Luke's life with cats

[Luke]

Well I had an early introduction to cats, dogs, chickens and just about everything else, being born into an animal mad family what do you expect, the time i was born the family had one large Blue persian, Cinders and a wee BSH x kitten, the infamous Sherman my accoplace in crime as he was known, he was lets say a typical tom and had various escapades within his short life.

His kittenhood was rather abbruptlly shot by me being born, but our first introduction went rather well from the looks of this picture......

(and yes that wee red faced baby was moi )

He grew into a fine example of a cat, he used to follow us to Playgroup he was very well known lol i remember my mum having to tell me when i was younger why Sherman had to loose his 'furry plums' otherwise lots of little Shermans would be running around the place, naturally i thought this was ace, she begged to differ he grew into a right strapper, sadly this was one of the last photos of the boy..

Sherman had a habbit of meeting me from primary school when i first started, and one trajic dy we were coming out of the little wooden gates he dashed across the road to us and got hit, it was so sad


I mentioned when i was born the family already had a blue persin, well Cinders was failry old and wasn't too fond of me, she had a lack of tolerance and a very, very poor temperament. She spent most of her time avading my cuddles and spent most of her life with me in it, hiding on the parrot cage

Luckily, or not lucky however you see it she passed away of simple old age she passed away on the work top and was very very peaceful

During thsi time a black and white moggy Dabbles adopted us he came and went as he pleased but one day never returned, i often have pondered about what became of him, sadly any pictures we have of him aren't focused on the cat so to speak


After Sherman passed away we added a pair of identical black moggy kittens to the house. Dear little kittens they well and truly earned the title the terrible twosume
Christned Ebbs and Sootica they were so hard to tell apart, well and truly had us baffled when they were young especially, thankfully it turned out Sootica had a very VERY bush tail Pictures of these 2 were few and far, i managed to find these 2 of them when they were kittens, see how identical they were

Sootica

Ebbs

When we moved house they kept wandering back to the old house and they were crossing a VERY busy road, so they were rehomed with an old cat loving neighbour of ours and they lived to a ripe age, we saw them regularly

My mother was a sucker for any animal, so one day when we at our local farm buying chicken and duck feed my mum literally walked smack bang into a 6 month old greay and white tabby kitten, they fell in love and thus Socksie came home to us.

She was with us a mere 9 months before one day she dissapeared, after 7 months we gave up hope, pictures are very painfull to see, i posted one a while ago and had to delete it from my photo bucket account as her face still makes me cry

The dynamic duo were just that an odd couple, Tinker Bell a Persin cross came to us through a friend and Samantha a Siamese came to us through another friend, after 5 days they were inseperable, quite literally, they lived for each other and as the saying goes in death do them part, Tinker Bell was PTS thru respiratory faliure she was at least 9 when we had her and we had her 2 years, but Siamese being creatures of habbit, Samantha didnt like not having her pal, we even tried to and got her 2 new kitten playmates it didnt work, one day she litterally gave in she didnt eat nor drink and litterally pined herself away
really pictures of them are again hard to find, found this one of Samantha hiding, typical

As i mentioned before to try and keep Samantha company we purchased 2 kittens, one of which was Balderick the other was Elspeth
he a snub nosed, bandy legged ginger she a small, pudding faced blue smokey longhair, quite unsual t'was she.

They were my puddy cats i was at an age where i relished responsibility so well and truly these were supposedly my first cats that i actually 'owned' they were beutiful babes and all was fine for around 4 years the tragedy struck Firday night Elspeth came in quite ill, Saturday morning she was PTS her liver was irreperablly damaged, it was very quick but very sad, and as the weeks proceeded Balderick worsened, and i mean worsened. He went off life, we had already lost 1 cat to pining we werent going to see another go the same way. He craved feline company, but he wouldnt stand for a kitten and we couldnt take on an adult cat cause at the time our JRT was a puppy and our elderly staffie barely tolerated cats, so we were in a difficult position, when one of my aunts offered to give him a home she already had two cats both 10 at the time, Twinkle and Muncshkin. So i made the decsion to let the old boy go and live at my aunts on a trial basis, to see if he were ahppier, in the end he was, he started eating went out and about, played he ahd a new lease on life, and my aunt loves him that extra bit, because of the snub face he has, he allways looks bemused he is still happy although now affectionatley known as Eddykins (dont ask) my aunt loves him implicitlly and most of all he wis happy, its been nearly 4 and a half years now since he moved there and he seems to be lets say more than settled

Balderick when tiny.

Elspeth and a littermate, i believe Elspeth was the one on the left

Balderick aka Eddy-edgar-kins (as he is now known ) not so long ago

Well we left it a while and presumed our cat days were over, litterally, but one day we were at my mum's friends house, Sue had a pedigree ragdoll, Smudger she was a mitted tortie point a pedigree longer than her tail, but she was in call and my mum's friend, Sue's little boy let Smudger out the result 3 ginger and 1 tortoiseshell kitten, i immediantlly fell for Clementine and from the minute she could walk she fell for me, i eventually won my mum over and Clementine came home with us.........

6 weeks

earlier this year, i think it was January

and various pics from recent

So that has been my life in cats so far, i've had good times with them and for every good there's probably been tripple bad, but the downfall of owning such a independant creature. thanks for taking a look at my pages, keep looking back and forth because of the most important thing, we are looking for another kitten and there may be one on the horizon
>>____WATCH THIS SPACE!_______<<

[Mags]

A very good article about the cats in your life Luke....it is easy to tell you are a cat lover!

[Fran]

A very interesting read Luke....You certainly have lots of experience with cats and I'm sure it won't be long before you have another little addition to your family. Can't wait for the updates!!

[Emm]

very good article Luke - I loved seeing all the pictures of your cats - well done!

[Het]

What a lovely post Luke. I especially loved Sherman

[Az]

Great homepage Luke! And brill pics!

[Luke]

Thanks for your lovely comments, it took a while, especially considering i started at 12am then had Azz tampering with it at like2 ish this morning
Thanks everyone
best wishes

[Luke]

Cat tails

Owning such a vaired number, breed and description of cats i have my fair share of stories to tell, so i thought i would share some, not all or you would be here forever!!!


Sherman makes a leap for freedom

Sherman was a rather exhuberant giner and white tom, and being a tom he acted like a right tinker. He was destined for the chop at 6 and a half months, but in the duration from 6 weeks to 6 and a half months it was like living with a mightmare.....literally
But one fateful day Sherman decided his male senses were calling, and he decided to take a bid for freedom, now at the time he may have been only 10 weeks but this didn't seem to hinder his desire!
The back door opened and out he shot, quite literally galloping at full pace as if the devil was on his heels, he made a jump to get ontot he wall, he seemed to forget the small duck pond below him so he slipped, tried to cling onto the clematis that was growing up the side of the wall, his claws got a tangled, and then he slipped and fell! Needless to say he was one rather wet, and rather disgruntled kitty.


A holiday for cinders
I was very young, and Cinders our persian was quite old but she had once been a brood queen and hadn't been altered. So one warm summers eve i watched as she dissapeared off over the rear wall, the summer weather must have stirred her feelings. The next day she wasn't home and for some considerable time she didnt return, no sign, the posters and such proved ineffective, that was it we were convinced she was a stiffy.
Then one morning, oh one morning we were awoken by a noise louder than the sound of the gates of hell closing behind you, we opened the door, there on the porch was Cinders rapped around 4 very small scraggy mewing kittens, they looked a few days old. So we now saw the outcome of her time away how she managed to get them hom we will never know. But one thing was for sure it sure was a suprise, that was my first experience of kittens in the house, and it was great she had 1 blue and 4 tabby kittens, all looked like shorthaired persians they provided hours of fun, and then the fatefull time came when they went to thier homes, 2 went to my uncle and aunt, then 1 went to my eldest sister who now had her own house and the other went to my mums friend who incidentally also owned CLementines mum. But yes that was the first kittening time and it was a time that i will never forget

Those killing machine Bull Terriers
When we first had Elspeth and Balderick, we had just had new neighbours move next door, and at the time we had 3 staffies and a doberman, and they were non dog friendly neighbours. They spread the word we had gloryfied killing machines, convinced these dogs were the devils minions themselves!!
Until one day my mother had, had enough of the taunts, she invited these neighbours in to our kitchen and what sight met thier eyes, our killing machines all heaped together and in between the legs of one of our 'killing machines' were 2 tiny, tiny kittens quite content, i can safely say that made those neighbours look like ghosts, the humiliation caused the colour to drain from their face, of course my parents being my parents were grinning rather like cheshire cats!


A sleeping partner
Sherman and i were inseperable as above stated he slept on the pillow next to my face every night, but one day i woke up to more than i bargained for, 3 years old and was sleeping blisfully unaware, i awoke to find a dead rabbit staring me in the face i screamed the house down but Sherman sat their convinced that he had made me estatic



More cat tails to follow soon

[Luke]

Cat Tails Part Two


The Cat Out The Bag
Balderick was a typical tom when he was a kitten, he got everywhere and into everything! Then one day he realised in his infanant wisdom that he had a fetish for bags, and one day we were getting ready to go visist my aunt who had just had a baby in hospital, now i was only 2 so had to have a bag with toys, drinks and food to go anywhere . So mum had packed this bag, and we put it int he car, we get into the maternity unit to see my aunt etc, had been their a while when i felt a thirst, so my mum opened the bag and you guessed it out frolicked Sherman, well i tell you one thing he frolicked fast he had 3 nurses and my mum in hot pursuit of him up and down Walsgrave maternity unit, he was leading them on to the max. Eventually he was found on the lunch trolley polishing off someones Game pie and mash potatoes he was caught and popped bag in the bag, when we got home my mother lets say, was less then pleased!

What goes up must come down!

Clementine is only three we haven't had her that long she was 6 weeks when she came and boy was she a bundle of fun, if you can class destruction as fun!
But one fateful day we were in the garden having lunch i believe and Clementine had been playing amongst the lobelia, well thats what we thought in the time we presumed her blissfully playing she has been clambering up this HUGE pile of bricks, at least 7 feet tall as they were from the old brick sheds that had been demolished, well she clambered up and we noticed jsut as she peaked at the top! Needless to say we attempted to rescue her, it didn't work we had to relyon her to manage her way down, well she put a paw out of line and slipped we fearede her crushed by the bricks, for ages we searched amongst the reckage then i hear a mew and out plodded a rather dusty tortie kitten i recognised as Clementine


It's a shot in the dark!

An incident i remember vividlly was with one of our coal black cats i think it was Ebby, it was very late in the eve and we had been at a birthday celebration all evening, we returned home to all the dogs and we presumed all the cats silentlly asleep, but as we took a step inside, out flew a something from the coat stand, turned on the light and there was Ebbs! never mind having staffies and dobermans in the kitchen our wee moggy was a better burgular detterent


**More Cat tails to come

[Amanda]

So many beautiful cats and kittens Luke.. Lovely homepage too