Hi all! I'm so excited to find someplace i can brag about my babies and ask questions without being accused of being a crazy cat lady
A little about myself...I am an animal nutritionist and work for a feed company formulating diets for large animals (mostly cattle). I grew up with a menagerie of animals including horses, goats, chicken, cattle, dogs, and of course...cats! I was lucky enough to grow up with several great cats....Julie the Calico...Spot the Ragdoll....and Donald the Tabby to name a few...but a truly special cat came into my life one day 8 years ago.
I was in college, living on a horse farm where the owners had a number of friendly barn cats who kept the barn mouse free in return for fresh food, clean water, and scritches. One day a small long haired tuxedo girl showed up...matted, thin, and obviously just done weaning a litter...it was unusually cold the day she showed up so i let her in for one night...and never put her back out! A week after "Cleo" showed up I took her to visit the vet that all the barn kitties used to get fixed and vaccinated. Sadly we learned that Cleo had FIV. Rather than euthanize her I made the decision to raise her strictly indoors and as an only cat...and what a great decision it was! Sadly I lost Cleo in 2005 due to complications from FIV. I felt like i lost a peice of my heart. She passed just two weeks after my son was born. I have some beautiful pictures of her curled up in a basket with him that I will always treasure!
When Cleo passed she left some huge paw prints to fill....i waited almost two years before I was ready for another.. When the time was right I began visiting local shelters and looking for the "one". I found "Bastet" at our local ASPCA. She is a purebred Bangle who had been confiscated, along with the rest of her litter, during a drug bust (yikes). Bast adopted me as soon as I saw her...she jumped up on my chest and curled up under my chin and didn't budge the entire hour I was there...I was a smitten kitten and she came home with me that day!
As the saying goes...when it rains it pours. About a week after Bastet came home a beautiful Ragdoll- looking cat began coming around...she was thin, matted, and filthy...clearly abandoned or lost. It took three baths and literally hours of combing before i had her mats worked out. I set out a bowl for her and began asking around town about her...trying to find out if anyone had lost a cat. I called her "Figment" because she would appear out of nowhere to rub my legs and beg for scritches. After a month with no responses I loaded her up and took her to the vet where I had her dewormed, vaccinated, and tested for FIV (negative thank heavens!). The vets scanned her, found a microchip and were able to contact her owners! They said that they had bought her from a breeder (and she is a ragdoll...just like i thought) for their daughter - she supposdly scratced the kid and was kicked out of the house two years ago - they just assumed she had been hit by a car and had no intereast in taking her back. I took her in with the idea that I would care for her until I found her a home....but at this point I can't imagine our house without her! She is so prissy I can't imagine how she survied on the streets for so long!
I love seeing how different my girls are...Bastet is still kittenish...spunky, occaisionally possesed, and playful. She loves running water (it's a bengal thing), car rides, and walks happily on a leash wherever I take her. She is either on or off 100%...running around the house like a cat possesed or compltely limp, sound asleep on my bed. Figment is a beautiful cat, and she knows it...she is prissy and feminine...she always walks slowly and with a wiggle in her hips. Nothing gets her too excited except the promise of food. She likes to cuddle and be held like a baby and will melt in your arms. At any given hour Figment will be curled on the couch, enjoying the sun through an open window while Bastet pesters her and attacks her tail.
Both my girls are strictly indoors and enjoy an all natural diet supplemented with fresh cooked chicken
Whew...thats alot...but I like to be thorough!!! I can't wait to "meet" all of you!
A little about myself...I am an animal nutritionist and work for a feed company formulating diets for large animals (mostly cattle). I grew up with a menagerie of animals including horses, goats, chicken, cattle, dogs, and of course...cats! I was lucky enough to grow up with several great cats....Julie the Calico...Spot the Ragdoll....and Donald the Tabby to name a few...but a truly special cat came into my life one day 8 years ago.
I was in college, living on a horse farm where the owners had a number of friendly barn cats who kept the barn mouse free in return for fresh food, clean water, and scritches. One day a small long haired tuxedo girl showed up...matted, thin, and obviously just done weaning a litter...it was unusually cold the day she showed up so i let her in for one night...and never put her back out! A week after "Cleo" showed up I took her to visit the vet that all the barn kitties used to get fixed and vaccinated. Sadly we learned that Cleo had FIV. Rather than euthanize her I made the decision to raise her strictly indoors and as an only cat...and what a great decision it was! Sadly I lost Cleo in 2005 due to complications from FIV. I felt like i lost a peice of my heart. She passed just two weeks after my son was born. I have some beautiful pictures of her curled up in a basket with him that I will always treasure!
When Cleo passed she left some huge paw prints to fill....i waited almost two years before I was ready for another.. When the time was right I began visiting local shelters and looking for the "one". I found "Bastet" at our local ASPCA. She is a purebred Bangle who had been confiscated, along with the rest of her litter, during a drug bust (yikes). Bast adopted me as soon as I saw her...she jumped up on my chest and curled up under my chin and didn't budge the entire hour I was there...I was a smitten kitten and she came home with me that day!
As the saying goes...when it rains it pours. About a week after Bastet came home a beautiful Ragdoll- looking cat began coming around...she was thin, matted, and filthy...clearly abandoned or lost. It took three baths and literally hours of combing before i had her mats worked out. I set out a bowl for her and began asking around town about her...trying to find out if anyone had lost a cat. I called her "Figment" because she would appear out of nowhere to rub my legs and beg for scritches. After a month with no responses I loaded her up and took her to the vet where I had her dewormed, vaccinated, and tested for FIV (negative thank heavens!). The vets scanned her, found a microchip and were able to contact her owners! They said that they had bought her from a breeder (and she is a ragdoll...just like i thought) for their daughter - she supposdly scratced the kid and was kicked out of the house two years ago - they just assumed she had been hit by a car and had no intereast in taking her back. I took her in with the idea that I would care for her until I found her a home....but at this point I can't imagine our house without her! She is so prissy I can't imagine how she survied on the streets for so long!
I love seeing how different my girls are...Bastet is still kittenish...spunky, occaisionally possesed, and playful. She loves running water (it's a bengal thing), car rides, and walks happily on a leash wherever I take her. She is either on or off 100%...running around the house like a cat possesed or compltely limp, sound asleep on my bed. Figment is a beautiful cat, and she knows it...she is prissy and feminine...she always walks slowly and with a wiggle in her hips. Nothing gets her too excited except the promise of food. She likes to cuddle and be held like a baby and will melt in your arms. At any given hour Figment will be curled on the couch, enjoying the sun through an open window while Bastet pesters her and attacks her tail.
Both my girls are strictly indoors and enjoy an all natural diet supplemented with fresh cooked chicken
Whew...thats alot...but I like to be thorough!!! I can't wait to "meet" all of you!
