our silly cats...

I didn't have any pets as a child because we lived in town surrounded by roads and lots of school traffic.  My parents really didn't want to have a pet inside (and I can understand why now) because they shed hair everywhere.  My husband, on the other hand, grew up surrounded by animals.  Because he lived near the woods, it was much easier for them to keep pets, and lots of them.  Oftentimes his mother would just pick up animals on the side of the road (and once the dog ended up belonging to someone else), and they would bring them home and give them a place to live.  


When I moved out on my own, I hadn't really thought about getting a pet (partly because a pet was not allowed in the apartment I was renting).  There was a terrible stray cat problem and they would hang out on our doorstep and beg for any kind of food.  Most of the cats would come and go, or sadly get run over.  One day this cute little white and grey cat just nosed his way inside our door when I was trying to leave the apartment.  He just walked right in and started looking around and well, my roommate and I just decided to let him stay inside.  I named him Sammy.  

[Sammy with his head stuck in a tissue box]

For me, having a cat was a whole new experience and it seemed like everything he did was just amazing to me.  Sammy has always liked looking out the window.  He used to sit on the window sill of my old apartment and watch the coal trucks go by and the kids outside at the high school next door.  I would leave him sitting at the window sill and return home to find him on the top of a chair trying to look out the blinds on the window of our door.  I had him for about four months before we met Sophie.


Sammy's mother had another litter of kittens and my roommate made a nice little place for her to give birth and keep her kittens dry and warm, but like a lot of the irresponsible mother cats she just abandoned them and only the strong would survive.  


One day, before Scott and I were getting ready to go eat, I saw this tiny, fuzzy little runt of a kitten that looked just like Sammy. She was walking clumsily around the yard and acted like she couldn't see where she was going.  I picked her up and saw that she couldn't see; she had a really bad infection in her eyes and there were furry patches covering them.  We brought her inside and Scott took tiny clippers and cut the infection out of her little eyes while I held her in my hands.  She was the tiniest and sweetest little thing.  Even though I wanted to keep her right then, I didn't want to leave her alone with Sammy; I wasn't quite sure how he would react so we put her back outside with her brother and sisters.


My roommate and I decided that we would take the little kittens to the vet and let him try to give them away since the mother had abandoned them and they would probably die.  When it came time to take them, the little furry "miniature Sammy" was nowhere to be found.  My roommate took the others to the vet and I kept looking out for the runt to come back.  Days went by and it rained and I just figured she must have died.  About a week later, she was there under our little bush again and I didn't waste any time bringing her inside. She had survived because she was strong. I named her Sophie.

 

 

[Little Sophie's eyes looked pretty pitiful for a while...but they healed]

She was the most curious little rambunctious thing, and still is.  She can run and climb like nothing I've ever seen and she's just so small.  She never blinks her big eyes either and we think it's because she's afraid they might shut again.  


In our apartment now they love lying in the sun, and Sammy loves to take his little paw and open the blinds to look outside.  He looks like a little man checking out the neighborhood and it cracks Scott up every time he sees it.  

  

You can tell they are brother and sister because they wrestle each other all the time.  Little Sophie will come up and pounce on Sammy and then they play tag or hide and seek.  Other times you will catch them lying together on our bed or on the couch with their heads touching and Sammy's paw holding Sophie's.  I would still call myself a new pet owner because things still fascinate me everyday, but I don't think it will ever get old owning and taking care of these two cats! Well I got them both in the springtime about a year ago, so I thought I would devote a post to them.

 

[Sammy and Sophie]