Our Furry Friends

Much has been written about the benefits of having pets to keep you company. Your disposition will improve, your cheeks will glow with good health, and you will live to a ripe old age gracefully. Assuming that is true, our household musty be the happiest, healthiest, longest-lived family on the block because of the four furry friends who inhabit our house.

Katsumi is our Bengal mix princess who treats us all as her minions. She has plush gray hued fur that is as soft and luxurious as a stuffed Teddy bear. Stroking and rubbing her ears is something to be tolerated but any further petting is strictly at her command. She will climb on my desk, sprawl on whatever I am reading or writing and let me know that she wants to petted. When she has had enough she, without so much as “thank you” meow, heads off to one of her favorite napping places.

Then there is Baby, AKA Rex. His personal space is the window sill in my bedroom where he sits for hours looking out at the neighborhood. Baby is a handsome black and gray longhaired tabby with four white paws like sox. He is as graceful as a cat should be and you would never guess he was the best escape champion of all time as a kitten. No matter what obstacles were placed in his way to keep him from leaving the backyard he would find a way to get out. It was fun to see him watch intently how the holes in the fence were blocked and then watch as he promptly found a way around, over, and or through the blockade.

The new addition is Joey, a gray and white Siamese mix, who followed me home one day, came into the house, chowed down, looked around, and promptly decided to adopt us. Joey is, unquestionably, the epitome of a curious, mischievous, ever active kitten. If a cat can be said to have personality, Joey has it. But it may be because he is addicted to catnip. The first place he visits when he goes out in the morning is the catnip patch along the side fence. Frankly we are considering kitty rehab to see if that will slow down the mischief he wreaks in the house as he knocks things over, chews up paper towels, teases the other two cats and wrestles with the dog.

And then there is Bastian the double Pom, so called because he is twice the size of normal Pomeranian but retains the characteristics of the breed. He is yappy, energetic, and affectionate. He also has an identity crisis in that he sometimes thinks he is a cat since he is surrounded by felines. But his dog traits do come out when he guards the house against imaginary intruders who walk by the house, keeps track of when people should come and go from the house and when it is time to go for his morning walk around the neighborhood.

That is our pet inventory for now. They are a constant source of comfort to us and life would certainly be much less fun without them.