It's a strange old thing, having an animal family. So much more than 'pets' or 'companions'. Just a month or so after my wife and I bought our first house together, she arrived home with a stray young cat, a beautiful white Angora, barely out of her kitten hood.
Nine months later, another stray, a black, white and brown striped tom cat, a real alpha cat, integrated himself into the household, despite my initial reluctance as we were travelling quite a lot at that time (We later discovered he has a piece of a bullet in his back, and his muscles have grown around it).
Maybe 7 months later, my wife collected her old black cat from her great-Aunt's property after she had passed away. Her great-Aunt had looked after the cat when my wife left the island to study and work in Paris. However, it seems he preferred to live in the untended property of old great-Aunty. At about 3am one night not even 2 months later, he jumped onto the bed, meowed, chirped and purred to my wife for a few minutes and then left, never to return.
A couple of weeks later, nine months after the arrival of the tom cat, another stray arrived, a wild black cat that my wife mistook for her old cat who she'd been looking for everywhere. It turned out that the new black cat was sick, unable to pee correctly, so we took him to the vet for an operation for the insertion of a plastic urethra, which has worked like a charm, and he's still with us, 13 years later.
Nine months after the arrival of the black cat (are you seeing a pattern here?) another cat arrived. This time it was a kitten, with the softest white and fiery orange fur, who we spotted hiding under the neighbouring house, and she sought refuge with us. We tried to find her another home as it was only a small house, but each sign of interest fizzled out or 'circumstances' intervened.
That was the constitution of our animal family for almost 12 years, though there were temporary additions of other strays or foster animals at irregular intervals, until several months ago, when our sweet white Angora passed away, as age caught up with her. But, as fate would have it, we seem to have inherited a small white dog, a Bichon Frisé, from a family friend who passed away herself several months ago. The dog was with another family, who decided that they just couldn't look after her, and so by a circuitous route, the dog's found her way to us.
So the balance has been maintained. 2 females. 2 males. One black. One white. Two with white stripes, though one leans towards the darker colours, the other towards the lighter. Though I'm sure there is a degree of significance to this, I'm not convinced I know what it is exactly. Plus, I'm sure our tom cat is a candidate to pass into 3D. He has an aura of something beyond mere cat-hood, and everyone who meets him remarks on it. Remarkable animals.
Nine months later, another stray, a black, white and brown striped tom cat, a real alpha cat, integrated himself into the household, despite my initial reluctance as we were travelling quite a lot at that time (We later discovered he has a piece of a bullet in his back, and his muscles have grown around it).
Maybe 7 months later, my wife collected her old black cat from her great-Aunt's property after she had passed away. Her great-Aunt had looked after the cat when my wife left the island to study and work in Paris. However, it seems he preferred to live in the untended property of old great-Aunty. At about 3am one night not even 2 months later, he jumped onto the bed, meowed, chirped and purred to my wife for a few minutes and then left, never to return.
A couple of weeks later, nine months after the arrival of the tom cat, another stray arrived, a wild black cat that my wife mistook for her old cat who she'd been looking for everywhere. It turned out that the new black cat was sick, unable to pee correctly, so we took him to the vet for an operation for the insertion of a plastic urethra, which has worked like a charm, and he's still with us, 13 years later.
Nine months after the arrival of the black cat (are you seeing a pattern here?) another cat arrived. This time it was a kitten, with the softest white and fiery orange fur, who we spotted hiding under the neighbouring house, and she sought refuge with us. We tried to find her another home as it was only a small house, but each sign of interest fizzled out or 'circumstances' intervened.
That was the constitution of our animal family for almost 12 years, though there were temporary additions of other strays or foster animals at irregular intervals, until several months ago, when our sweet white Angora passed away, as age caught up with her. But, as fate would have it, we seem to have inherited a small white dog, a Bichon Frisé, from a family friend who passed away herself several months ago. The dog was with another family, who decided that they just couldn't look after her, and so by a circuitous route, the dog's found her way to us.
So the balance has been maintained. 2 females. 2 males. One black. One white. Two with white stripes, though one leans towards the darker colours, the other towards the lighter. Though I'm sure there is a degree of significance to this, I'm not convinced I know what it is exactly. Plus, I'm sure our tom cat is a candidate to pass into 3D. He has an aura of something beyond mere cat-hood, and everyone who meets him remarks on it. Remarkable animals.
