Shelter Cats and Redemption

On this date, and day, back in 2000, I brought Tyler home from Little Shelter.  I've been so wrapped up in my new job that, amazingly enough, this didn't pop into my head until the middle of the afternoon.  Sorry, Tyler.  I think that was your way of reminding me right? Speaking of reminding, here's the story of that awesome day. Saturday, December 9th, 2000 “What does that mean?” I asked my mother.  Serious?  A cat doesn’t smile, they ALWAYS look serious. “I don't know, he looks like an owl, or a bandit.  He has a serious look on his face.” “I think he’s cool looking.” My father replied.  Well, thank god at least he shares my opinion. We went inside.  Now, as I said, we were living high on the hog in those days.  My father had a well-paying job, my mother had several credit cards with a large amount of credit, and me….well…..I was just starting out in the museum world as a budding curator.  What’s a curator?...

Something awesome occurred to me the other day.   I should end this blog right here, right? Shut up. No, seriously, this is important. Sophie broke the curse! What curse, you ask? Bear with me as I explain this one. Tyler, my first and best cat, lived with me for just about 14 of his 15+ years. Tiger, my second cat, lived with me for just over 4 years.  To be exact, just 6 days shy of 4 and a quarter years. His successor, Jackson, lived with me for exactly the same amount of time.  Just 6 days shy of 4 and a quarter years. Notice a pattern?  I call it a curse. Why the fuck did that happen?  Coincidence?  Russian hacking?  Some strange conspiracy?  I think not.  Whatever strange thing caused both Tiger and Jackson to cross the Rainbow Bridge after precisely the same amount of time with me will forever baffle me.  Whatever caused it, it was not enough time. It never is, is it? Until Sophie, that is.  Sophie, as o...

Coming soon to a theater near you! Not really, just my annual tradition of making movie trailers of my beloved cats using iMovie. Enjoy!

So there I was. 3am.  This morning. Wide awake.  I didn't need to be awake for two more hours. Minnie, as is her habit, woke up, walked right into my face, gave me a rub, a purr, and a soft MEOW, and jumped down to snack on some of her dry food.  After a  quick trip to her litter box, she jumped back on the bed and curled up on my side under my right arm. Whatever stress that may have caused me to wake up so early was, at least for the moment, gone, replaced by a smile and happy thoughts of my little former stray girl. It got me to thinking. What can our cats teach us?  What have my cats, and two decades of cat ownership, taught me? Plenty.  So much, in fact, that I thought it would make a great little blog post. So, from Tyler to Minnie, here's what my cats have taught me. 1. Tyler. Tyler, my first cat, taught me so much.  First and foremost, Tyler taught me about love.  What love really means, and what true love is and when t...

This Friday, August 17th, marks four years since Sophie came to live with me. Four years already?  Seems like just yesterday, and seems like even longer. Four years as the new boss cat.  The alpha cat extraordinaire.  I honestly could not have asked for a better successor to Tyler, as I've mentioned before. Four years ago, she popped out of her carrier, literally, and stormed into my life. While Sophie remains the most difficult cat I've ever dealt with, the rough first few weeks/months were definitely worth it.  Today I simply cannot imagine life without her.  She's the matriarch, the center of my family, and she knows it.  No one loves more than Sophie, and no cat gives better hugs or purrs louder. She's my queen, now that Minnie is the princess, and I love her to pieces. Let's go back, once again,  to that day when I met her for the first time, shall we? Sunday, August 17th, 2014 A text popped up on my iPhone. “We’re outside.” ...

Fifteen years ago this summer, I took what became THE famous.... Tyler sitting funny picture. Summer, 2003.  I don't remember the exact date.   My first apartment, Glen Cove, NY. One summer weekend, on an otherwise normal, uneventful day, I happened to be walking into the living room from the bedroom, when.....I noticed....an extremely funny sight. Tyler was sitting on my living room recliner in this exact pose: Before I could even let out a chuckle, I grabbed my camera (an actual camera, with film!) and snapped this now famous shot before Tyler could move. The rest, as they say, is history. Since this was 2003, a year or so before Facebook was even invented, I couldn't share this anywhere. I think friendster may have been around?  Myspace?  I don't recall offhand.  I did, however, email it to everyone I knew.   Since then, this photo has been my go-to pic to prove that, without a doubt, Tyler was the ultimate ham. ...

Now....back to celebrating and commemorating happy feline occasions. This coming Wednesday, July 11th, is a big day in my feline household. It's a double birthday! Tucker turns 5! Minnie Turns 1! Not only that, but July 11th marks 6 months since Minnie ended her life on the streets and became the happiest female house cat in the world. Talk about a day of celebrations, right? As is often the case with my cats, I never know their actual birthday, so I make up one for them. Why not?  Cats deserve birthday celebrations too, right? I've always thought so.  I have never and will never consider them my pets.  No.  They're family.  Family members always get to celebrate birthdays, so there you go. Tucker got backdated to 7/11/13 based on his age when I adopted him.  Minnie got backdated to 7/11/17 because there was no possible way she was any older than that without having given birth already to kittens of her own, so we made her birthday last July...

I have no birthdays to commemorate. No anniversaries to wax nostalgic on. I have plenty of stories about Tyler and Tiger from back in the day, but none that stick out enough for me to want to blog about. So....what to do? Share some recent pictures of Sophie, Tucker, and Minnie, that's what! So, here you go.... The continuing adventures of the feline trio of Sophie, Tucker, and Minnie! Here are some pics, and updates, on Tucker, Sophie and Minnie from the past few weeks.  The best three cats ever! First of all, I was finally able to get Tucker to the vet last week, thanks to a little vet supplied tranquilizer and my son's assistance.  Tucker does NOT like to get into a carrier!  This time, with a little help, he got into the carrier and was the MODEL patient. The vet assistants GUSHED over him, and even had him pose for a picture!  Is this a handsome cat or what?? By the way, Tucker is in perfect health.  It's SO NICE havin...

Tyler would have been 19 this coming Saturday, June 9th. Nineteen. Tyler would have been pushing TWENTY.  That's really hard to fathom.  I often wonder what life would be like if he was still around and had retained his health.  I'm sure he would have been the same old Tyler, just an older, slower version.  Still in charge.  Still holding court. So is June 9th his ACTUAL birthday? I will never truly know. I adopted him, as readers of this blog know, on December 9th, of 2000.   I was told he was a 1.5 year old cat, so, I back-dated him to June 9th, 1999. Therefore, he got an official birthday.  I do that with all my cats. Hard to believe you're gone almost 4 years.  It's still not quite the same without you, but I know you're proud of the job Sophie is doing in your old slot as alpha cat.  Sophie is about to approach senior-hood herself now that she's 8 years old, but shows no signs of slowing down so far.  Then again, s...

I could have sworn I blogged about this, but it looks like I didn't. How could I miss this story about Tyler! This past Friday, I received some tremendous news, news that totally made my day. I'd found Chloe. Who, you may ask, is Chloe? Chloe was Tyler's brief love affair, and his first apprentice. Here's the story. 2007: At the time,  I had this close female friend, for the sake of decency I'll not mention her name here. Let's call her.....FRIEND.  Friend and I spent a lot of time together when we were both single and lived close to one another.  While primarily a dog person, Friend was always envious of the immense bond I had with Tyler, and was dying to, around late 2006-2007, attempt to recreate that bond by adopting a cat of her own. Enter...Chloe.  An adorable young semi-long-haired kitten from North Shore Animal League,  an organization I'm not going to subject you to a rant about.  Not a fan.  Moving on. Chloe was less than...