Cats: An Introduction

Here's my number one baby, Kami. I got her from the SPCA when I lived in Arizona. She's named for Camoflage (well, desert camoflage) and for a little desert fox, whose name I don't remember. Sometimes she gets called Bunny for the way she bounces after her foam ball. My sister mostly calls her Bitch, but Kami's too sweet for that name. ; ) She steals seashells and balls of light fluffy yarn. I've frequently had yarn missing from my stash because Kami has sauntered away with it. She sleeps on me at night and yowls in my ear when she thinks it's time to wake up (3 am). In AZ, she gave birth to 6 kittens, which were so cute and full of housecat potential. We couldn't keep them because we were moving to Washington, but it was fun while it lasted. I don't think she misses them "Yay, the kids left home early!". She's the most talkative and I'm often convinced that she has some Siamese in her. Kami is definitely the boss of the other two cats (and both the dogs)...uh, and the humans. She never lets us forget it.


This is Sophie. My sister got her from two women who came into her workplace and asked if anyone wanted some kittens. Di (my sister) took the littlest black kitten, a runt. It took us quite awhile to name her (we name on a personality basis), but I came up with Sophie. Is there a story behind it? Of course. Sophie was in the habit of breaking expensive and sentimental objects for about 6 months. One morning, she broke my mom's favorite vase into a bzillion pieces (we counted*) and stood at the scene of the crime until someone woke up enough to realize that big crash wasn't in their dream. After much sweeping and swearing, we all settled down, yadda yadda yah...and I said "Why don't we name her Sophie?" My family didn't realize the background of the name, but I explained it. "Sophie, derived from Sophia, means 'wisdom' in Greek." So, we named her Sophie, with the hope that she would wise up and stop her reign of destruction. She did and is now our shyest, but sweetest, kitten (and Kami's arch enemy).

This is Sam (Fat-kitty Marmalade). He's very large and wussy. Kami, who is much smaller than he is, beats him up on a regular basis+. We also got him in Arizona from the SPCA. My mom was looking for another kitten. She noticed Sam climbing up the bars of his cage yowling "Take me, take me!" and gave him the Kitty Test - scratch the belly, tug the tail, touch the paws. If the kitty is calm and purring it's okay, but if the kitty unleashes hell's fury onto your hand it's a no go and you must leave or die quietly. Sam passed the Kitty Test with flying colors (and hair). We took him home, loved him, squeezed him and then stole his manliness. Whoo-boy, he hated us for awhile. Now he's a fat, lazy, castrato kitty who divides his time between sleeping and eating.

* By counted I mean 'stood over the mess and said "damn, that's a lot of glass"'.

+You could set your clock by it.