Hello everyone,

I have been intending for quite a whlie to introduce myself and my cats in the Cats General section, since I've been following it for several months now and throwing in comments here and there lately.

I have had the Cat of the Day as my home page for a few years now.. then one day I clicked the link saying "Talk about today's cat in Pet Talk!" I started following the threads about the Cats of the Day.. Then one day I started looking at the General threads and following some of those.. (by now, this is around the holidays last year.. and I *loved* the Cat Olympics!). Lately I've occasionally made comments and responses in some of the threads. I thought it was about time I introduced myself and my kitty family.

My name is Pat Murray. My four.. no, five now! cats and I live in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, which is about 50 miles west of Detroit (and Windsor, Ontario). I work at a no-kill shelter for cats and do some petsitting on occasion too.

Peony, age 12, is a solid brown-tabby girl.

Sydney, 11, is a tuxedo boy.

Priscilla, 7, is a long-hair white-with-some-grey-splotches girl.

Poppy, 1 1/2, is a tortie girl.

and.. Elmer, 5 months old, who still officially belongs to the shelter but is here to say, is a brown tabby with white trim. He is also a Cerebellar Hypoplasia baby.

I don't have a digital camera yet ... one of these days.. Meanwhile, here is a simple web site I made in an Internet design class I took a couple of years ago: http://stu.wccnet.edu/~pmurray/MyCats/

Mitsie, who is on that site, passed on from complications from kidney disease a year ago last July. A week later a co-worker from the shelter asked me if I would take care of her foster kitten "for a week" while she went up north.. so Poppy came, and the rest is history.

I don't have pictures of Poppy or Elmer yet, but I hope to soon.

Sydney was diagnosed with a fibrosarcoma a couple of months ago. Surgery a couple of days later didn't quite get it all. He had another operation by a surgical specialist last month. Wonderful results: clean margins all around!

Priscilla is no longer the kitten, now that Poppy has come along. She (Priscilla) is still bossy. She sometimes chases the others, in particular Peony, who growls and hisses but won't just bop her one to stop this behavior. As a result, Peony spends a lot of time hiding. I wish I knew what to do about this. I hate for Peony to be intimidated and scared.

Elmer has been here about two weeks now. He gets around pretty much where he wants to, with a lot of listing back and forth and some stumbling and falling. He picks himself up and carries on. He LOVES the laser light.. he LOVES the Cat Dancer.. and he REALLLLLY LOVES the catnip! He, Sydney, and Poppy got high a few nights ago and all rolled around and bounced around even more than usual!

His body is quite long and skinny, and his legs are even longer in proportion. He walks around with them spread out to help keep his balance, looking sort of like a little colt or fawn or even giraffe (without the long neck). He also has a very loud voice and no hesitation on expressing himself. He is a very dear little boy.

I've been enjoying so much reading and seeing the pictures and movies of so many of the kitties here,.. I'm looking forward to getting to know you folks and your cats better.


Pat, Peony, Sydney, Priscilla, Poppy, and Elmer