Introducing the Family...

I've been blogging for almost 3 months now and I just realized that I haven't introduced my family.

This is Cory. He has been the love of my life since 1993. We met in Wolfville, Nova Scotia when he started a job at one of my favorite hang-outs, Louis Pizza.

He had funky hair and the most wickedly blue eyes lined with double thick, amazingly long eyelashes. His hair isn't anywhere near as funky but his eyes are still amazing.

We got to know each other over a Ren and Stimpy marathon and haven't looked back. Ren and Stimpy are no longer on our "must watch" list but we do have to give them some credit for bringing us together.

He is my best friend and my favorite person in the whole world. He makes me feel safe and protected. He supports me in everything I do. I only hope that I can make him feel half as special as he makes me feel.

This is Ralphy. Ralphy came to live with us when he was just a little over a year old. Ralphy's pet human moved in with a dog who also had a pet human.

Many battles for dominance ensued and in a final attempt to tame the second human, Ralphy made a error with his tactics by leaving a steaming "present" on the pillow of the second human.

Now Ralphy lives with us. He agrees, in hindsight, that perhaps the human was not prepared for the present and has chosen not to use that tactic again.

This is Bobby. He was our chosen one. We decided that Ralphy needed a friend. We failed to ask Ralphy his opinion and found a friend with a litter of kittens. Ralphy was a little offended that we would allow a tiny little fur-ball into his house but within a few days they were eating out of the same bowl.

Within a week, Bobby had convinced Ralphy that he would make a great mother and began nursing on Ralphy. (as an FYI, Ralphy is not a misnamed girl kitty, just a sucker (I slay me) for a cute face).

Bobby is a mama's boy and spends his day attempting to get me to go to bed so he can snuggle OR play with a pipe-cleaner.

We lived happily with 2 kitties for 4 years. Then we moved.

This is Woogie and below is Diddy. Originally they were called Douglas and Charlie but with the passage of time things evolve.

We moved to a new flat in 1999. When we moved in we heard two kitties meowing in the apartment building across the lane. Having lived with vocal cats, we didn't think anything of it.

About a week later, a gruff looking fellow approached me in the driveway. He said that he noticed the sign on the side of my car (I was running my pet sitting business at the time) and was wondering if I could help. He told me that the kitties in the bottom of the apartment building were locked in and abandoned. He said that he had "gained access" to the apartment and fed them. He said that the fleas were jumping 5 feet into the air. He said that he could not continue to "gain access" to the apartment and was wondering if I could call the SPCA as he did not have a phone.

I agreed and proceeded to sit on hold with the animal shelter for 2 full business days without speaking to a human once.

After two days, the gruff looking fellow told me that he had let them out to fend for themselves as he was afraid of breaching something... no question asked.

I put out a bowl of food to keep them away from the traffic.

This was working out for a few days. We received a few presents of dead things... ew and caught sight of Woogie on a few occasions. Then the weather network said a hurricane was coming in... After a few failed attempts to build a suitable shelter for them, they came in...

Woogie was visibly tramatized and Diddy was aggressive. Woogie was immediately plopped into a flea bath. He sat in the tub like a trooper, with complete trust in his eyes and let us, total strangers, pour water over him. The flea dirt that came off this cat was mind boggling. Diddy was too busy attempting to beat up both Ralphy and Bobby to even consider bathing. He got relocated to our basement to wait out the storm and await a trip to the vet for a well needed neutering.

Woogie slept between us in bed that very first night, something has hasn't really done since. Diddy got a vet trip the next morning. The vet fast tracked his neutering after his shots for us. Sometime between the shots and the neutering, he managed to have a de-gloving injury to his lower lip exposing the bone. The vet fixed this during his neutering while under the same anesthetic (extra cost $29 for 6 minutes of additional gas). Diddy got to come live upstairs.

In his first week with us, he had his bottom altered, his lip reattached, was given strawberry flavored antibotics every 12 hours and pain meds every 6 hours and I can still rememer the day he fell in love with us.

So now we had 4 cats for 6 years... then we moved.

This is Tweak. While on vacation in the spring of 2006, we were heading somewhere in the early hours of the morning and when we walk out of the building, this little girl ran out of the darkness and jumped into my arms. It was like she said "I live with you now!"

She was surrounded by mean kitties who had evil intent for the little girl. She came in and photographs and flyers were put up for her. Noone called to say that she was their missing kitty. Within a week, Cory was completely smitten and couldn't give her up.

In hindsight, she has proven that she most definitely could have held her own against the mean kitties and the way that she physically forces attention on our guests is shameless. I doubt very much that she would have been outside for long if we hadn't found her first.

So then there was 5....

Less than a year ago, I was asleep snug as a bug in my bed and I woke up to Cory saying... "I need you know this is here." And here he was holding an itsy, bitsy little kitty. I shook off the sandman pretty quickly at that point. This little fluff ball who is now known as Munchkin Man came to live with us.

Cory had found him crying under our deck in -20 celcius weather at 2 in the morning. Within a few hours, it was decided that he required immediate vet attention due to stress and poor diet.

For a month while his system adapted to a holistic diet, he leaked some of the most vile gas but now he is a healthy kitty who according to his vet records turns one on New Years Day.

So now we have 6... we have since found homes for 2 more strays... Lily who lives a charmed life with Carla and Izzy who lives with Sean. Izzy had a belly full of babies when Sean adopted her and he has found good homes for her 4 babies.

Many people who visit our home are surprised that the house isn't overrun by the cats. They spend a large amount of time sleeping, as cats are known to do. They are clean, well cared for and well behaved. They eat a holistic diet, their litter box is cleaned frequently and the house gets vacuumed daily. They are all spayed/neutered.

So that is my family... I wouldn't trade any of them for anything... but I think I need a bigger bed.