I haven't had a chance to look at all of these beautiful creatures yet, but I will! For now, I'd like to post pictures of my own babies.
Miss Purrl (hence my username) was my baby from October 4, 1984 (she was three months old when I got her and was part of a litter that had been born in a barn up the hill from where I was living at the time), until we lost her to jaw cancer on January 27, 2005. But she had a good, long life. I never really got many good pictures of her sweet face, because she learned early on that when I had "that thing" in my hands, there would be a bright light, and turned her head away.
This picture was taken on her 20th birthday.
The day after I picked up her ashes from the vet, I went to PetSmart "just to look at the kitties" and for some "fuzz therapy." There was such an empty space in our home! When I walked into the adoption room, all of the cats started meowing--at the cage at the end of the row, a white paw reached out toward me. I went there, and it was a calico girl. She rubbed her face on my hand, and the attendant asked if I wanted to hold her. I did, and she snuggled down in my arms. I went home and told MrPurrl, who replied, "Well, I guess we'd better go look at her. Call and ask them not to let anyone have her before we get there." And we brought her home and changed her name to Callie from Autumn, her shelter name.
Last spring we bought a house and moved. In late June, a stray cat started hanging around the back yard; and we started feeding him. We took him in July 3, took him to the vet, who pronounced him "severely malnourished and full of fleas." We got him fixed up and brought him home; and he told us his name was Fergus.
At first it was a challenge to integrate him into the household; Callie was very territorial.
Fergus has grown into a 20-pounder, a huge, long cat with extremely long legs. After eight months, they are getting along quite well, despite occasional "dust-up", as witness this picture taken during our "big snow" a couple weeks ago.
Having two cats is good, and we love them very much!