kitties!

Happy
Buddy
Nugget


Happy on a shelf
Happy on the floor

This is Happy. His full name is really "Happy New Year" since I adopted him on 12/31/97. He's a Ragdoll and Himalayan mix according to the people I got him from.

Happy is a great cat that everybody likes. This is in stark contrast to when he was a kitten and he terrorized my sister and her kids for an entire weekend. Now he just LOVES everybody except pregnant women and babies. Actually I don't think he really minds babies, it just that when the house is full of babies he gets nervous.

He's not the most affectionate cat, but he'll always come when called, and he loves to be petted and brushed. He gets brushed at least once a day.

Happy has recently fallen in love with a "Bear Foot" slipper of mine. He'll mount that thing and knead away on it for hours. I can hear him purring throughout the house.

Happy is absolutely terrified of vacuum cleaners. Just bringing it out of the closet is enough to make him disappear for hours. He really makes me feel bad, the way his eyes get as big as quarters when he's scared. I swear I've never tortured him wth a vacuum cleaner (or anything else) but to see the pure terror on his face you'd think I'd done unspeakable things to him with it.


Buddy in a bowl
Buddy on the printer

Buddy is my second cat. When I got him as a kitten his head was disproportionally large for his body (Imagine a mouse carrying an apple around in its jaws) so I considered calling him "Pez Head" for a while. Happy didn't know what to make of him at first so I also considered "That Black Thing" for a name. Eventually "Buddy" was selected. Now he's just "my widdle buddy."

Buddy has a secret. He's not as stuck up as he likes people to think. In fact, he's my most affectionate cat. As soon as I turn in for the night he's there right away "making bread" on my stomach and purring like there's no tomorrow. It's when other people are around that Buddy goes into his "I don't need people" mode.

I know it just kills Buddy that I've put this cute picture of him on the Internet where everyone can see it. It just doesn't fit in with the public persona he's trying to display. But even worse than the cute kitten pictures I have are these, which show what can happen if you don't let anyone brush you.


Nugget as a kitten
Nugget

Nugget is my kitten. The first picture was taken about 12 hours after my sister brought him to me in a paper bag. As you can see by the slightly flattened ears he was still a little scared. The second picture is obviously more recent.

Nugget had some bowel problems at first and he left little "presents" all over my house for the first couple of weeks. That's how he got his name.

He's still pretty shy around anyone but me, and people have spent hours at my house without ever seeing him. He's very curious about everything and that's gotten him into trouble at times. When he knows he's done something wrong he's the best hider I've ever seen (or not seen I guess). Ditto when I try to put him into the cat carrier for a trip to the vet.

Click here to see the shirt that Nugget is terrified of.


Buddy being cute

Happy excited

Happy and Buddy

Happy under the tree

happy and Nugget

Happy and Buddy in Memphis