2 Attachment(s)
Here are pictures of my family
This is my first attempt at including photos in a thread. I have them as attachments; don't know if you will be able to see them.
The first photo is a family portrait from November, 2005. My Dad lives with me, so he is in the picture.
I am holding Ruffles, she is about 15. I am her 3rd owner. Her first owner died after 10 years. Her second owner moved into elder housing and was only permitted one cat; she had two. That is how Ruffles came to me.
Dad is holding Cuddles. Cuddles was a stray, picked up by the city shelter at about 6 months of age, and very pregnant. She was terrified of people. She had 2 lovely kittens, both were adopted. Then she was spayed. Then the shelter did a bad thing: they took in 3 baby raccoons and let people visit and pet them. It developed that one of the kits had rabies. So the shelter was closed and put into quarantine for 6 months. No one wanted to adopt Cuddles, because she was so terrified of people. When they adopt a new pet, they want to interact with it! When she had been at the shelter for 18 months (!) the animal control officer decided it was time to make room for a more adoptable feline. The receptionist phoned me to hurry down. She gave Cuddles to me; no paper work, no adoption fee. Just handed me the cat and her medical records! At 2 years old, she was in a home for perhaps the first time in her life. Cuddles has been living with us for 14 months. She is still making progress. Just being out of the cage and in a room was terrifying for her. It took her 3 weeks to come out of the carrier and be comfortable in a room. A whole house? That took more time. She will come to me in the middle of the night for some petting. We still are not permitted to look at her or talk to her in daylight. She wants to be invisible. Her mad cap scampers to safety under the bed are fewer each week, thank goodness.
Santa is holding Vita (on the left of the photo). She is now 9, a former city shelter cat. She picked ME, no doubt about that. I was the only person - employee OR volunteer - she would come out of her cage to. She is petite, but she is the Alpha female around here, the Queen of this Colony.
Santa is also holding Crystal (on the right, next to me and Ruffles). She is now 16 months old, in the photo she was just 6 mos. My first calico. What a different personality on her! My neighbor's son found her, a wee thing just 2 pounds of jitters, in a grocery store parking lot.
We had to call Mrs. Claus to help, she was in the kitchen baking for Santa and the elves.
Mrs. Claus is holding Sparkle, she is 10 next month. She is also from the city shelter, she is my second cat ever. She is a peach, a true "mommy's girl." Dad has lived with us 5 years and she still ignores him.
On Mrs. Claus' lap is Chestnut, currently the only male. He is now 8. I found him in the parking lot of the apartment complex I was living at. He was under a pound, had anemia from flea infestation, eye and ear infections, ear mites, just one very unhappy little baby. I took him in to work with me for 3 days, to keep an eye on him, give him all his medications. Now look at him! A big man, all grown up.
All are spayed / neutered. Ruffles is front declawed, but that was her first owner's doing, not mine.
Six cats, and Dad and I agreed that was enough. But I worry about the homeless ones. So in June 2006, I signed up to be a foster mom. Within half an hour of my first foster cat's arrival, I had to call and tell them this was a bad idea; take me off the foster mom list; take her off the adoption list.
So in the second picture, you see the newest member of my family, Ebony. She is about a year old. She was found as a pregnant stray. Her pregnancy was terminated and she was spayed. She gets along fine with everyone EXCEPT the calico, Crystal. They are about the same age. Crystal is the only one who has not had to adjust to a new addition before. And she has decided that Ebony is NOT going to stay, even though it has been 8 weeks. The water spray bottle is still getting a work out. But we are making progress.
About being a foster mom: my not being able to do this was news ONLY to me. My aunt laughed so hard she dropped the phone. One friend said, "for a smart lady, you sure don't know much about yourself!" And everyone who knows me was startled that I thought I could really do this. Hats off to all of you who DO foster them; I am not cut out for it. Dad says we got off easy; 3 weeks earlier, I had been asked to foster a litter of 5 whose mom was killed by a car; we were leaving town the next morning and I didn't think the timing was right.
We travel a lot. Dad may have moved in with me 5 years ago, but he won't let go of (his) my mom's house (she died 12 years ago). So we travel back and forth. THE ENTIRE FAMILY. My little Honda Civic with 7 cat carriers on the back seat.
I hope this introduction is not too long!
