I could hear Patty Stanger saying "meet my millionaires" as I typed that. Seriously, if you live in the Pittsburgh area & aren't allergic, you should come meet my cats. For the rest of you, here's their profiles. Before I get into them as individuals though, I want to say that cats are vital, active beings who keep me engaged & active. They're always giving, entertaining, engaging, healing, loving, & they need me. With cats, you get out of them whatever you put in & more so, very much like with children. They're the toddlers that never grow up, without the terrible twos for the most part. If you put in bolding, really feeling their needs & personalities, true understanding, appreciation of them, rapport, love, play - whatever you put in you receive in return, magnified. But it's more subtle than with dogs, more like with people, & the Universe. You have to be sensitive to the benefits & gifts, aware to fully perceive them. Perhaps today's blog is pure self-indulgence. Way too many words for some, & certainly not enough to really do justice to the unique, beautiful, loving being who daily grace my life.
Whiskers is my oldest. He turns 12 in April. He's a grey tabby with cream accents, a white blaze (stripe down his nose), white cheeks, throat, chest, & belly, white paws & whiskers. Right now he's sleeping on my bed. I give him Cosequin for cats once a day & he now plays like a kitten again, but much less often. Whiskers & Breezy are my heart. I deeply love all my cats but I'm closest to Whiskers & Breezy, & they enjoy all the benefits of that. He was found on the farm in Hagerstown in tall grass just in time to be missed with the lawn mower as a small kitten by my niece, & they couldn't keep him. My beloved Bonnie cat was near death & so I was allowed to adopt him. The first time I held him he wanted to get down, had been kept in a small cage. I held him securely & firmly in one hand, against my chest, & he soon fell asleep. My Bonnie acted as a mother cat briefly before her death, & the day she died he slept with me for the first time, nearly in the exact position by my pillow that she used to be in with me. Whiskers used to invent games with my ex, chase & sock pulls. Daddy was for play & Mommy was for petting. I discovered that he's one of those rare cats that's too sensitive to petting on his body, that he only likes it around the neck & head. I learned to pet & scratch him in the ways he loves. He's very scent oriented, likes to smell my breath & sniff my hand before I pet him. Then he flips my hand up with his nose to tell me he's ready to be touched. I'm the only object of his affection & have been since Bonnie died. In the evenings when I put my feet up on the couch he gets behind me & often leans on my shoulder. He doesn't like other cats around me when he's with me but is more tolerant of that at night. For years he didn't sleep with me often, but now that he's older he wants to be with me more & closer, has gotten more tolerant. He's very funny because he's built like no other cat I've known. He's built to be an outdoor cat, with a coarse outer coat & a thick undercoat. His back legs are longer than his front & he's very compact & short but with a fairly thick body, like a pear. When he runs he often ends up running sideways because of his back legs being longer, & sometimes he hops like a rabbit when moving slower. He's built for sprinting I guess, or leaping. He has the loudest, most ragged & healing purr I've ever heard, & he often purrs directly into my ear, only purrs for me. He is absolutely my purr therapy cat & I couldn't love him more.
Angel is 8. She's my "black cat with some white." We thought Tiger was going to die, was having surgery & the vet thought it was cancer, thought they'd put him to sleep once they opened him up the next day. A friend at church asked me to take the cat they'd found. When I asked if she was black I was told she was black with some white. I love black & tuxedo cats so I agreed to adopt her right then. I felt it was right. She was actually white with some black tabby splotches & I named her Angel within days because she is. Unfortunately, she's a rather needy cat. Her cup is never quite full & I have trouble dealing with those needs in any cat or being. However, now that I understand cats so much better & have deeply evolved with them, she's doing much better. We didn't lose Tiger either. It wasn't cancer & he lived for another 4 1/2 years until he did develop cancer in the same region (intestines). With Tiger & Whiskers (first it was Tiger & Bonnie), that made 3 cats. I'm not sure what Angel's role in my life is, but she's beautiful & unique. She is very sweet & loving, & has a very sweet face. I know of her needs & do my best to meet them. Angel loves Reiki & would often jump on my desk when I'd do Distance work.
Midnight Louie is probably part Maine Coon, all black, very large & heavy, very soft & fluffy with tufts on the tips of his ears. Louie is named for the cat in the Carole Nelson Douglas series. She's my favorite author & it's my favorite series of books. Louie is turning 6 soon. He's my guard dog of a cat, & he loves men way more than women. I offer my hand to him for a few little licks & he sometimes comes to where I am for a little attention. Otherwise I have very little contact with him, other than to talk to him. But he's my main source of protection. He's also my source when a cat is accidentally shut into a closet, acts as a "bird dog" at that point to tell me. I also go to him for help when I can't find one of the cats. Cats all have jobs & Louie's was to gentle my ex & thus protect me. So just out of kitten hood, he began cuddling with my ex & having very little to do with me. He did a great job of taming my ex, & had a lot of trouble adjusting when he lost his job. He lost his job October of 2010 when I caged all of them & took them to Maryland in the middle of the night. We were all running for our lives after my ex threatened to kill my mother. Louie's not been the same cat since. When he was young he was very acrobatic & energetic. He could leap from the cat tree & hit the hole in the nylon tunnel being held up in the air, like a circus performer. He loved to do that. He was so high energy that my ex used to joke about getting him a ferret for a companion, so the ferret could ride him. Louie loves to visit with people who come here, especially men, & very cat-loving women. He often gets on the massage table when I do Reiki, to visit & lend his energy. I have no idea what all he protects me from these days but now that I know that's what he does & how well he does it, I feel very safe. And he appreciates me much more now that I understand his role in the household. He & Breezy were very close & loving, used to play together all the time before the flight to Maryland. Now he & Karma are close & sometimes play together or groom each other.
Breezy is turning 4, is the "ferret" we got to be a companion to Louie 2 months after Tiger died. She's the one I adopted on purpose, but from a no-kill shelter. She's the most adoptable & adaptable, & chose me to adopt her while rejecting some others. I was about to choose another cat but she was so engaging & responsive even while in the cage. Her foster mother taught all the kittens to be very easy to handle in all ways, but I'm sure Breezy didn't need teaching. As soon as the woman took her out of the cage & I stepped near, Breezy turned in her arms & reached out for me. As soon as I took her, she wrapped her arms around my neck & rubbed my face with hers, put her mouth to my ear, then pressed her mouth to mine. Breezy actually kisses, & loves to be kissed. Sometimes she licks, but mostly she kisses, presses her mouth to mine or my face. She understands the words "I love you" perfectly, & especially loves to hear her name attached to that. She responds with a kiss, & then rubs her mouth on my face. She's the most affectionate cat I've ever known, & the most precocious. She's a clown, a stinker, & a lover, the most lively cat I've ever know still. She & Louie were about 5 months old when I adopted them. She stayed a kitten for about 2 years & still often acts like one. She's very lean & muscular, with very sleek black fur like a seal, & beautiful green eyes. She's my ambassacat & everyone wants her. She too likes to get on the table when I do Reiki. I'm so thrilled & honored that she chose me as her person, to take her home. She's all the cat anyone would ever need, all cats in one, like no other cat I've ever known. In the winter she starts out sleeping with me at night, pressed up against my chest after kisses, under the covers, in my arms. She often helps me settle down for sleep with her purrs. I feel so calm & peaceful, that all is right with the world & all her love when she settles in my arms at night. Eventually she ends up sleeping by my legs on top of the covers. I believe she too provides me protection at night, right there with me, guarding me. During the day she's often around me whereas Louie & Whiskers will be wherever they're most comfortable & want to be. She often jumps up on the toilet lid (which I always keep down) or wherever else is convenient to me, & reaches her arms up so I'll pick her up & cuddle & carry her. I always do, so she waits for me even if I leave the room briefly. I hold her to my chest, kiss the top of her head, & she lifts her face up to kiss me. I cuddle & talk with & pet her as I walk, & when I get to where I'm going she's ready to be put down. It reminds me of the "Mommy fixes" my son used to come for when he was a toddler. I'd usually be in the kitchen & he'd be in the living room playing with Sesame Street or Mr. Rogers in the background. He'd come into the kitchen at regular intervals, wrap his arms around my leg, & get a kiss & hug & a few words, then go back to his play. That's my Breezy too. She's my heart, my giving, loving darling who always keeps my heart full. She also has the sweetest little very musical trill which she utters regularly so I know she's near even before I see her. Karma & Cassandra have occasionally started imitating her sweet trills.
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