“My daughter, Janine, son, Hendrik, and I all love cats,” admits Ceri. “We live tucked down a long dirt road with an acre garden next to a water reservoir, which is also a small woods.
Our cats have a wonderful life going in and out their cat door whenever they feel like
it. They are active hunting voles, rats, squirrels, birds and sometimes our neighbor’s gold fish from his pond.
Inside, our cats have a wonderful life, too. They have all the food they can eat, lots of cat toys, and us to cuddle.
We had three adult cats: Stripes, Nugget, and George in the house before we got the kittens.
But recently, our neighbor found our beautiful huge ginger, Stripes, dead by our
driveway. After Stripes was hit by a car he tried to reach home. I was so sad, and could not stand the pain of his loss.
It is odd how I can handle almost anything that life throws me like coping with my Dad’s recent diagnoses, but when something happened to my cat, I was overwhelmed with grief.
The kids’ father, my ex, wanted to ‘fix things’ for all of us so he 'surprised' us with three kittens. I was too
sad to think it was a good idea to have that many kittens at once, but their joyful antics did make us all happier.
The kittens: Junior, Bruce, and Burt are now six months and are a constant source of amusement. Junior carries around his favorite ‘stuffy’, a mammoth, which is as big as him!
Our cats are always bringing in their latest ‘CATch’. The first time my son spotted Junior with ‘his’ mammoth, Hendrik received
quite a fright wondering what Junior had in his mouth!
We should have bought the kittens a scratching post right from the start. It is our fault that they have scratched every leather chair and sofa in our house! However, they are like a huge ball of fluff that surrounds us with their love so they are forgiven.
There is no price that can be put on the joy they have brought us.
Our other two older
cats have ‘almost’ grown accustomed to them. At first, the female, Nugget, hissed at them. Now, she still hisses because it is part of her purrs-onality, but she joins in enthusiastically calling for me to feed everyone and happily joins in with her voracious male siblings.
George, the oldest male cat, is an avid hunter. When the kittens were younger, he would bring them a buffet of tasty morsels to try. It impressed the kittens more than me. It was
quite frightening cleaning up two dead rats and a bird sometimes before breakfast!
Like any big brother, the younger siblings adore George, who doesn't get much peace with the kittens following their heroes’ every move. George is adjusting, especially as he can't stay out all day in the winter, like he had in the summer.
During the cold winter, all our felines are rested indoors most of the day. This forced them
to work out their territory, and figure out how to get along. We are fur-giving of them ‘fur’ putting fur on ALL the bar stools, scratching, and skidding and jumping around the living room.
For their inside entertainment, we have a Siamese fighting fish, Blueberry, who is up to the job of battling the kittens when they turn their attention his way.
Pets bring a family so much joy. Our home is blessed with the cats. They fill us
like a Christmas stocking with energy, love and laughter, all day long and in to the night.
I wake up every morning with a smile hearing Burt, the furriest kitten, egged on by Nugget, purring and loving me until I get up to feed the gang. Apparently, being 'surprised' with three kittens was a blessing and we would not have it any other way!”
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