My Cats
While living in Virginia, I was adopted by a total of eleven cats, not including the occasional visitor being nursed back to health. They are Ashley, Foster, Franklin, Maggie, Morris, Parker, Randy, Rusty, Smokey, Valtoy and Venus. Some of these cats have left us, some are with my ex-wife, but here are some pictures of my two current two cats, named Maggie and Randy, and a couple of other favorites. I apologize in advance for the poor resolution of the scanned images.
| Maggie | |
| Maggie was born in April 1995, and we
got to take her home 6 weeks later. She is a classic
calico -- ambitious, intolerant of other cats (at least
at first), and oh-so stubborn. Lucky for her, she's
also extremely cute, with perhaps the best "who me?"
expression (displayed at right) I have ever seen.
Maggie's hobbies include conducting experiments in gravitation involving breakable objects and extreme (for her) heights, hissing at the other cats, hiding in (and being closed into) the closet where we keep the food, and the 50 Foot Dash Past the Human Guarding the Door. Click here to see some more pictures of Maggie. |
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| Randy | |
| Randy was born a year after Maggie,
almost to the day. She was found outside a local school
when she was about two weeks old, malnourished and
screaming her head off. We adopted her about eight
months later as a playmate for Maggie, who was getting
fat because the two twelve-year-olds, Rusty and Ashley,
weren't interested in playing that much. She is very
friendly and a joy to have around, even if she
sometimes has the annoying habit of licking our hair
while we're trying to sleep. [We think she thinks she's
grooming us, so we try to accept the compliment while
gently discouraging it.]
Randy's hobbies include paper ball chasing, walking on the loft railing while her parents watch apprehensively, and more paper ball chasing. Click here to see some more pictures of Randy. |
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| Morris (deceased) | |
| My ex-wife and I adopted nine-year-old
Morris the week after Rusty's death in April 1997. He
is a very sweet cat who happened into our lives just
when we most needed him. He looks a lot like Rusty,
except for being polydactil, which means he somehow
drew an extra ration of toes on each foot. [While it
may appear from this photo that he has no feet
whatsoever, I assure you it is an optical illusion.]
Morris died of a heart condition on April 24th, 2002. I
miss him.
Morris liked nothing more than to curl up and go to sleep, preferably either near a window on a sunny day, or on my lap in my office. He earned his nickname "The Morris Monster" (or "Mo Mo" for short) by demanding to be let out of the bedroom at 3 o'clock in the morning. Since then he mellowed a bit, although I think all the youngsters had him running a bit more than he would like. Here is his story. |
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| Rusty (deceased) | |
| My ex-wife found Rusty alongside the
road when he was six months old. When he died twelve
years later, it was a very sad time for us all. We miss
him a great deal; he was the best cat I have ever
known.
Here is his story. |
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