Our Pets
Page 2
Here come the kitty cats, my babies.
When Larry and I first moved out here in 1985, a young female cat came to live in our barn and I named her Freda. I soon found out that she belonged to a neighbor. Freda became pregnant and had a litter of 6. Shortly after the kittens were born, Freda was run over by a car and killed. I called the neighbor to tell her that I had her cat's babies in the barn and she said I could keep them if I wanted to as she had plenty of cats already. That is what I did. I fed them with baby formula with an eyedropper night and day and they all did just fine. We gave away to friends and family 5 of the kittens and I kept one. I named her Lucy.
Here are Lucy, 2nd generation, and her babies. Lucy is still alive and doing just fine, but has taken up living at the neighbor's. They are an elderly couple and are just crazy about her, so she has kinda been adopted by them. Her babies are (left to right): Boots, Callie, Tiger and Blade.
Boots has a "no care in the world" attitude. He is patient with children and easy going. You can tell that by the following picture:
Boots is sitting on Larry's lap with an empty Diet Pepsi can on his head. Larry just happened to set it on his head and Boots didn't move. He is too funny. I think you could put anything on top of Boots' head and he wouldn't care. Boots loves to roam the neighborhood and he has been semi-adopted by the kids down the road. We don't see him much anymore.
Callie is a calico and 90% of all calico cats are female. (I have found out from a guy Larry works with that male calicos are extremely rare. If you have one, be careful of the price you ask for it. I have heard they are worth quite a bit of money due to their rarity.) Callie loves to lay in my flower beds, much to my dismay at times. I think she likes the cool dirt. We have very hot summers here. Here is Callie being lazy, trying to take an afternoon siesta.
Next in the litter is Tiger, a yellow and white striped tom. Tiger is huge. He is the prettiest colored cat I have ever had. Tiger roams the neighborhood and I don't see him a lot anymore. He was beautiful as a kitten and is even prettier as a large tomcat. He is frightened of strangers and I am the only one who can get near enough to pet him. He is even scared of Larry, which is unusual because most cats like Larry.
Here is Tiger:
The last of Lucy's litter was Blade. He was the prettiest black long haired cat I have ever seen. Unfortunately, he died shortly after this photo was taken. I don't know how he died. Larry found him dead in the barn one day.
Callie had 4 babies, the 4th generation, but 3 of them died. Her surviving baby is named Boots II. Boots II is a gray and white tom. His father is a black tom who frequently visits our property and belongs to a neighbor.
Here are photos of Boots II.
Here are Boots II and Callie.
Callie had a second litter of kittens born June 1999 (the 4th generation #2). There were 4 of them: 2 black, 1 calico and 1 yellow and white striped. I gave the calico (a female) away to a guy Larry works with. The yellow and white striped one became infected with a worm in its side and became so sick we had to put it to sleep. I gave the 2 black ones to a neighbor.
Callie had a third litter born July 2000. There were 5 of them: 1 calico, 1 yellow and white striped, 1 black and white, 1 tiger striped and 1 black and tan. The calico is named Casey and the tiger striped is named Tom. The black and white kitten rode with me down the road under my car's hood and ended up at a friend's house, in her garage. I tried to catch it, but couldn't and it ended up staying at my friend's house. The other 2 kittens disappeared. I don't know what happened to them.
Update 01/05/01: Lucy has been coming around some now. She is scaring off Callie and Casey. Tom stands up to her, but I am having problems with Lucy being mean to him sometimes. I haven't seen Boots I, Boots II and Tiger in a while either, so I think Lucy has run them off too. She has become cranky in her old age. She was spayed and she has become huge and very intimidating to the other cats. I keep trying to tell her that all of these cats and kittens at my house are her family, but she just won't listen to me. :)
That's all of our pets. As you can tell, we are crazy about animals.
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