CATS THAT HAVE OWNED ME  

I have lived around animals all my life, especially CATS.  We had cats in our house when I was growing up in Long Island in the 1940’s. My Dad had cats at his garden store so mice wouldn’t eat the grass seed.  I remember two sister cats that lived at the store.  I named them SCRATCHY & MOUSY.   Mousy had kittens and Scratchy helped to care for them.  I was only 10 years old at the time, but I realized how amazing these cats were.  One day a large truck carrying chickens turned over in front of the store.  What a sight!  Chickens all over the place.  Most got away.  After the wrecker came and cleaned up the road and everyone went back to their business, we discovered that one young pullet, frightened and shaking, had found her way to the front of my dad's store.  This little bird moved in and for a year or more she enjoyed life at the garden center, playing with the cats and kittens and acquiring a taste for cat food.  I can’t remember what became of the bird.  I always hoped that it died a natural death, but I am afraid that is unlikely.

During my high school years we obtained a gray angora cat I named FIGERO

BIG & RED.  As you can see, he had a special talent.  He moved to Vermont with us.

     

                  MAX

         Our twenty plus years in Vermont brought much happiness and more cats, including Max, who has a full page devoted to him.  He lived in our house in Vermont with four other kitties, RUFUS, GUS, ALBIE and our daughter Dena’s cat LUCY.  Rufus passed away in 1995 and Gus and Albie went to live at a farm.  Lucy still lives in Vermont with Dena.  

In 1998 our big event was the arrival of a new member of the family.  While our kids were visiting in June, Ireen noticed that our cat, CHARLIE, nee Charlemagne, had been hanging around the garage quite a bit.  Ireen paid it no mind until late one evening she heard faint, high pitched meowing coming from the garage.  She looked around the garage and found nothing.  Upon returning to the garage, Ireen saw Charlie looking toward her studio.  Looking under a table, Ireen spied a tiny gray kitten, about five or six week’s old. Attempts to catch the little critter were to no avail.  Ireen was even bitten during one attempt.  After feeding the kitten a few times, Ireen put some food in a kitty cage and trapped the kitten, which turned out to be a girl.  It was apparent that Charlie had known the kitten was in the garage for some time.  Lenny believes that Charlie found the little one and brought her home.  We named the kitten Adeltrude, ”ADDIE”, after a daughter of king Charlemagne.  We were concerned as to how Charlie would receive the newcomer.  Not to worry. Charlie has become Addie’s surrogate mother.  The two of them are virtually inseparable.  He dotes on her, grooming her, playing with her and generally performing his maternal duties.  As the photo shows, it is something to see.  Since then we aquired 4 more cats.  Black cat names Frodo.  Then our daughter found 6 kittens, about 6 weeks old,  on her front steps one day and she brought them to me. I washed them up they were full of fleas.  Kept them on our back porch and gave all away except the alpha kitten, we named Sam. (Frodo left & Sam right)

One year later Dena again found a kitten at her house, only this time it was a tiny Calico kitten. She brought it to me and of course, never having a calico in my life she stayed.  2 years later my neighbor found a tiny, about 2 week old kitten near the beach.  She brought it to me thinking I would know what to do.  I got a kitten bottle feeding kit and kept him warm and fed. He took to the bottle right away.  We , Lenny and I were up feeding kitten every 4-6 hours.  Have you ever bottle fed a kitten?  Well, as he grew he was imprinting on all the other cats in our family, so we of course kept him.  Pippin is his name. 

                                   

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