Here is a tale of how to give your life a complete, if only temporary change. Very briefly stated it's like this: Go to the animal shelter near you and get an adult cat, and 3 month old kitten and a barely weaned 6 week old kitten. But before you do it I suggest you spend a month working on your own physical condition. Yer gonna need to be in top shape. Trust me on this.

But lemme give you the back-story:

8 years ago, almost to the day we were visiting relatives up in rural North Central Texas. we were leaving for home the next day and it was a crisp cold morning, what I call a "bluebird" day. Bright blue skies and little to no wind. We were sitting out on the front porch watching the birds and other critters and up from out of the woods 50 yards away comes this orange and white cat. He was a little banged up but very friendly. Seemed well used to people because he let everyone hold him and pet him and he couldn't seem to get enough. I was guessing that he hadn't been on the run for very long. MY SIL went in and got him some food and he nearly gnawed the bottom out of the bowl he was so hungry.

He continued to hang around after he ate. My SIL began making noises about us taking him home with us. Now here is where I need to point out that I've never been a cat person. Not ever. My daughter keeps cats. My wife's family all keep cats. They are all great cats. Always. But every time I tried to have a cat it was a killer or psycho cat etc. I've been happy with dogs.

Anyway I let myself be talked into it. I know, I know. But you don't know my SIL. As it turned out he was great. Very low maintenance. NO bad habits at all. He even liked me. It turned out to be the best relationship I've ever had with an animal.

He was orange and white and we named him Frito. Turned out he was FIV positive (Feline version of AIDS). He came down with Gingivitis back in June after 7 1/2 years and with no immune system he couldn't shake it off and we had to put him down. I've never been so devastated by the loss of a pet. My wife feels the same. He was a good friend...more like a child. Very good natured with kids and adults alike. Never bit or showed any aggression.

We had lots of travel plans through the rest of the year so we decided to wait until after the holidays to see about another cat(s). Last Monday we made our move.

We found a beautiful Silver/gray/blue main coon mix, 3 years old. Calm affectionate and drop dead beautiful. We liked that he was an adult and past all the kitten nonsense. We named him Duke. Still we missed the kitten years of Frito and often speculated about how cute he must have been as a kitten. We wanted the kitten experience for sure. I liked this guy though because he was a big strappin' "man cat" and he suit me right down to the ground.

So that left us unfulfilled in the kitten department. My wife sees these tiny tiny little white kittens in one cage and the shelter lady said they were seal point siamese. The mama cat had had them inside the walls of an abandoned house. The one she wanted was a little male. The runt of the litter. They were all in the litter pan and this little guy was on the bottom trying to get out from under all the others. My wife asked to hold him and then we had two cats. He is a cute little booger. We named him Dink.

I saw another cage with a litter of kittens in it that were 3 months old. The lady handed me a Silver gray male and then we had 3 cats on our hands. We named the silver guy (one of the most beautiful cats I've ever seen) Cody.

So now, a week later here we are. Duke is very laid-back and more or less above it all. He pays no attention to the little ones except to hiss at them if the get too close.

Cody and Dink get along for a while until Cody gets too rough and we have to separate them. But Dink is getting bolder and more aggressive and able to take care of himself every day.

for all his heart and courage and willingness to fight back Dink is still just too small to keep cody from hurting him. Cody is only playing. He shows no hostility or anger of malice at all but plays with Dink the same as his stuffed mouse. We have a crate that we take turns putting the little ones in until Dink gets a little bigger. Sooner or later these guys will have to sort out their relationship but we will wait until things equalize some first. Meanwhile they are together several times a day for meals and grooming etc. We let them be together until Cody gets too rough. Sometimes it goes for an hour or more. We think they will eventually get along.

If we have been missing the CAT EXPERIENCE well, we ain't missin' in any more. But we knew going in that it would go something like this and we were prepared.

We haven't had the tv on for 4 days. I haven't been to the range in over a week and...and...and my wife hasn't been shopping for over a week!?!? All this cat wranglin' requires all hands on deck for a little while longer. But we're all havin' a good time with it....

As John Denver would have said...."FAR OUT!" I don't recommend this for everyone but it's all fittin' our bidness pretty well. Now that we are older we are more attuned to the home-body type activities and believe me this is all that.

Good man and good woman. Good of you to share the love like this. Well done!

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NICK-SWCA-NRA BENEFACTOR LIFE

My uncle had Siamese cats.
They had too much "character" for me to ever have one.
If he said hello to his wife before them they'd throw fits.

We have had a re-civilized black and white male barn cat and the one we have now, a white and black one from the local shelter. She's on her last legs, and after her no more cats. They were always my wife's idea although I got along with them pretty well.

Thanks! We absolutely LOVED the feeling we got from rescuing Frito. I know that we can't save 'em all but it feels pretty dang good to know that we took a wonderful guy out of harm and gave him 7 1/2 years of comfort, security and love. He reciprocated in kind too believe you me.

We are firmly committed to the rescue system for adopting pets from now on. Poor old Frito would have been coyote food before much longer if we hadn't come along.

Not sure how long Dink and Cody would have been able to hang around if they hadn't been adopted. Cody would have probably been taken. He is gorgeous and about the softest animal I've ever touched.

Dink, well, I don't know. He was the runt. Most people aren't interested in the runts of this world.

The Shelter lady said that Duke was 3 years old and had another week or two to get adopted. They'd had him for 6 months. I can't even let myself think about it. He sleeps on the bed with us every night and if I get up to go to the bathroom he follows me in there and then back to the bed. He's my pal, my bud, my padnah. He's my.....man-cat!

I'm sittin' here on our sofa and while I was reading this on our laptop, our long hair black Persian named Zachary decided it would be better for him to be on my lap rather than the laptop. He does this thing with his claws when you're scratching him and hit the right spot. He kinda curls his toes and his claws poke out a little, so ya gotta be sure you know where his feet are.
He's a confirmed house cat. One hot summer day my wife and I left for a weekend and we didn't know he snuck out of the house. The temps. reached over 100 degrees and when we got home he was looking in through our living room window meowing his little head off. We let him in and he ran straight to his water dish. He spent the rest of the day and most of the next there. Since then, he wants nothing to do with the great outdoors. In fact he runs and hides whenever someone opens a door.
He's a big kitty.

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A lot of people, mostly guys, don't care for cats. I didn't have a strong feeling about them one way or another until two other guys and I adopted one just to keep the mice out of our house in the country when I was a young airman in South Carolina.

Liked them ever since; have an 11 year old one now, hopefully he, I and my 8 year old dog will all pass away quietly in our sleep together

A year ago new years I had to put our 12 year hurricane rescue cat down, she was sick for months, but we'd signed on a little stray half bengal lookin thing that was only tiny and wandered into out yard. (Coyotes get em all after dark just about if they aren't trained right.) this little rascal is a talker and keeps us in stitches.

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Halfway and one more step

Duke, My new man-cat is a talker. I've heard of that before but never experienced it. It's about the coolest thing ever. If I start the conversation he will usually join in. Kind of sounds like a muffled distant police siren. We've had some great conversations in the week we've been pals. Wish I knew what we'd been talking about. Whatever it was he was most enthusiastic.

That was a darn good FUN read.
Blessings

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TEXAS, by GOD

I had a Russian Blue named Homer. I swear to God he was the kindest soul I ever will meet. he was attached to me like glue. wherever I was, he was. I had him for 17 years. I put him down last year. I still have his ashes in an urn. I intend for him to be buried with me one day. I put down my other cat 3 months before him, and I loved him dearly, but Homer will always be in my heart. We adopted another cat last year. he has some of Homer's traits. cats are cool.. dogs are, too.

I never, ever wanted a cat. Finally, my wife talked me into one...and we adopted a solid black Manx kitten from a rescue group, and named him Kasper. He very quickly stole my heart...for one thing, he immediately started following the dogs outside to use the bathroom, so no litter box. As a kitten, he loved to curl up in unusual places to sleep, like the bathroom sink. He was very mischievous, and loved to torment my wife's chihuahua, but it was in great fun...for him, anyway. At some point, every evening, he would jump into my lap with a sound that was between a purr and a growl, and allow me to pet him for a few minutes. Otherwise, if I tried to pick him up, he would suffer it in silence, and as soon as I released him, jump down and clean himself furiously. There were many, many stories...he was quite the character.

We had him for 11 years, until he developed liver cancer, and we had to have him put down. He is buried under a tree in our backyard, and I miss him a great deal. We've had and still have dogs, but he was our one and only cat...and I can't bring myself to get another one.

When my wife left Fall of 09' she left the cats also, she didn't want either one... I had one til summer if 10', Homer started to not use the litter pan and whatnot. Lost weight rapidly. So the vet took X-rays and tests and it showed the poor guy had tumors on his intestines. Her and i got him in 98' when moved in together. so he had a decently long life. Last January I had to say goodbye to his buddy, Lenox a Black Manx. She started to lose weight right around Xmas. And she wasn't that big to start with. No real things showed up at the vet... Just age... She was a couple years old as a rescue her and her brother got for her Mom. We got her when her Mom moved to an apartment and couldn't keep her in 99 IIRC. I have both of their ashes on a shelf in the living room with their toys. A friend of mine asked me if I'd be interested in a Boston Terrier mix. A rescue a friend has. Once the dog has been okayed for a home I'm gonna go check her out. If not ill go for another cat again. It's been a quiet year around here without a fuzzy critter....

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-Eric

We have way too many cats. My cats, plus my Mom's two cats when she had to go into a nursing home, and nine out in the barns. Some we took in on purpose and the others came from gosh knows where. They just moved in. They do a pretty good job of rodent control in the barns but I go through an awful lot of cat chow.

Can't believe how old some of them have lived. Our Siamese , Tara was 21 when she passed away a year ago Christmas and Charlotte passed away this summer at 17. I have another house cat that is 18. Then there's Elrond my "attack cat." He's strictly a house cat but got out one day and must have followed me way up to the back barn. He ended up way up in a hollow log in the bushes behind the barn. It was a windy day and I could hear him meowing but had a heck of a time finding him because of the wind making his meows hard to follow. Finally found two yellow eyes in the hollow log. He's never been outside again either. He likes to spend his time bossing around the Rotties

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