It's a Three Ring Circus! All that's missing is the tent!

When I was growing up, we had a dog, a cat, a bird, and a goldfish. We had an aquarium for a few years, too. Then during my first marriage we had a dog.

In my current marriage (ahem), 26 years, we haven't had ANY pets. This is because of Jim's belief that animals belong outside. He grew up on a farm and that's where all the animals were kept - outside. He's unbending on this.

I feel bad that our kids didn't experience the joys of having pets growing up.

My kids are now grown and living on their own. My son lives in an apartment where no animals are allowed. He did have an aquarium for awhile.

My daughter? Well, she has 2 dogs and 3 cats. I believe we've created a monster. It's our fault that she keeps taking in strays. It's like those parents who go to the extreme and don't give their kids any sugar and as soon as the parents turn their backs what happens? The kid stuffs their face with candy bars and such.

It all started with Khan (named after Shere Khan from The Jungle Book).



Jessica was in college at the time and lived in a house on campus. She was walking to class one day, and this striped kitty, about 6 months old, followed her, like Mary and her little lamb. This, of course, just melted my daughter's heart, and she decided to keep the cat. One of Jessica's teachers was a fervent cat lover and offered to pay for the cat's shots, brought over a litter box and litter, plus cat food. She knew that Jessica was a struggling college student.

It turned out that some of her roommates were allergic to cats, so Khan couldn't stay. He moved in with Jessica's future husband, Dave, and became a "frat cat" and came and went as he pleased. That lasted only a few months till some of the frat guys said THEY were allergic to cats, too. So Khan went to live with Dave's parents until the kids finished school and had a place of their own.

Khan grew to be a big cat. At one point he weighed 19 pounds! But he was never fat. Just big in size and long. And he's prissy. Doesn't like his hair mussed. Here he is removing a speck of something that is floating in his water.



Pretty soon Luna came into the picture.



I like to call her Luna-butt. She is my favorite of the three cats. If you sit on the couch, she will sit on the back of the couch and rub all over your head. It actually feels pretty good. She has quite a personality, likes to eat all the time, and talks back to you when you talk to her.

This photo shows off a little of her quirkiness



Pretty soon Jessica and Dave bought a house and of course, Jessica wanted a dog. So they went to the local animal shelter where there was a new litter of puppies. Jessica really had her heart set on the one female dog, but she wass already taken. So they took the male dog and named him Atlas. Within the year Jessica found out that the female dog was back at the shelter. You know what happens next. Yes, they brought her home and named her Venus. So Atlas and Venus are reunited.

Atlas is totally bowed over by Venus's charms (Atlas on bottom, Venus on top)




They are usually together when they sleep, like two commas; that is, when Venus is not on top of Atlas!



The final cat, Cora, a.k.a. "Miss Gray" came along when Jessica's old boss convinced her to take in the wild cat that lived by her home.



She had named her "Miss Gray". She, herself couldn't take her in because her own cat was old and mean and would chew Miss Gray up and spit her out. So Jessica went to her boss's house and looked for the cat. She called out, "Miss Gray! Miss Gray!" but couldn't find her. All of a sudden she saw a little gray puff come running down the street. Jessica bent down on one knee and the cat ran right up into her arms. It was love at first sight.

Cora is an itty-bitty little thing, weighing in at about 6 pounds. She loves to curl up on your lap or crawl right up your chest. She is very, very friendly - especially after living on the streets for a couple of years.

Here she is going after the "mouse" on my computer.



I have to commend my daughter, for even though she has a lot of animals, she takes good care of them all, and they are all up on their shots, etc. But you can imagine that it's like a 3-ring circus at the house. Something is always going on with the animals. Cora gets along with the dogs very well, Luna ignores them, and Khan? Well - he can be a jerk and intimidate a 65 lb dog from drinking from the water dish by sitting near it. Atlas will sit nearby and whimper because he's afraid of Khan!

I love to go to my daughter's house - of course because of our grand daughter, Lily, but also because of all the animals. I get my "fix".

It's just kind of funny because Jim doesn't really care for the animals, and they all seem to congregate by him. Khan prefers males so he likes to sit on Jim's lap. When the dogs were allowed on the old furniture, one would lay on each side of Jim and rest their head on Jim's leg. I had a picture somewhere of Jim sitting on the couch with all five animals but I couldn't find it. He probably destroyed the evidence!

This is Venus pretending she's a cat looking out the windows with the other pussycats!



Feeding time!



Three cats in a row

This is a scheduled post. I am away from my computer for the weekend, giving my sore wrist and eyes a rest! I will catch up with your blogs when I get back.