It's Official....we Have A 23-year Old Baby!

[Winchester]

Thanks guys! As she's gotten older, she's gotten a lot crankier. She likes to holler and carry on, for no reason. I think she probably has some arthritis. I know there are mornings when our knees creak and our muscles ache, so I can imagine she has some bad days, too.

Pepe's longevity is a family trait. Her mom (Whisper) lived to be 20; her Aunt Bootser lived to be 21, BooBoo lived to be 20. We had given Taffy, Pepe's litter sister to a friend and co-worker of Rick's. She became indoor/outdoor. But she had a good home. Rick's co-worker came into work one morning and said he found Taffy on the living room floor....she was 18 years old. So we think it's more of a genetic thing than anything we really did. They eat Friskies Buffet pate and Friskies dry for snacks, they drink bottled spring water, and they don't get much in the way of people food at all.

Our Hydrox lived to be 19; he was always in good health, until he got breast cancer. And our Amber Louise will be 16 in November. They are not related to the original RugCats.

 

[Winchester]

Here are some pictures of our original RugCat family:

Whisper and BooBoo on the back of the chair. Pepe is looking out the window.

Banshee is lying by the pillow. Bootser and BooBoo are trying to find a place to cuddle with her. Whisper and Pepe are sacked out.

Banshee and BooBoo are cuddling in the blanket on the couch.

Another one of the kids in bed: BooBoo, Bootser, Whisper, and that's Banshee doing a belly-wave.

Our cats have always gotten along very well. Oh sure, they had their spats from time to time and BooBoo and Banshee always went at it while I was working on feeding them. But all in all, we hardly ever found one cat alone. They were always together. Always. It's hard to believe the Ms. Pepe is the only one left now. And I think she feels that.

The kids that we have now don't cuddle. I think it's because they didn't grow up together and so they didn't have that special time. When Mollipop first came into the house, she did cuddle at bit, but not often. Here she is with Whisper and Ms. Pepe on the foot of the bed. But for the most part, nobody cuddles with anybody.....except they do cuddle with us. Thankfully.

But it bothers me that they don't along the way the other clan did. I don't know; there was just so much love amidst those guys. It was just them and us and I guess I thought that's how all cats acted.

Amber Louise and Mollipop in the catnapper in the bedroom. I have a picture of four cats jockeying for position in that catnapper! I've been looking all over for that picture and can't find it. Nobody would give up.

It seems so hard to believe that our kids are gone. Don't get me wrong; I dearly love the kids we have now. But it was really a special time with that gang.

Thanks for looking!

 

[rubysmama]

That's so amazing to have a family of such long-lived cats. Thanks for sharing their pics.

 

[kittyluv387]

Yeah I always imagined cats living in the house would be so sweet to eachother and pile up on each other while they sleep. But not always the case as I have learned. The 2 unrelated boys who have known eachother for almost 4 years do sleep next to each other at times. The adult girl we got over a year ago usually sleeps nearby them but not really in a snuggle pile. I wish my cats would snuggle like your original set!