I’m struggling to get a new optics post going for the blog; I’ve got a number of possibilities I’m exploring, but it will likely take a few days to get it going. In the meantime, I realized I haven’t done a catblogging post for a long, long time! Now seems like a great time to share some pictures that I’ve had around for a while of the kitties!
First up: a picture of Simon!
I’ve often had a hard time getting good pictures of Simon, as his black fur just soaks up the light! He’s incredibly docile and has no problem letting you pick him up and even scratch his belly. He’s our oldest cat, about 5 or 6 years old.
Next up is Sasha, the second-oldest, having a nap on one of our new chairs.
Sasha is a beautiful cat who just loves to pose; if she wasn’t such a basket case around other people she’d be a shoo-in for awards at cat shows! I’m very proud of the fact that she now likes to spend time around me; when my wife and I first started dating, Sasha would have nothing to do with me. She’s still Mommie’s little girl, though.
Next up we have Zoe having a bath!
Zoe is my little girl, and the only cat in the house that is “officially” adopted by me. She is a petite little girl who weighs in at around seven pounds! The only problem is that she’s incredibly cranky around other cats, and will occasionally take out her displeasure on me via tooth and claw. Often in the morning she manages to stay in the bedroom after we’ve tossed all the other noisy cats out, and then she’s the sweetest animal you can imagine!
Here we have Sabrina on one of the family room chairs:
She is a big girl, though not really a fat one! She is our “death row” kitty, rescued by my wife. Sabrina was at the pound and very sickly, and slated to be put down because the pound couldn’t spare the resources to nurse her to health. Our pet-sitter got wind of this and asked if we could foster Sabrina while she recovered; we agreed but eventually couldn’t give her up! Sabrina is amazingly playful and inquisitive, and even has made attempts to flush the toilet!
We then have Sophie, aka Mayhem:
Sophie is another rescue via our pet-sitter. She was part of a feral colony that was brought in for a “spay-and-release”, and our sitter noticed that Sophie clearly wasn’t a feral cat. Nevertheless, she was due to be released back into the wild with the others, so our sitter asked if we could foster her until a suitable home was found. Of course, we fell in love with little “Chinchilla butt” (she has really soft fur), and ended up keeping her. She earned the name “mayhem” due to her tendency to go wild and destroy things.
Finally, we have our two foster kitties, Mango and Mandarin! They are twins, a sister and brother, that we began fostering for the rescue group F.U.R.R. back in October. First, here’s Mango:
We’ve started calling her “mouse” because her little pink nose and facial expressions make her look… well, like a mouse! Her brother Mandarin also has a glorious golden coat:
We’ve had to work hard with these two! When we first brought them home, they didn’t want anything to do with us. Only after months of regular contact did the twins decide they could tolerate our attention. Now, they follow us around, meowing for attention! Mandarin in particular has a ridiculously little squeak of a meow for such a big kitty:
They’re both incredibly playful now, as well; they both love chasing the laser pointer, and will in fact play with pretty much any toy!
So that’s the cat situation in our house right now! Yes, we have seven cats in the house; fortunately we have a big home with a lot of space. We adore all the cats, even though they drive us nuts with their antics on a regular basis.
Okay, with that out of way, I can focus on some serious blogging! More coming soon…
Skulls in the Stars 
Holy cow! I once had six while I raised a group of feral babies…but that was nuts!
They’re all cute. 🙂
Thanks! We think they’re all cute… until they claw the furniture, chew on books or yell at us to be fed! 🙂
Your Sophie looks just like my Sci-Cat! Only Sci-cat is a LOT fatter…
Oh, Sophie is working on it! She’s the one cat we have that we may have to put on a diet at some point — she *loves* to eat!
If Sabrina can both use and flush the toilet, we need to talk about cat potty training lessons. I’ll pay!!!
Sabrina is just fascinated with things that make noise. I’ve tried to get her to use a keyboard in the past, but she is resistant to being told what to mess with.
Lovely collection of cats you have. My sister collected cats, too. I’ve only ever had 3 at once, plus a big black lab, and four kids.
Your Sophie looks like our cat Graucho…the one in the “Cats in Sinks” video on my website.
And Sasha, indeed beautiful, but dilute calicos have that famous spastic temperament. I was thrilled to have the vet inform me that this was typical for these types. She was the most graceful cat, literally floating to countertops, but if you pet her more than twice, she’d freak out and bite! Each baby/toddler learned how important it was to “respect da cat” thanks to her.
Oh, indeed! Sasha is very jealous of any other cat getting attention, and will headbutt any other cat who is getting it. She also throws mini-fits when she doesn’t get her food right when she wants it.
Fortunately, she doesn’t have any biting/clawing issues, and is very docile in that respect. On the rare occasions when I try and pet her cute belly, she does the most adorable clawless rabbit-kicks to push me away!
When a cat exposes his belly to a human he’s inviting the human to play, and cats play rough. Lot’s of play scratching and play biting, and play growling when things get intense.
I think Sasha’s belly exposure is more of a submissive pose, but our cat Sabrina will expose her belly for play — and she plays *really* rough.
Hey Honey,
What a very nice post about our rotten animals whom we love in spite of their badness. One correction – Sasha is probably our oldest at 8 years. Simon is next.
Thanks for the correction, sweetie!
So which one of those lovelies is the one who jumped on my head at 2 a.m. when I stayed at your house last summer?
Good question — they’re all likely culprits! I could see Zoe, Sabrina, Simon or Sophie jumping on a person’s head (and have seen it).
Mango and Mandarin were the kitty’s that lived under my shed as kittens. I so wish I could have taken them in they are beautiful. I have a dom. male Bengal and rent my place and could not afford 1500 non refund. to have 3 cats. Thank you for giving them the special and care.
Hi Mary! Mango & Mandarin are such wonderful house guests, we’re happy to have them here! We’re glad you helped rescue them and give them a chance to get a good home!
Cannot wait for more updates on your kitty family.