, five years later, Cocoa had become very affectionate
and only gave warning nips. She demanded to be held and yowled
in a full Siamese blood-curdling cry to demand your attention.
She was a large, 18 lb. female Siamese mix with a black nose
and very crossed blue eyes. Jeff’s lap was her favorite
curling up spot and blocking whatever was being read was a given.
We would often wake up
to a cat on one of our chests, especially in the colder months.
As you
can see from her picture, Cocoa was a beautiful lady.
The following was written
to describe Cocoa in 35 words or less for a pet calendar contest:
35 Words for
Cocoa
A deep,
throaty Siamese Yaow protesting every closed door,
Beautiful blue eyes, slightly crossed;
Eerie red eye-shine;
A long, strong, slender tail
Whipping around her otherwise still body
Gently purring,
Lovingly cradled in my arms.
Cocoa died very suddenly
of congestive heart failure. We miss her cuddling warmth and
demanding presence. She is buried in our pet cemetery in the
woods behind our house.
April
April,
the starlet, posing for the camera
One of our current kitty
pair is a heavenly creature named April. She’s a Siamese
mix about 1-3 years old. Hers is a very compelling story. In
April (hence her name) she arrived at a local animal shelter
as a stray having apparently just given birth to a litter of
kittens. But there were no kittens brought in with her. It's
a mystery what happened to them...
A wonderful coincidence
occured at about the same time. Three tiny abandoned newborn
black kittens arrived with NO MOTHER. As they mewed and meowed,
April heard them and was immediately drawn to them, licking and
cuddling. She nursed them as a surrogate mother for the next
6 weeks. We waited until the kittens were weaned so that we could
finally take her home with us. It was a joy to visit with her
every week until she could leave the shelter. April has been
with us since Father’s Day 2001 and helps to make our home
complete.
