lint is very sweet and affectionate...almost TOO much! and very vocal! if i try to move him out of my lap, he goes limp and drags his legs and refuses to go :lol: he'd lay there all day every day if i let him.
well this is going to be the longest post ever :lol: i wanted to post cat bios too. i'll try to keep it short.
lint is the oldest, he's now 6 years old. i got him my senior year in high school. a friend of mine had two cats, and both had a litter of 6 kittens on the same day! oddly enough, they must have had the same father because each cat had 3 long haired black kittens and 3 muted calico kittens. i liked to go over there and play with the slew of little kitties, they were all adorable. i asked my parents if i could take one, and they said NO! most of the kittens were born with broken tails, lint being one of them. the runt was particularly cute, she was a muted calico that hopped around like a rabbit. my friend said they were going to have to take the kittens to a shelter soon, they had posted an ad in a couple local papers but nobody called for them. i'd been playing with this particularly fuzzy, blue-eyed black kitten a lot, he was just so funny. i had to have him. when it came time to take the kittens to the shelter, i went and took lint. i kept him in my room and didn't tell my parents for a week. my parents already had 2 cats, so i made him a little litter box out of a shoebox and put food out for him. he had a big mouth on him, and i knew i'd have to tell them eventually...so one day when they were in a particularly good mood, i told them i had something to show them and that they couldn't get mad. :twisted: i went to my room and picked lint up, and told him he had to put on his super cute face and charm the **** out of them. i held him and tucked him under my shirt, and went to show the parents. the first thing i said was "please don't make me get rid of him!" and i pulled him from under my shirt. they looked pretty pissed for a second...then lint chirped and blinked his big blue eyes at them and they were sold. i put him on the bed and of course, like parents do, they started asking me a million questions. i didn't care though, they were playing with him and all was well. how could anyone resist that sweet little black puff ball? i named him lint because he is a dust magnet! he always has something sticking to him :lol:
shortly after i graduated, i moved to upstate new york. (i was born in west virginia) i couldn't take him with me immediately, so he stayed with my parents for a couple months. while i was gone, he was to go to the vet and get neutered and declawed. i wasn't happy about the declawing business, but they felt it was their call. i got a call from my mom one day that nearly gave me a heart attack. she said "lint was in an accident at the vet..." and i almost died. she said he was mixed up with a black female kitten, and all four of his feet were now declawed and he has a shaved belly. OH MY GOD! i said, "please tell me they didn't try to spay him...". she said they didn't quite get that far, they noticed his family jewels after shaving his belly. i was somewhat relieved, but still angry about the declawing. since lint was born with a broken tail, he was already a bit unbalanced. poor thing! upon going back home to pick him up...the nightmare continued. he was not the same cat. he was very clumsy and moody and just...weird. i felt so sorry for him. i don't know exactly what happened at the vet, but it really messed with his head. he was now a very "special" kitty. i suspect he suffers from vision problems and maybe even hallucinations too, he acts totally bizarre sometimes. i know cats can just be weird, but i guess you'd just have to see him in action to understand. i'm still angry about the declawing...the vet didn't do a very good job, either. they cut into the pads of his feet! his toes are completely mangled. the vet didn't charge us for his surgeries. my parents swear by this vet, and signed some sort of release form that prevents me from suing. ::grumble:: grr...anyway...
after moving to new york, i missed having a cat around terribly. i moved in the beginning of october, and couldn't go back for lint until christmas. my boyfriend at the time had a cat who just had 3 kittens. there were 2 girls and a boy, and they were all identical gray/brown tabbies with white chins. i tried to play with them when i was at his house, but the girls wanted nothing to do with me! they'd run and hide under the bed just out of reach. the boy was more friendly and playful with me. of course, i grew attached...and took him home with me around the beginning of november. i couldn't go a month without having a cat around! :lol: he was a rambunctous little guy, always chasing after my feet and sneak attacking me if he got bored. i named him reeko after a punk song he seemed to particularly like. he was a little punk anyway, so it fit. he was a joy to have around, he liked to sleep on my chest and purr at night. good company!
i took him to my parents' for christmas, and to pick up lint. they got along instantly, and i couldn't have been happier. lint is only a few months older than him, so i hoped they would get along and keep each other company. lint is still moody and weird from the surgery, but reeko tolerates him well. he doesn't take it too personally when lint suddenly turns evil on him for no good reason. :wink:
in march of the next year, i decided upstate new york wasn't a good place for me. that's just too much snow! :shock: i then moved to pittsburgh. a couple years went by, and i had no intentions of getting another cat. but, when it comes to cats...its not up to you
i went antique shopping at parts-a-rama one year. a couple friends of mine rent booths there every year, so i went to one of their booths to see if they'd seen anything neat i should be checking out. they said the folks a couple spaces down had some kittens i should look at. i said OH NO, i'll end up leaving with one! no way am i going over there!
...
of course, i went over there...just to look, not to take! i already had my two boys and i was perfectly happy with them. **** my curiosity!
there was a box with about 6 kittens in it, mostly solid white and black kittens, with a couple calico. i noticed this little cute tabby sleeping in the corner. (i'm a sucker for tabbies...) i picked her up and noticed she had white paws, and she was orange and black striped like a tiger. ugh, i couldn't bring myself to put her back in the box. she opened her eyes and yawned, and looked at me adoringly. she was unbearably adorable. i asked if she was spoken for, and they said no. unbelievable! i held her up to my face and said "do you wanna come home with me?". she reached out with one of those cute little white paws and placed it on the tip of my nose, cocked her head to the side a bit, and blinked. SOLD! (as if i wasn't already, hehe) i put her in my satchel purse and headed back for my friends' booths. she poked her head up out of my bag and held onto the rim. it was surely a kodak moment. upon arriving at my friend's booth, i made a guilty face and held up my bag with cute kitty peeking out of it. my friend said "i knew you'd take that one" :lol: then she said, "is there anything cuter than a kitten?" and i replied, "no, and if there is, i don't want to know about it!"
i was interested to see how the boys would react to her. they were both grown and set in their ways. i brought her in and set her on the floor. they both instantly came over to sniff her. she was happy to see other cats, her little stubby tail was swishing with excitement. reeko seemed kind of scared of her, she turned to sniff him and he levitated and backed off a few feet. lint, on the other hand...sniffed her nose, hissed, then bonked her on the head, causing her to do a near full flip in the air! kittens are so top-heavy! she looked up at me, like "what the heck was THAT?" i figured i better keep them separated when i'm not home, i had a large bathroom at the time so i kept her in there while i was at school. she was always so excited to see me when i came home, she'd jump off the chair so fast she'd tumble on the floor because her little legs weren't ready for the force! then she'd climb up my jeans and my shirt and come lick my chin and purr. she was the perfect kitty, i adore her so much.
i could never think of a name for her. i just called her kitty for the longest time. i'm not sure why i started calling her woody. she seemed to like it better than anything else, i guess.
i love my 2 boys to death, but woody is surely the apple of my eye. she's insanely smart and compassionate. she sleeps on my pillow at night and purrs me to sleep. she licks the tears from my cheek when i'm sad. she loves to fetch. she hides things in my shoes. she kills all critter intruders. she cheers me up when i desperately need cheering. she takes medicine like a pro. she's my biggest fan, and i'm hers.
shortly after getting woody, i rescued bizzo, the siamese cat. her owners had treated her terribly, and left her with a friend of mine when they moved out of town. they were supposed to come back for her in a couple weeks, but ended up leaving her there for several months. my friend was a siamese breeder, and had given them the cat as a gift because they wanted a siamese. she was also the person they'd left the cat with, and she was horrified of the cat's condition when she was dropped off. they must have never changed her litter, she had a nasty infection in her paws. they had her declawed, but somehow it got really infected from the dirty litter. they must not have fed her well either, she was emaciated and ALWAYS hungry. she was starved for attention, and they also put a gold "collar" around her neck that was totally inappropriate. it was more like one of those stretchy, collapsable watch bands, if you know what i mean. it ripped most of the fur out of her neck and was way too tight. i felt so bad for her. my friend wasn't happy about the idea of giving the cat back to its owners, so she let me take her. her name was jewel, but she didn't respond to the name so i renamed her isis. she didn't respond to that name either, but my friend jokingly called her bizzo one day and she came running. bizzo it was!
she had eating problems. she would gorge herself, puke, then go right back to gorging herself. and she'd snatch yr dinner right off yr plate if you weren't paying attention. it was a nightmare! she was a very sweet cat, and very protective of me. i started to notice i was allergic to her for whatever reason. i'm allergic to cats, but my other 3 cats never really bothered me. bizzo though...sheesh! she liked to sleep on my pillow right by my face, i'd wake up in the morning and i could barely open my eyes or breathe. i wanted to rehabilitate her before looking for a new owner though, she was still too traumatized to be turned over to someone new. she had a lot to learn. she was terrified of the other cats. even when little tiny woody would approach her, she would flop over on her side and howl as if being attacked. after a couple months, she started eating normally (after much training and patience on my part) and she LOVED the other cats. she took to woody like a mother, and taught woody much of what she knows. i still see a lot of bizzo in woody. the loyalty especially, woody could care less about anyone but me! bizzo was very protective of me, if my boyfriend was angry, whether it was at me or not, she'd come to my side and growl and scream at him. if he came near me, she'd attack him! woody does the same thing. when bizzo was finally comfortable with people and with other animals, i started looking for a new home for her. i had a party one night, and my friend brought a few of his friends over. bizzo was extremely friendly in social situations, she'd go from lap to lap, charming everyone. she found herself a home in no time. unfortunately, the new owner moved away and i haven't heard anything about her in a couple years. last i heard, her stomach turned over and she had to have surgery. i don't know if she pulled through it or not, but i sure hope she's ok.
my other 3 cats flipped when she left. woody especially, she surely felt like she lost her cat mother. she'd wander around the house at night crying. i wish i didn't have to give bizzo away, but my allergies just couldn't handle it. apparently i'm super allergic to siamese cats!
funny/sad story about the praying mantis...i was sitting on the couch watching tv one day, and i heard tapping on the window. it was pretty loud, loud enough for me to hear it over the tv anyway. i got up to see what was going on, and there was this big mantis frantically tapping on the window. there was a HUGE storm brewing, i could see dark turbulent clouds in the sky behind her. thunder rumbled through the neighborhood. she looked at me and continued tapping, now more frantically than before. i took that as a "HEEEELP, don't let the storm blow me away!" who am i to turn down a critter in distress?
mantises have always freaked me out...i wouldn't touch one for the life of me! she was pretty big, about 4 inches long as as thick as my thumb. i had a couple aquariums in the attic, so i grabbed the smallest one (about the right size for a couple goldfish) and climbed out one of the other windows onto the roof so i could get to the mantis. i held the tank toward her and she crawled right in. i put the lid on and took her inside. it ended up being one **** of a storm, my house felt like it was going to topple over! the next day, i opened the window and held the tank out as to let her go. she wouldn't budge. i tried shaking the tank to get her out, but she just wouldn't go! i thought, well, ok...i guess i could keep her, how hard can it be to keep a bug as a pet?
i dug out one of the bigger aquariums and did some research to find out what sort of environment i should set up for her. i found a bunch of sticks and a net for her to climb on, as well as some dirt, moss, and plants from the back yard. she had one nice little home! it was now time to transfer her to the big tank. i was terrified...i was afraid she'd jump on me and i'd panic and smash her! i'm definitely not a bug person, i'm a complete and total bug-a-phobe. i ended up taking one of the sticks from her new tank and putting it in the small tank. she instantly hopped on and i quickly put the stick and mantis in the big tank. i misted the leaves down so she could have a drink, and headed to the pet store to get some crickets. i returned with a dozen crickets, thinking that should be plenty for a few days. boy was i wrong. i dumped the crickets in her tank and she went NUTS chasing them around and gobbling them up. she went through all 12 of them in about a half hour. watching her eat was a trip though. she'd catch a cricket, gobble its head, suck out its insides, and then fold the exoskeleton up into a perfect triangle and eat it like a slice of pizza! oh it was so gross and morbid, but so interesting! :lol:
i spent a lot of time observing her (the cats did too, of course :wink: ), after all, i'd never had a mantis i could watch from behind the safety of glass. she was very particular, if she stepped in a drop of water, she'd quickly clean it off. she was always spotless. she liked to climb up by the light and just hang out. she also liked to jump at my face when i least expected it, and make me jump out of my skin ::grumble:: i guess she was asking for some privacy! :lol: she would do it to the cats too, lint would get so mad at her he'd hiss and swat at the glass. :twisted: i wasn't sure if she was even a she, but one day i noticed her making an egg sack! oh yay! i watched the whole process from start to finish, it was disgusting but facinating. she hung an egg sack about the size of a zippo lighter from the top of the tank, and sculpted it with much care. i always wondered what those two little prongs on their rear were for! afterwards, she was a much smaller bug! her abdomen was now nearly flat and she was exhausted. rightly so, the process took a couple hours. i never thought i'd be excited about more bugs, but i was. (the photo of her is before she layed eggs)
i ran off to do more research, and was saddened by the news that they usually die rather soon after laying eggs. i'd only had her a couple months, i was just getting to know her! she started eating less and less, and her exoskeleton was beginning to darken. a couple weeks later, she became very clumsy and often fell from where she would perch. one day she fell to the bottom of the tank on her back and wouldn't climb back up. i started crying, i thought she was done for. i cried! over a bug! i hate bugs! :shock: i got brave and poked a stick at her to see if she was dead, and she slowly climbed onto the stick and sat. she was now very dark in color, almost black. i continued to cry. i had to leave the room, i couldn't look at her like that. when i finally had the guts to go check on her again, she had passed. i cried even more!
i kept the egg sack, but it never hatched
i must not have taken care of it properly. oh well...not sure what i would have done with hundreds of mantises anyway :!:
ok well i think i've rambled on long enough! :lol:
