CATS OF ONE DESIGN & ANOTHER

 

Meet “Molly”, my dark striped kitty cat, who could never resist tissue paper.  She lived to the ripe old age of 20 and was the third dark tiger-striped cat we’ve had.  The first was “Tigger” who followed the kids and me one night as we walked home from a favorite café where we’d had dinner.

The second was “Emily” whom daughter Suzanne brought to me at a fair we were attending saying a friend had given the kitty to her.  “What?!!  What friend?”  But the deed was done and Suz loved the cat, so we had Emily.

Molly came to us similarly.  I had the girls with me while I was shopping.  At one of the stores a person had a box with a couple of kittens they were trying to give away.  The girls wanted to stay outside while I shopped to see the kittens.  I said “Okay” but added they could only look.  They were not to pick them up and we were not going to take one home.

Meanwhile, another mother with a couple of little girls came to the store and left her little girls outside looking at the kittens too.  Her  little girls, however, picked up the kitties and while they were playing with them, the person with the now-empty box, picked it up and stole away.

So the other mother came out of the store, saw her daughters with the kitties and sighing, told them they could not keep the kittens.  One of them was a cute little buff-colored kitty and a woman walking by said she’d take that one.  That left the little dark-striped kitty.  My daughters now looked at me with beseeching eyes – conveying what would happen with the little thing if we didn’t take it.  And so, Molly came to live with us and turned out to be the sweetest little kitty ever.  She never did grow very big, but boy, did she have spunk.

Several years later when daughter Suzanne came to live with us for a while following an accident, she brought her boys “Paxton” and “Oliver” with her.  They were big honkin’ cats, but when Molly let them know she didn’t like what they were doing or where they were sitting, they immediately backed off recognizing it was her house no matter how small she might be!  Rather funny to watch.

Molly had favorite perches such as on top of a pile of books.

Or, before I furnished my dollhouse, she liked to curl up in one of the bedrooms.

And she liked to sit with the other ladies in the guest room.

And like any cat, Molly loved to lie in the sun even if it meant lying on top of paper bags stacked vertically behind her scratching post!

This isn’t Molly, but a kitty much like her, and laying on top of folded laundry was one of Molly’s favorite places.  She would also climb into the warm dryer while I was trying to extract the dried clothing and lay down.  What a cat.

When our other daughter came visiting she’d bring her little bunny, Poopers, with her.  Molly was intrigued, of course.  No problem, though.  Poopers was not another cat, so the two of them got along well playing & chasing each other around. 

One of her favorite perches was “her” place on the sofa.  Here, she’s letting Paxton know he’s in the wrong place and you can believe he moved! J  She’d even get after me if she wanted to sit there and I was there!  She’d climb up on the arm of the sofa, then poke her nose at my arm  – nudge, nudge, nudge . . . ‘You’re in my place, Mom!’

If Molly ousted Paxton from her  place on the sofa, he’d often drape himself over the back of it instead.  I mean – how lazy can you get?

My favorite picture of Paxton, however, is this one I titled: “I’ll have an appetizer of kippers, a tuna melt, and a side of seafood salad, please.”

As for Suz’s cat, Oliver, he’d sit patiently near my husband waiting for him to finish a dish of pudding or ice cream knowing he would get to lick the bowl when Dad was through.  J 

Now all our kitties are gone and below is my current and, hopefully, forever love, Shakespeare.

His cage is just to the side and slightly behind me when I’m working on my computer so when he wants attention, if outright loud chirping doesn’t do the trick, he’ll hang on the side of the cage nearest me and repeatedly peep softly until I can no longer resist and turn around.  What a bird.

:->

La Nightingail 

And I can’t forget . . .

Little Ella who turned up at our place one morning and decided to stay.

Even when it became necessary to take her to a pigeon & dove sanctuary for her safety, I visited her every week and she’d come eagerly to see me.  I miss her.  The folks who ran the sanctuary had to move to the Bay Area and took the birds with them, but they assure me Ella and her life-mate, Prince Charming, are doing well, so that’s all that matters. J

Y