Cats and other Little Beasts

This page is a slow starter, I didn't have tons of cat pictures scanned in, but I am working on it. Many of our cats have no photos taken--I am slightly superstitious about taking their pictures but I will look for a few to show here.  Sounds silly doesn't it?? but my superstition comes from the fact that I don't want to sit and look at those photos of a ton of cats that have died..... you see I do limited rescue for cats who are FeLeuk Positive.

I have "Lucky", a FeLeuk Postive cat who this year turns 17 years old!! She lives primarily in our bedroom and only tolerates some of the dogs, she is our baby and she gets priority!!  Since she doesn't like other cats it is pretty easy to keep her separated from them so as not to infect a healthy cat with the FeLeuk virus.  That said, we rarely foster/adopt healthy cats, I figure the ones that need me the most are the other FeLeuk positive cats, they are rarely adoptable -- I mean who would want to adopt a cat they know is likely to live less than a year or two??  But I know from experience that they can live longer and I have fostered/adopted quite a few.  They have lived anywhere from a few weeks to a few years --none as long as our "Lucky" at 17 -- but nevertheless they lived longer than they would have if there had been NO home for them to come to.  Some of the foster cats that have touched our lives and hearts were:  

Andrew, DSH, grey tabby/with white, a grouchy old man in a young cat's body -- he lived a short but happy time terrorizing the dogs. Came from Lend-A-Paw for a second chance.

BeeBop, DMH, Gray fuzzy, a silly kitten who graced our house with his antics for 5 years (a long time for a positive kitty) Abandoned at the Animal Hospital by previous owners along with his housemate cat, the other cat tested negative twice (over 6 months time) and I adopted "Kisses" out to a great family in NJ (pictures to follow).

Colonel Kitty (my favorite) (black with white bib-looked like a Swissy) came to us from tearful owners leaving him to be euthanized because of his feleuk status, Colonel Kitty lived almost a year but each day with him was a treasure, he LOVED dogs and they loved him.  Rex used to practically nurse on Colonel's ears, that cat was soggy all the time.

We also took in several cats from PA from a friend of Sue's that had died, they all lived all their lives outside and since we are far from any roads or traffic they lived here the same way, none of them were FeLeuk positive so they were safe from our positive indoor only cats.   Some I adopted out to other homes, some lived the rest of their lives here.  Cisco was one of these cats from PA, a pitiful looking character (he always looked like he was Moulting) with a scratchy yeeeow voice, he was 10+ years old when he came here and he lived here for 3 years.  He was always running up to visitors and trying to go for rides with them.  Because of his bold nature and high visibility Cisco had a run-in with a visiting Swissy bitch who disliked cats and he was shaken badly (bruised but not hurt otherwise)  I was able to get the dog to release him fast enough, but after that time he didn't trust the dogs anymore (can you blame him), even though that bitch didn't live with us after that incident.

Cisco this year accidently took a ride in my hubby's vehicle to a job site and decided to live there with new people, I hope he is as entertaining with his new family as he was with us.  I hear reports of him periodically from his new neighborhood.  .

Lend A Paw is a local cat rescue organization (703-   -    ) they often call me to foster FeLeuk positive cats while they look for homes or until very young kittens especially can be retested as often kittens that test positive once will revert to negative status and stay that way after they are weaned and have their own immunity (same for FIV).   Cola and Candy were here for their Very entertaining kittenhoods and they left to live in a home in NJ after being neutered. 

We have right now our Old girl Lucky who lives in the bedroom and we just adopted a healthy negative cat that was urintating indescriminately at his former home.  His name is "Dogger" and he is a large grey cat who adores dogs and had an uncanny ability to KNOW which dogs are "safe" and which are NOT.  He runs right up to dogs that like cats and are gentle, but if one of the dogs that would grab a cat is out front, Dogger is "invisible" he KNOWS which dogs are which!!  Sue Kittler's 100 lb Swissy bitch, Polly, came down here to be bred and when she was let out of the back of the van, Dogger ran up to her and rubbed all over her chest and front legs, he had never seen this bitch before!! ever!!  How did he KNOW that Polly lives with tons of cats and is very very good with them?? how could he know that??  but he does, his former home was full of miniature poodles not these 100+ lb monsters!! He loves the Havanese the best -- they are the most like his own dogs, but he is very friendly with the "good" big dogs, go figure.  I promise to get pictures of Dogger with the "dogs".  The funniest thing is that I didn't name him, he came with that name but I did name my Mastiff "KITTY".  How funny!!!  I put Dogger in with litters of puppies to teach them to respect cats, he is a good guy!!

Ellyn and Penny made some kind of deal that involved two really pretty Ragdoll cats, somehow they ended up with me, don't even ask me how!!!!!

They are brother and sister (from two different litters) and they are Henry and Isabell.  They are primarily "ornamental" ragdolls are not known for their intelligence, they are however, very sweet and adaptable, anyone want em??

Norman and his friend found a little kitten in a parking garage and brought him home for me to "have a look at".  Well we tried to find his owners, never got even one call from about a thousand flyers and vet calls.  Well this cat was called "transient" for about three months, I had him vaccinated, neutered, etc. and now his name is Murray, he is very much like Colonel Kitty was in markings and in personality, he will stay.  He has a strange habit of "sucking" on the webbing of your hand between the thumb and first finger, he is quite persistant about it and sometimes he gets dumped unceremoniously off of the chair when I am trying to type with a quite overgrown kitten attached to my left hand!!

I have an evil Canary too, "Honey" (who we renamed- "Dickie bird") belonged to my Grandmother before she died.  My family figured I was the Animal nut, so I would need to have him!!!  He is pretty neat but he is a nasty canary, he thinks he is an Eagle and tries to threaten everyone by spreading his wings and pretending to be a HAWK!!  I will get a picture of him too. 

Here is a link to a goat page, don't ask me why it fascinates me but there are some Swiss Goats pictured and they are sort of neat looking - Just click on Vixen to go to see the goats