Cats

[Spangoid]

Couldn't help but ask this, but it appears that everyone (ok, maybe not everyone) here has cats. Is this really the case, or am I just going crazy?

Here are mine, Shadow (black kitty) who will be 5 years old in 2 weeks. Where all that time has gone, I do not know! And Spangle who will also be 5 in August. Their personalities couldn't be more different!

[Squirrel]

It does seem as quite a few of us have our furry feline friends around and love to share pics of them.

Both Shadow and Spangle are beautiful cats and so contented and comfortable. Their servant helper must look after them really really
well. Thanks for sharing.

[karen4bells]

Beautiful cats---I'm one of the few that doesn't have cats, but I do have a couple of birds to help me out

[Stitchinkitty]

I could not imagine life without a cat.My two Cleo(Miss Cleopatra Jones) and Sushi(Sushi Belle) keep me sane and help me fight the black depression.

[Spangoid]

I could not imagine life without a cat.My two Cleo(Miss Cleopatra Jones) and Sushi(Sushi Belle) keep me sane and help me fight the black depression.

Could not agree with that more! I got Shadow when I was going through some tough times with depression. He was a spur of the moment purchase. Within an hour of getting the idea in my head, I got home with Shadow in my arms. It was amazing really. Within a few days, my head was clearing and I started changing my life around.

Shadow was (and still is) always wanting to be around people, but I wanted to start working again. He hated being left alone and where I live in a flat, he couldn't go out and explore when I was out. So I ended up getting Spangle. First few minutes were scary when I was introducing them, but within a few hours, they were sleeping together on my desk chair. It is still their favourite place to sleep! Spangle was 10 weeks and Shadow was nearly 5 months when they were introduced.




Shadow no longer cried whenever he had no humans home with him which I was so happy about. But whenever I took only one cat to the vets, the other would cry the whole time we was gone even if he wasn't home alone! It does worry me about what will happen when one dies as the bond they have is amazing. I mean Spangle is my little piggie, but when Shadow has had to stay at the vets, Spangle completely stops eating unless you hand feed him. Hopefully we have many more years with each other left.

I personally believe that without my cats, I would not be here now. Depression has not been a problem since they have been in my life, but there have been many times where my pain has been so bad, I have just wanted to end it just so the pain will stop. But the thing that has always stopped me has been my boys. Thankfully that is not a problem now that I have medication at home that does help the pain and they finally are giving me the correct dose. It is thanks to this medication that I am currently rambling away on here at 2am...

But no, my cats are just like my kids, they mean so much to me. They know exactly when I need a cuddle from them, but they also know exactly when I just need to be alone for a bit. They wake my mum up by jumping at her door and meowing as loud as possible to wake her up whenever I start having a seizure in my sleep. They were never trained to do anything like this. I also like to think they they helped save my life, though if that is true or not, I do not know.

January 2013, I woke thinking that somehow the cats had broken my ribs. Ended up calling an ambulance and the hospital say I had pneumonia and send me home with antibiotics. I get home and go to sleep. I wake a few hours later to one of the cats kneading me and licking my eyes. Could just about tell my mum to call an ambulance. When it arrived, well the paramedics had no idea how I actually managed to wake up as my oxygen levels were just so low and my heart was hardly beating. Until this day, no one is sure just how I woke instead of dying in my sleep. Did the cats help? I do not know, but something made me wake up. It turned out I not only had pneumonia, but also a blood clot in the lung and a collapsed lung which happened the next day.

I am gonna attempt sleep once again. How I got side tracked into this ramble, I do not know! Why does high doses of morphine mean not only can I not fall asleep, but also means I can't stop talking even when I am alone? It is seriously annoying! Thankfully my kitties don't care that I can never stop talking when I have higher than normal amounts!

[fccs]

Spangle and Shadow are sweet! I had a black cat - she was so special!

I've never had to fight depression, but i do think cats or dogs or any pets bring a positive energy to a home. I'm glad your fur babies are not only good companions but know how to take care of you.

[Allyn]

Very cute. I grew up with cats, but haven't had any in over a decade. I have dogs now -- pit bull terriers. My old friend passed in January, but we have two rescues.

[Mystonique]

We've never been without at least one cat and one dog. But at one point when we lived on acreage we somehow ammassed 26 odd cats. There is such a thing as too many.

We currently have 3: one was a stray, she's over 23 years old now, one was deliberatly rescued to live with me when I moved out but when we rescued her we saw a much older, almost totally feral one eyed critter no one could get near ... so we rescued him too and now he's settled mostly.

And we have a Staffy dog. Neurotic. Escape artist. But so adorable.

[Rose]

Currently have 2 of the brat....... . Miss Kitty who is 17 or 18 years old. And Jerome who just turned 10 in March. They allow is to occupy the same home as they do as long as we are at their beck and call at all times.

Also have a loveable Boston Terrier that is the clown of the house.

Love them all!!!!!!!!

[lavenderbee]

Spangoid, your cats are really lovely & am sure they do know when a person needs TLC. Guess they felt something was wrong & woke you up. Animals have an inner knowledge. Also having an animal would help you a lot as stroking an animal is relaxing & lowers BP, even scientists have proved that. I love to hear my cat purr & that is a comfort esp. when you feel unwell.

Hope your depression is under control now & that you feel better. I rabbit on since I've had clinical depression. Before I didn't say much at all except in letters & I suppose you could call these postings a form of letter. Knitting helped me a lot as I could not concentrate enough to do any form of needlecraft & after a few months also took up pen pals. Had 2 cats & 2 dogs in those days so plenty of pets to stroke & make a fuss of as well as looking after DH.

[richardandtracy]

Cats..
Have a few. Well, 4 at the moment.

I was converted to cats by a stray who adopted my wife before I met her. He is the cat in my Avatar, and was called 'Albert'. The ultimate thug, he enjoyed attacking dogs like our neighbour's Doberman/Alsatian cross, to the extent that when he jumped on the fence, our neighbour's dog ran away, looking over her shoulder with white rimmed eyes. However he wasn't very clever and when it rained, he sat in the middle of the lawn swearing at the world how much he hated getting wet... Albert died after 14 years aged between 19 & 21, and I still miss him every day, 11 years on.

Our second house came bundled free when we bought a cat. We paid £39000 for the little tabby in 1992, and got the house he lived outside too. He lived until he was 21.

Unfortunately we had a run of relatively short times with a number of rescued adult cats. In the space of 6 years we got through Heather (Died at 15 of cancer), Dinky (rescued at 14, moved next door at 16), Jack & George (identically marked litter brothers, got them at 9, both died of kidney failure at 13 & 9 respectively).

We then got a kitten, called Squeaky in 2005. Then a turning point to big cats: a rescue cat dumped at my dad's farm 'Fluffy' who seems to be a Norwegian Forest Cat. He's now about 15. This made us determined to get a Maine Coon, Gryff who we got as a kitten:

The photo was taken less than a month before his third birthday (for scale, the tiles are 6" across), he died 3 days from that third birthday of a heart attack.
So, we got two more Maine Coon kittens, Floyd and Ozzie. Floyd is in the photo below:

Floyd was a great hunter, but that was his undoing. Just after his first birthday, he nipped out for a rabbit, crossed in front of a car, and died in Tracy's arms.

However, Ozzie is a character. Here he is guarding the cat food after our bi-weekly shop a few months ago:

He's nearly 3 now.

Finally we were given a ginger & white Maine Coon cross, called Rooster, taking our complement to 4.

Regards,

Richard

[lavenderbee]

Your cats are beautiful Richard but what a history you have. Each one of them that touch your life always leave a bit of a footprint. The cat on the tiled fireplace is beautiful. How heartbreaking he did of a heart attack. Your current cats are lovely too. I've had a cat in the home from before school age & the few occasions there has not been one, it has not really felt quite right. Millie has been with us 5 months & is a rescue. She is 3 now but she'd have kittens, 4 died & the 5th was being looked after by a volunteer at the rescue centre but very poorly. Our 12 yr old died last June from kidney failure & we thought we would wait a while before we got another one. Then in November we heard the largest animal rescue centre in this area had 200 cats needing homes. DH went down there & came back with Millie. Our other cat was black & the dogs could not work out how another black cat, smaller & with longer fur, was in our home.

i always wanted a donkey too but never got one

[richardandtracy]

Our current neighbour has a huge garden - well 2 fields really. A few years ago she fell in love with mini donkeys, and got several. The are nice little creatures & don't need much space. You need at least 2 so they can keep each other company, but they can cope with 1/2 an acre and some additional feed. The mini-donks are slightly smaller at the shoulder than a Shetland Pony, and a fair bit shorter.

Our neighbour had to give them up when they realised just how close to ruin they were and how they both needed a proper job rather than a family of 4 trying to survive on the income from a 2 acre/4 horse livery stable.

Regards,

Richard.

[BlondeStitcher]

I love everyone's stories about their cats! I have always had cats growing up, and often considered them some of my best friends since I often am a misfit. When my husband and I move in together the first thing we did was adopt a couple kittens. We ended up with these two goof balls. The black one Boo. He acts tough but is just a big mommas boy. The grey one in Luna. She is our little happy cat. She will happily play by herself for hours, but when she wants to snuggle she wants your full attention and will give you some of the beat purrs you have ever recieved. She is also very scrappy. At an almost 5 lb deficit on Boo she still is the instigator of their wrestle matches and often is the first to take him down. I dont know what I would do without those two for entertainment.

[fccs]

Awww, such sweet kitties! The black cat I had was named Kitty, but her nickname was Kittyboo.

[lcamp]

We have three cats and a yellow Lab mix(Daisy). The cats are Grafitti(Black with a little white), Ambri(solid black with a smoke undercoat-she is a purebred Maine Coon) and our only boy, Sylvester is a tuxedo cat, who enchanted me at a gas station when I went in to pay! Dear husband named him before we even left the parking lot and I did my best to talk myself out of getting another cat. I went back that afternoon and he was sleeping next to the cooler. He got up, stretched and gave me a look as if to say, "What took you so long? I've been waiting here for hours!"

Rose, I know what you mean. I work in order to keep in the style for which they've become accustomed!

[rcperryls]

I wasn't going to post pics of my previous kitties, but Richard's pics made me go back a ways to look at mine. My first cat was a very large black cat named Sigmund. Got him when he was 6 weeks old. He lived 13 years. We think he was a Bombay (half Siamese half something else?). Grew to be nearly 3 feet tall when standing on his hind legs. 20lbs. He truly looked like a baby panther. The absolutely smartest cat I have ever known. This is a scanned Polaroid photo. I have others but for some reason they won't go into Photobucket so don't think I can post those. This one is nearly 30 years old.

Sigmund


I then had Merry (Merriodoc Brandybuck Perry) and Pippen (Peregrin Took Perry). Brothers who I also got at 6 weeks. They truly loved each other. Pippen (orange tabby) lived 16 years and Merry (black tabby) lived 18 years.





Thanks for looking.

Carole

[purgatory]

it does seem like everyone here has a cat or two or three! although I am more of a dog person I have had cats for the last 20 years, and like some others here they are a great help in times of stress, I suffer with depression and many days I only get up because of my boys



the white and grey one is Loki and the ginger is Odin, they are very different and Loki was at first not at all pleased that I hadn't got him a female companion, luckily he got over it and as you can see they are good friends now

everyone's furry friends are gorgeous, I especially love maine coons and might one day get one although I would dearly love to have a dog in my life again, but until then I shall faithfully serve my feline masters and be happy that I have them

[lavenderbee]

These cats are beautiful. Love the way the 2 slept together, so lovely to see. Thanks for sharing.

[neecy]

Some lovely cat pics on here. Had to show you Charlie. The pics not upside down that's the way he was watching me stitching!


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