Part 10  April 1, 2000 7 PM

     What would a family history be without some nice pictures of the fur people.  I have had pet dogs and cats for almost all of my life.  There are currently two cats that live with me.  One just walked in off the street and stayed.  The other came here with my brother Doug from Oregon.  The Fur People are presented in reverse order.

     This photo is interesting in that these two fur people don't do this very often.  Several months ago Ms Dos claimed this end of the couch as hers; Mr. Midi having claimed the other end many years ago.  (The photo below show my computer desk to the left of the couch.)  I couldn't beleive this was happening so I called Rachel to, "Come take a look at this!"  So; now they vie for this end of the couch, and the looser gets the middle.  :-)
 

     Ms Dos was from an animal shelter near Portland, Oregon.  She is about five years old, solid black, and weighs 17 pounds.  She likes to go outside, and is pretty good about staying within the fence.  Because all of the close neighbors have dogs she does not go over the side or rear fences.  She has been known to go over the front fence, but that has been only once in the past two years.
 
 

     I guess she thought it was a Westinghouse, and she was just westing.  Actually it's a Sanyo.  I was not going to be using this for a while, and I had left it open to dry out in preparation to putting it away.  Next thing I know she's in it, and she had to jump up four feet to do it.  She jumped out a few minutes after this photo was taken.  She also likes to get into the kitchen cabinets.  They have child proof  devices on them to keep her out.
 
 

     This is on of Mr. Midi's favorite places to sit.  If you're wondering why the bar clamp is on the Bearcat scanner it's simple.  It's to keep him from knocking onto the floor - again.  Mr. Midi is the cat that just walked in off the street.  He's about nine years old, and weighs about 7 pounds.  He stays in the house, and has been outside only four times in nine years!

     I thought there would be a problem between Mr. Midi and Ms Dos, but there hasn't been any serious problems with them getting along.  Ms Dos stayed in Doug's room for the first month she was here.  Then one day he brought her out to show her to a friend of mine.  That was the end of the isolation for her.  This is not to say they don't have little spats.  They do chase each other around the house now and then.
 

     Now and then Mr. Midi will get up on top of the cabinet over the refrigerator, and double dare you to try to make it through the doorway into the hall without getting shredded.  He has another thing about doors; he doesn't like for the bedroom doors to be closed.  When they are he may reach under and grab the bottom of the door with his claws and shake it!
 

     The photo above was taken not too long after Mr. Midi decided to let people touch him.  For the first few months he would not allow anyone get close to him let alone touch him.  One night I woke up and could feel that he was on my legs.  I reached down to push him off, but there was nothing there.  It took a moment for me to realize that he wasn't on the blanket; he was under it.  At first I thought he was dead, but then I discovered that he was just in a very deep sleep.  He still sleeps with me most nights.
 

     He turned his head just as I took this photo.  I have a larger monitor now, and he likes to sleep on top of it.  The other night he rolled off of it in his sleep - twice.  He's done that on the piano too.  :-)  He stopped sleeping in the bathroom and kitchen sinks during hot weather after I turned the water on a couple of times.

     I forgot to mention that Mr. Midi is not a Seal Point.  The Vet told me his breed, but I can't remember now what she said it was.  If you'll notice, he is not getting much darker with age as a Seal Point would .

     You can't see in this photo what Mr. Midi is doing, but he is kneeding the arm rest of the chair.  Kittens kneed their mother's belly to get the milk to flow.  THIS is one hungry cat; he'll do this any time I hold him this way!
 
 

     I'll never forget the day I brought Samantha home.  It was about a 20 mile trip, and she sat calmly in my lap the entire distance.  When I pulled up in front of the house she started screaming.... and streaming.  My mother came out just then, and when she was empty I handed Samantha to my mother and said, "Here.  Hold this."  I went in the house to take a shower and put on fresh clothes.

     Samantha was a Seal Point, and came from a couple who had two litters of kittens.  I didn't pick her out; she picked me.  Of all those cats and kittens, she was the only one that came to me.
 
 

     This cat could not stand bugs in the house, and she was a good bug hunter.  One night a moth was flying around the light over the kitchen sink; it was driving her crazy.  She fell into the sink with a bang trying to catch it.

     Samantha loved cheese, and knew the sound of the plastic being remove the Kraft individual slices.  You didn't have to call kitty; just take out a piece of cheese, and she'd be there.  She also loved to play "fetch" with a wad of paper or aluminum foil.  Her favorite toys were clusters of needles from an artificial Christmas tree that we called "fuzzies".  I still have some ot them.
 
 

     There is a story behind that screen door.  Samantha watched me install it.  Before I did that she had a habit of waiting for some one to open the front door; then she would dash out to roll in the dirt.  Well....  The first time I opened the front door (about 15 minutes later), BANG!  She hit that screen at 90 miles per hour.  That was the last time she did that.

     Samantha came to live with me right after Toyota (see below), died, and we enjoyed her for more than a dozen years.  She didn't like my mother, and would hide under the piano bench to wait for her to walk by.  If I had not seen it myself I would not have believed it.  Sort of like a Garfield thing.
 
 

     These two cats were a birthday gift from a friend who knew I liked cats.  Toyota was a Blue Point, and Datsun was a Seal Point.  When I moved from the place where this photo was taken to where I now live, Datsun took off and was never seen again.  Up until that time Toyota was not too friendly; he did a 180 and became very affectionate.  Unfortunately he didn't live very long - kidney stones.  That's when I learned that you do not give Simonize cats San Diego tap water.

     One afternoon I walked into the living room, and Toyota walked toward me.  I reached down to pet him; instead I zapped him on the nose with static electricity - new Nylon carpet.  It surprised both of us.
 
 

     Princess was a Collie/Shepard mix that lived with me for a while when I had Datsun and Toyota.  Late one night she started raising hell, and it was obvious that she wanted out of the house.  NOW!  So I got out of bed and opened the front door for her; she took off like a rocket after a cat.  She came back in a couple of minutes, and by this time I had discovered that Toyota was not in the house.  When I found him he was cowering near the front steps.  It seems that he had gone out the louvered window in the kitchen, and was attacked by another cat.  Princess to the rescue!  I don't know how she knew that he was in trouble, but she did.
 
 

     This is my mother's cat "Cat" and the Christmas garbage can.  My brother Doug, his wife Donna, and I filled this galvanized garbage can full of goodies as a Christmas present for my mother.
 
 

     Doug got Pip-squeak from a neighbor lady (Dorothy Shives), a couple of years before this photo was taken.  Cotton Seed is her son and one of only two kittens she ever had.  He was born in a Wesson Oil box, and at the time Wesson Oil was made from cotton seed oil; hence the name.  If he was born today his name would probably be Soy Bean.  :-)

     We moved to J Street shortly after this photo was taken.  Some boys used to take a shortcut through our yard there until the day Pip-squeak nailed their dog.  She took off and the dog chased her.  She ran about 30 feet and all of a sudden she was on the ground on her back.  The dog didn't know what hit him as he ran over her and she tore into his stomach.  I never saw those boys again.