Welcome to Rags's page!
This is Rags
He's 14 now and I've has him since he was about 8/9 weeks old - and although I don't admit it to the other cats .... hes always been my favorite.
I first met Rags when I was 12 years old, I was walking back to a friends house after school and these 3 little kittens bounded up to me, one was a little silver tabby and she was much bigger than the other 2 who were both black. The little black ones were very skinny with bloated tummies, were missing quiet a bit of fur and had big ears, my first thought was that they must be homeless because they looked so bad.
As it turned out (after popping by to visit them everyday after school) they did have a home, but the family who owned them didn't intend on having 3 kittens - when they went to pick up a kitten the 'breeder' said that the black ones were going to be drowned so the family took all 3 to prevent them drowning to death. The kittens had fleas so they didn't keep them indoors, they had an outdoor dustbin cupboard where the kittens lived.
Then one day I saw one of the families little girls grab one of the black ones and bash his little head into the pavement like a toy, it was quite disturbing. I got my dad to come and look at them and gave him my best pleading eyes 'can we take them? ' he said we could ask if we could have them so we knocked on the door.... a guy just yelled 'come in - doors open!' turned out he just didn't want to get up the lazy git ... my dad asked if we could take the kittens and he said only the black ones so we had to leave the tabby, but she was in much better health.
We weren't supposed to keep them, we already had 3 cats, just look after them until they were healthy, we named them Rags and Bones as temporary names.
Turned out they had Ringworm and we all got it within about 2 weeks, and I got time off school (yay!).
Here is a picture of Rags (on the left) and Bones with ringworm, their fur had just started to grow back when this was taken:
The other cats loved them Tango and Rio used to lay on top of them to keep them warm and you'd just see a little head poking out.
Rags soon established that I was his human, he would follow me around all the time, if I ever needed to walk to the local shop or anything I'd have to get someone to hold him so he wouldn't follow me or I'd have to run as fast as I could out of sight and check he wasn't following... then he'd pine for me while I was gone and greet me enthusiastically when I returned. He came to bed with me every night without fail and purr his heart out and snuggle under the covers or try to sleep on my head.
Then we get to my teenage years, not a happy time in my life to put it lightly, my parents had many different problems (drink, drugs etc) and divorced, it was a lonely time for me, except I always had my cats and Rags could always just tell when I felt low or stressed and would seek me out, sniff my tears and purr loudly and he always made me feel loved and better.. always.
I moved out suddenly when I was 16, I had to leave Rags behind with the other cats, but I knew I'd have him back with me asap.
2 Weeks later I had somewhere to live and had to steal Rags and Courtney from my dads house in the middle of the night (long story - even longer than this one!) and I've had him with me since then, 6 months later my dad gave me the other 3 cats back in a terrible state and I had all 5 cats back together... they were so pleased to see each other again it was fantastic!
Rags continues to follow me around all the time and still sleeps next to me, or on my head every night, and he still knows if I feel down and is there trying to cheer me up every single time,
I don't know what I'll ever do without him .
I could write so much about my Rags - hes a lovely, gentle and quiet cat, and to me hes the best friend I could ever have
