Old Fart Cats

I was on my bed, sprawled flat, reading, surrounded by my family--my cats.  Tugs, a compact loving little torti, always full of mischief, was beside me.   Looking into her eyes, seeing her face a little shrunken from when I first took her away from a horrifying situation in Lebanon I called the Shovel killer Christian Neighbor colony, I realized my cats are all getting old.

Tugs in 2014

Tugs and her sister, Mums, are both over 9 years old now.

Comet, one of over 2 dozen kittens I found in one Heatherdale trailer park carport, is now 12, and no longer a hefty dominant boy.   He is as loving as ever, and still loves Miss Daisy, now 17, who smacks him down every time he tries to nose her, wanting groomed.  Still he tries to befriend her, after all these years of enduring smacks, to his overtures, across the nose.

Comet is obsessed with Miss Daisy and in 2013, he did get to sleep next to her once!

Gretal is 11 now.

I spent three days along highway 34 in November of 2006 after Gretal, whom I'd seen, walking the shoulder of Highway 34 near I5, with her brother.  They were leaning against one another for support, in a howling freezing rain and windstorm of that year, headed west.  

Later, when she experienced mouth issues, a Corvallis vet was not happy with me, when I told him to just do his job.  Because she had bad teeth and was feral, he thought she should be killed.  I said "no".   He broke off most of her teeth instead of pulling them.  She had to go to a different vet two weeks later who told me the teeth "pulled" had mostly been broken off.   Gretal then had all her teeth and the broken off roots removed.   That was years ago.  She's had a great life since then and has many friends here.  When she wants wet food, she comes and howls near me.  She's quite funny that way.  Gretal is an old lady now like me.

Brambles is over 11 years of age.

Brambles is somewhere north of 11 years of age.  He's the big surprise here.  All his life he has suffered from chronic herpes.  He has outbreaks of it sometimes, which can wear a cat down over a lifetime.  So yes, that he is still alive, is surprising.  He has so many friends here and adores kittens.  He always wants to be near any foster kittens I have.  He wants to mother them, cuddle and play with them.  But I can't let him, because of his herpes, until they are fully vaccinated.

Brambles has outlived the man who cared for him at Hate Thy Neighbor colony, so named...well, because the neighbors all hated each other on the block.  Gordon took care of the strays and there were lots on that street of nightmares, where many yards looked more like full out junkyards.  Gordon died suddenly, and a neighbor bought his property, then fenced out any remaining cats.  Brambles came here because the vet said he was going to lose one of his eyes, due to herpes, if I didn't keep him and treat him.  So I did and he's still going strong.

Those are just a few of the elderly kitties here.