Why don't cats like gifts? Because they think they already own everything.

"Don't let anyone tell you loving a cat is silly. Love, in any form, is a precious commodity." - Barbara L. Diamond


Mitzi, Suzi, Alec & Smokey
(Index is at bottom of page)


I've lived with cats all my life (and one dog) - this and the following pages are a tribute / memorial to all of those fuzzballs, past and present...


Mitzi:   1960 - 1978
One of three cats I grew up with, she was pretty mean and cantankerous after growing up with 3 kids in the house... she mellowed out a bit in her final years. This photo is from Christmas of 1977.



Suzi:   March 1976 - January 31st, 1998
(aka "Suzanna-bean") She looks big in these photos, but she wasn't... that was all hair (okay, mostly hair). Her last few years she was completely deaf, had cataracts in both eyes, kidney problems, and her weight went down to 4 pounds - but she was still feisty as hell, and chased the neighborhood cats out of the yard with their tails between their legs. Friendly enough in her later years, she loved to sleep on top of whomever she could.



Do not meddle in the affairs of cats, for they are subtle and will piss on your computer. - Bruce Graham



Smokey (left) & Alec:  born February 1998... both have feline leukemia, which is (thankfully) a fairly rare disease. Alec was the quiet one, Smokey is the hyper one - when he gets going, he rips all over the house, upstairs and down, almost knocking over chairs when he jumps on them. Both are very friendly, very loving kittens... they love to curl up on your lap and fall asleep.


the Rips: when a cat suddenly decides that it needs to be at the other end of the house 5 minutes ago.


Alec:  died July 29th, 1998 - he had a lymphoma (cancerous tumor) which grew extremely fast (only about a week) which was constricting his heart and compressing his lungs... rather than have him suffer, we had him put to sleep. He was barely 5 months old...



Smokey:  died October 28th, 2000 - he developed asthma in late September, along with a bronchial infection. Medicines worked for a while, but during the last week he stopped eating and was listless... when we brought him in, he had developed a heart murmer to go along with everything else. (photo January 2000)



the Terror Twins:  when they weren't wrestling or playing together, they were sleeping or eating together... or getting into trouble together, like the time they decided to trash a vase of dried flowers... 5 times in one day. (Absolutely lovely - come upstairs to find this big, tall glass vase over on its side (again), dried flowers scattered all over (again)... and two kittens sitting in the middle of the mess (again). <sigh>)



No explanation needed...



Alec wasn't quite sure what the fish were, but he was fascinated by the movement. He never did try to get into the tank, but we're not sure how he got up on the table in the first place!



During his first couple of weeks with us (we got Alec in mid-April, Smokey in mid-May), Alec discovered that he could climb up inside the sleeper sofa downstairs... you had to be careful when you sat down, because you might find a tiny paw reaching up to grab your shirt.



Alec was fascinated by the camera - he used to stick his nose into the lens, which made it difficult to get a picture. That brownish thing is a homemade tag. (10 weeks old here)



Typical kitten... anything is a toy. (Yeah, that's me in the background)


Battle positions...


What is it about a TV that fascinates a cat?



The last picture of the Terror Twins together... Alec died about 2 weeks after this.



Index: Mitzi, Suzi, Alec & Smokey Alec & Smokey Alec, Smokey & Felix Callie, Mickey & Misti

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