The Life of a Cat

Cats really have it pretty good. At least ours do. While I write blogs about trying to keep warm, they are snug in the house, wrapped up in a personalized fur blanket and even laying on top of the warm radiators! Since they have not been featured in any of my postings yet, I realized they deserved a mention. After all, Chloe (above) and Elliot (orange and fluffy, below) have been with us since August 1994 and are responsible for a great deal of joy in our lives over the years.

Mike and I had been married about 7 weeks when we settled in our first apartment in Fort Collins, Colorado. Pets were a must, and since cats are something I've always had around and are good in apartment-living, we decided that would be the best option. So off we went to the Larimer County Humane Society (http://www.larimerhumane.org) to adopt our new family members. While these two are not litter mates, they have become used to one another over the past 14.5 years and have moved with us (within Colorado, to Idaho, now to the Netherlands), travelled with us (between Colorado and Idaho when we'd go on holidays to see family), and kept us smiling.

Chloe is the proper little Miss and very much only a two-person cat. When we are away and have cat-sitters stopping by, we always wonder how she's going to do with a change in the routine. Typically, we hear that she keeps to herself and doesn't look for attention until we've been away for a week or so and she gets a little desperate for some contact. She's also the one who still chases her tail and generally acts like a lunatic at least once a day. The rest of the time, she's in a wad on the radiator like you see in the top photo or in a sunbeam on the sofa or windowsill. Would it be possible to build me a radiator like hers?

Elliot, on the other hand is the social greeter of our house. When we have people over, he makes sure to meet everyone as they come in the door, rub up against them and generally introduce himself. He's absolutely friendly and gets a lot of comments along the lines of, "Wow! That's a huge cat!", or "He's more like a dog than a cat because he's so friendly". He's definitely a personality and it's probably good he's an indoor-only cat (since we live on the 3rd floor with a secure door downstairs, it's just not possible to let them out. Ringing doorbells might be a little beyond them!), because otherwise he'd get swept up and taken away by some new 'friend'.

Since they're both going to be 15 this May, they have a couple of health issues, but we've been able to keep everything under control with diet and pills. The Dutch really love animals, just about everyone has a dog or cat (or both) and so we are very comfortable with the veterinary care they receive here. I think the hardest part for them moving here was the plane ride, since then, they've been just fine, down to getting the same food they had in Idaho.

As you might be able to see from the photos I took today (all but the 2nd one), it's a rainy day with some pretty good wind gusts. I look at these two and think how pleased we've been over the years with the fact that we rescued them from the shelter when they were just three months old. At this point, I start to feel terrible for all the animals that are outside in awful weather and cold temperatures. I must get some sort of look in my eye at these times...Mike is always warning our friends that if something happens to him, to watch that I don't become a crazy cat lady!

This is a bit of a ramble, but it seemed like it was past time that I introduced our family to any readers who might be interested in knowing more about the "cats" I mention in these posts.