Philly is the last rescue we brought into our house. Hubby says three cats are enough! He is right of course, but I keep trying. Philly was found at a horse ranch in Oregon, Illinois. He was running from some large dogs when I saw him, he ran up under a car right in front of me. I picked him up after shooing the dogs away. He was so small, and a worker on the ranch told me his momcat was killed by the dogs, and unless someone took him, he would be killed also. So, when Jim and the girls came towards me after their ride I told them this sad story. We decided to take him home and then to a farm nearby. As you can imagine, this little guy grew on us and was so playful and cute we just couldn't give him up. He stayed in Lisa's room while we initiated him into the family of Tootie and Blu. He was taught by Lisa to jump into her lap as she was standing up, and wiggled a necklace against her shirt, he also plays with fake mousies and throws them up in the air and chases them. He is the only cat in our household that tells me when he is hungry, he is very vocal in the morning when hungry! What a boy!
This is Jim, Sheryl and Lisa, youngest daughter. Elizabeth was married shortly before this picture was taken. Elizabeth was also part of our 'rescue' squad since she brought us Tootie and Blu. Tootie is the next picture you will see. She was so tiny as a kitten I had to prevent her from lurking under our couch! I raised her since Eliz. had a busy teenager lifestyle, and every evening she would be on my lap as I read the paper. To this day she still gets on my lap when I am reading. Tootie is the fetcher in this cat family. She started at 8 weeks old, running up the Christmas tree and bringing ornaments for us to throw so she could fetch them. She went on from ornaments to darts off the dartboard, you must understand that the dartboard was just above the fireplace mantel. She easily hopped up there and retrieved the darts. At this point in her history (she is five years old), she fetches bracelets brought to us by Sheryl's parents who frequent flea markets in Florida and found these lightweight bracelets from India. Tootie is in a book called 'Uncommon Cats'published in 1993.
Elizabeth asked me to go outside and talk to a couple of girls who were standing outside our place in Wisconsin. In their arms were two darling kittens on their way to a farm. I said 'they're cute but we're not taking them'. Later, that day I went up to Eliz's attic bedroom and saw the two little squirts tearing around her room. Oh boy, I thought, what is Jim going to say now! But, dad that he is, his Eliz is able to get away with a lot (even murder?). No, well, we had to move eventually and tried to find homes for the two kittens, thinking they were both females. Eliz named one Precious and the other we named Blu because of his eyes, they turned green later. Blu stayed with us he was male, very playful and still is.
sheryl48@hotmail.com Midwest United States