A Tale of Two Cats

Woo!  I LOVE CATS!  (Sorry. I had to.  This song gets stuck in my head frequently.)

So I have four of the furry beasts and two of them have very interesting stories about how they came to live at Casa Skye.  Small Cat, who turned 9 last Sunday, came to us when we were out buying plants at a local nursery.  After I'd picked out what I was going to plant that year (veggies and herbs, mostly, although I believe there were some pansies in the mix), we were standing at the check-out and Girl Child said, "Lookit, Mama!  Kittens!  Can we get one?"  I paid for my plants, loaded them in the car, and then went to look at these kittens.

They were in a wire cage with their Mama and they were all so tiny and cute!  There were three or four of them, and in a rainbow of kitteh colours--white, silver tabby, ginger.  Apparently, they'd been brought up from Mexico earlier that day and were free to good homes.  We had two cats already at the time, a Flame-point Siamese and a wee calico, but decided that these little guys were far too cute to pass up.  We selected the silver tabby, who was the only boy amongst the bunch and brought him home.  He's been with us ever since.

Small Cat's beautiful green eyes

Small Cat sitting with The Man

Large Cat, who will be either 6 or 7 in June, came to us in a similar situation.  We were out getting snails for our large aquarium at PetCo, and there was a local animal shelter holding an adoption event.  I lost the battle with the kids not to go and look at the animals--we had two cats, nine fish, two rats, and soon a snail or two, and quite frankly didn't need any more.  So very reluctantly, I trundled over to a large wire cage with Boy Child, and discovered a large, fluffy brown tabby kitten.  I picked him up and he immediately started purring.  He even purred loudly when Boy Child petted him.  I knew at that moment that he had to be ours.  I found out from the shelter lady that he was a Maine Coon and would be enormous when fully grown.  They told me that he was a year or so, but I think he was more like 6 or 7 months; they were fooled by his large size.  I plunked down $160 and walked out of the store with two snails and a cat.  And that cat became Boy Child's that very night, spending every evening curled up on Boy Child's bed and talking quite animatedly to him when being ignored.

Large Cat in all of his glory

Large Cat on a nest of blankets

Head on over to My Grandmotherly Ways to see more Caturday posts, and if you've a cat (or four of your own) post about 'em and add them to her Linky list!