Cats cats and more cats (Part 4)

Tags

Cats, Family, Life, Personal, Pets, postaday2011

Penguis gave birth to three darn adorable kittens. However, when I came home to visit, there was only one because she had taken one of them away and lost him. Then another kitten was lost because a cat stole it. Yes, a cat stole one of the kittens. What kind of cat steals another cat? This cat is now called El Roba Gatos (the cat stealer). My Mom said that they always looked out for them but they could not be taking care of them at every moment of the day. My parents did all they could to take care of them. They might have not been able save the other two but we were left with one kitten. I named him Misha.

My little Misha

Now Misha is special and we take extra care of him. He was born with a crooked right paw so we don’t let him jump from very high places. I just don’t want him to get hurt. His crooked paw does not stop him from playing. he loooooooves to play. Misha always plays with his uncle, Gordo. It is very cute. When we took Misha to the vet for worms, the doctors said there was nothing they could do to fix his crooked paw. They also said that he might be an incest baby. Currently he has the flu but some medicine should make that go away.

He doesn’t drink milk anymore but he loved drinking milk from his Mom. I stayed up late many times when he was younger just taking care of him. He would cry that he wants to go outside and when this cat cries, he will not stop. This kitten is not an animal but a human baby. That’s how he gets treated.

Misha got lost when he was younger. We let him out and we trusted him to stay near but then he wandered off. It was early in the morning and I was asleep. I had no idea that he was lost. My parents went to look for him and my Dad said that my Mom was really sad. They looked all around the neighborhood and my Dad said that he eventually saw a kitten and called him. The kitten ran to him. Then my Dad realized it was Misha and brought him home. Since then Misha has lost his privilege to go outside unsupervised. We just don’t want him to get lost.

Right now he is sleeping on my parent’s bed. With his head on my Dad’s pillow. This cat is a handful so it’s nice when he sleeps.  My brother and mom say that he cries when he is alone in a room.

Misha was born on April 24 and he is 16 weeks and 6 days old.

The reason that I wanted to write about my cat is to explain that there has been a cat in my house since I was little. When I leave to Russia, I am going to miss them all very much. Like I explained in Part 2, Meowmix is getting old. He doesn’t really show any signs of it but I’m afraid that he will pass away when I’m not here. I don’t want that. I want to be right here holding his paw. Also I don’t want Misha to grow too much while I am gone. Lastly, I hope that my host family has a cat. That will make if feel more like home to me. So this is the story of my cats but I am sure that I will post something about them down the line.

Cats cats and more cats (Part 3)

Tags

Animals, Cats, Family, Kittens, Life, Personal, Pets, postaday2011

A black momma cat came to our house one day with her children. They were adorable. I fell in love and then we had new additions to the family. Yes, you shouldn’t feed stray cats but I can’t help it. I feel bad for them. She has gone through several names but for now lets call her Momma Cat. Tommy and Mimi were two of her kitten and they looked like twins. Mimi looked like the dark version of Tommy. Tommy became the favorite because he liked to come in and he had this walk that made you laugh. Then there was Pinguis (it’s in Spanish and probably spelled wrong), Franky, and Chris. Here are some pictures of them:

Mimi-She was so small

Tommy-As he got a little older I called him Thomas

I was going to school in Santa Barbara so I did not see my cats as often anymore. Then there was an earthquake near Los Angeles and my brother told me that was when Tommy got lost. My family looked for him but nothing. When I went home, I expected to see him when I went outside my house but he never showed up again. Our family hopes someone found him and took him in.

Since we had all these cats on our front porch that would not go away, we just feed them outside and they always had fresh water too. We took care of them the best we could but some of them would just leave and not come back. For example, Franky left and we did not see him again (I think he has shown up recently but since he grew up I don’t know). They would play outside and run inside our house if we left the door open but quickly run out if we wanted to catch them. Some time past by and then Momma cat was pregnant. What a surprise right? Oh but not only Momma cat this time but Penguis too. These cats just keep adding up but we can afford to feed them. However, we cannot afford to take them all to the vet.

Moving on with the story, Momma Cat had five kittens. She had them somewhere else and the first kitten she brought was this black female kitten with an orange type of color mark on her face. Later, I was told that my Mom thought it was a rat and thought she was ugly. Her name was Chiquita Banana. Then the others started to come with their Momma. There was a cat my brother named Lucifer (his name has now been shorten to Lucy so people don’t think we are devil worshippers or something) because he hissed at us and has a mean looking face. Lucy had three brothers named Gordo, El Negro (later name El Caballo), and the Grey One. Yes, the names are not really names. For example, what kind of name is the Grey One? We only called him that because he was grey. Guess what color El Negro is? Hint: it is a very very dark color.

Chiquita Banana

My Mom might not have liked Chiquita Banana when she was young but my Mom grew to love her when she got older. She became the favorite and it was really sad when she never returned. I always ask for my cats when I am In Santa Barbara to see how they are doing and my Dad told me over the phone that Chiquita had not come home to eat. Sometimes the cats leave for a few hours and then come back later so I was not too worried about Chiquita. Then the next day I ask my Mom about her but still she was a no show. The next few days she still did not come back and I figured that she probably was not going to come back. Eventually I come home for the weekend, I was hoping to see her running by but she never came back home. My Mom was really affected by Chiquita being gone because she was very attached to her. She dreamed of Chiquita a few times after she disappeared.

After she disappeared then Mimi did not come back.  Mimi had left before for a few weeks so I assumed she was going to come back. I really missed her because I really liked her. She seemed to become more sad after her brother, Tommy, left and after her baby died. The baby seemed to be fine for a few days and then one day we found her next to him and he was just dead. Mimi still wanted to stay next to him.

The Grey One, sadly, past away weeks after Mimi disappeared. I was going to come home for the weekend and I had not finish packing by the time my brother and Dad arrived at my dorm. One of them got a call from my older brother who was at home but I did not think it was serious so I left to finish packing. My brother calls me over and tells my Dad,” we should just tell her now”. I was so confused by this and I did not know how to respond to this. He told me that the Grey One had been sick for a while and that he had just dead. I left to finish packing and I started crying.

I miss all of the cats that have left us. I was so attached to them. Of course I have moved forward but I still think about them at times. I’m sorry if this is full of sadness but that’s how the story goes. It’s not all sadness though and the next part of the story is more cheerful.

Penguis became pregnant again and it has made us very happy. The story of my cats will finally warp up tomorrow.

Cats cats and more cats (Part 2)

Tags

Animals, Cats, Family, Life, Personal, Pets, postaday2011

After Jackie II died, there were no cats in our house for a while. I guess my family was still in mourning and we did not know when it would be okay to get another cat. I did not want to get another cat right away because then I felt like I would be disrespecting Jackie.

Eventually this cat showed up on our backdoor and I decided to give her some food. She had a collar so I knew she had an owner. The cat ate everything really fast and left when her tummy was full. The following day, she came back but she did not have her collar on and I assumed that she lost it. She came so frequently and she started staying around our house more often. That was when we started to let her come inside the house and she would sleep during the day on a bed or couch. My Dad did not let her stay inside over night so we would always have to put her out at night. I always felt bad for that. In a few weeks, she was allowed to stay in our apartment at all times of the day and went outside whenever he wanted. Although she went through many names (and I mean MANY), I told everyone that her name was Meowmix. Soon enough Meowmix got a little sick so we took her to the vet. We found out she had worms and that she was not a she but a he.

Let me explain why I thought Meowmix was a female. Looking at his face, I thought he was a girl. Secondly, he had been fixed before we found him so there were no signs down there that he was a boy. Now my mom jokes around saying that Meowmix does not know what he is because we confused him by calling him a her for so long.

This cat went through several collars before we decided we would not buy him anymore.

My cat likes to go outside a lot. When he wants to go out he will let you know by going to the door and trying to move the knob with his paw. It’s really darn adorable. Yes, I go gaga for my cats. I’m sure if Meowmix could talk he would tell me, “Yes, I know I’m cute. Get over it already and let me sleep!” Another thing about him is that he is not the kind of cat you can hold whenever you want or give attention to. He will let you know when you can pet him but be warned he does have a temper. My whole family has been scratched at one point or another. However, Meowmix has never hurt strangers or people outside my immediate family.

Meowmix has been with us for a little over 10 years and he was already fully grown when we found him. I think he is 11 or 12 years old. He does sleep a lot more but he still plays now and then. We all love him very much and that is why we spoil him. Every thanksgiving he fills up with turkey for days. He gets ham several times a week. Also if my mom makes fish or shrimp, of course Meowmix gets some too. Spoiled cat.

He enjoyed being the only cat in our household for several years but about a year ago that all changed when a black female cat arrived on our front door.

Cats cats and more cats (Part 1)

Tags

Animal Shelter, Animals, Cats, childhood, Family, Kittens, leukemia, Personal, Pets

0 cats + 1 cat = 1 cat

There has always been a cat in my home since I was little. My Dad brought home our first cat, Jackie, late one night and I didn’t want to go back to sleep. I just wanted to play with this little kitten who looked a bit scared and curious at the same time. A few weeks after my Dad brought him home, he got lost and I couldn’t find him. Of course, I was sad and my Dad drive around so we could look for him. Eventually we went home and made flyers in case someone found him. No one called saying that they had found Jackie. My Dad then brought home one of Jackie’s brothers so my brothers and I would not feel sad anymore. In honor of Jackie, I named our second cat Jackie II.

Jackie II was such a nice and calm cat. As calm as he was, he also was involved in several fights with other cats but that was when he was older.

One day, my family and I were going to the movies but then we saw this Mom cat with her kittens at this house next to our apartment. Then a cat fight broke out and all cats scattered and left. All of them were gone except this one little black and white kitten. Then my Dad went to go get her and she kept hiding because she was scared. Eventually my dad caught her and brought her inside our apartment. Jackie just looked at her and tried to get close to her. She did not like that and hissed at him a bit. To be honest, I was afraid that she was going to hurt my cat even if she was much smaller than him. This little kitten was named Sassy because of her attitude. 1 cat + 1 cat = 2 cats

The plan with Sassy was not to keep her. We let her go outside when she was a little older so she can go off on her own. Kind of like releasing her into the wild type of thing. Now that I think about it that sounds like we are……well it just sounds bad seeing it written out. Anyways, the plan did not work because she never left but stayed with us. I say she stayed because food was never a problem for her and we loved her. Soon enough she became pregnant but sadly they did not make it. The second time she gave birth, the kittens lived and they were adorable.

Four of the kittens were girls and one of them was a boy. All the girls were black and white. The boy was tabby and we named him el tigre (the tiger). At this point we had seven cats and my dad thought it was too much so he wanted to give them away. One day my brother and I came home from school and three of them were gone. Of course, el tigre was gone. He was the cutest. 7 cats – 3 cats =4 cats

Sassy became pregnant for the third time and she gave birth to 5 kittens. Now we had 9 cats inside our apartment. My dad said that we could not keep them so we planned to take them to the animal shelter. The day we took them, it was raining. I could not help but think that my feelings were being reflected in the weather. We took them inside and I said my goodbyes to all of them. They looked sad. As if they knew that something was not right. The last time I saw them was when they were in cages. I miss them. We were left with Jackie II. 9 cats – 8cats = 1 cat

We had Jackie for a little over a year before he became sick with leukemia. Before we found out what Jackie had he was not eating and lost a lot of weight. One morning, I remember I woke up and my right thigh was wet. Then I smelled urine and I realized it was Jackie that had peed on me. He had slept on my bed that night. My Dad decided that it would be best to put him to sleep since there was nothing we could do and my brothers and I did not want him to suffer, so we agreed.

It was sad. We went to an emergency pet clinic and well just sitting in the waiting room was heartbreaking. I did not want to look around because there were hurt animals around and it made me want to cry even more. There was a dog and he was bleeding from his ear. While we were walking out to the car, I felt like I was leaving him behind and abandoning him. Pets, to me are never just pets. They are family.

1 cat – 1 cat= 0 cats

Some time past by before there was a cat in our household again.