The Requisite Cat Post

Today we derail from topics of books and characters and words, and instead focus on fur and fluff. I give to you: my family's cast of cats. They are often reading friends, but writing distractions. 

This post was requested by one of you readers. I did not come up with this idea on my own. However, I love my fluffies and will take this chance to show you all how adorable they all are. Got it? Good. Now go adore those cute little photos.

This is Cutie, also known as Fluffy, Fluffum-Squish, Fluffles, Fluffer-Nutter, Squishy, Squooshy, Moosh-Ball, Space Cadet, Mushum-Face, Allergies, and a host of other nicknames. At this point, even we're not really sure what her name is. She's about nine years old and we've had her since kittenhood, when she used to quite literally bounce off walls. Now she just spends her time sleeping and messing up our typing by walking on keyboards, stretching her paw onto my laptop trackpad, and falling asleep on our arms (as she has done to me as I write this very post). She will sit and/or fall asleep anywhere not normal: in boxes, in baskets, on top of backpacks, on shelves, or even just on a piece of fabric that has been left on the floor. In the last couple days she has made a habit of escaping from the three boy cats by jumping from our counter to the top of our fridge and then to the top of the kitchen cabinets. We aren't certain whether this was a stroke of rare genius on her part or another example of her daftness.

This picture doesn't really do this cat justice. Meet Joshua, who is officially "my" cat, since I chose him and named him when he was a kitten (my sister chose Cutie, in case you were wondering - they are the same age and we adopted them at the same time). When we first got him he was the biggest scaredy-cat out there - hiding inside our office desk, only walking around the edges of rooms, etc. Now he's the most arrogant and in-your-face of all our pets. He just gets this look in his eyes that clearly says, "I couldn't care less about you and if you disturb me, I will not be happy." If you pick him up, he is likely to hiss, or at least growl if you're lucky. He doesn't bite though - unless you're a mouse or a bird. Then you might be in danger. Joshua has killed dozens of small critters and kindly leaves them on our porch for us to clean up. He even killed a small snake once and captured another. He rules the kitty roost.

This is Derby (pronounced Darby, like Derbyshire in England). We adopted him when he was a kitten about four or five years ago, along with his brother Bromley (below). He is my cuddle buddy but is terrified of absolutely everyone else. He eats like the world is going to end if he doesn't finish his meal within 1.6 seconds, and likes to meow at us while we all eat dinner. He will carry out a conversation with you if you bother to meow back. For some reason, he enjoys the flavor of grass. He mostly just tries to stay out of Joshua's way.

Lastly, we come to Bromley. He is Derby's brother, and the biggest cat in the house (although, that could be due to the volume of fur on him). We think that one day he'll coup Joshua for the position of superiority. However, he hasn't killed any critters yet, and he's gotten this paranoid streak in him since he received a few smacks for not knowing where the litterbox was. He'll have to grow a bit more of a backbone if he wants to overthrow Joshua. Bromley is my sister and mother's favorite, having attained the nickname Brom-brom (pronounced more like Breeium-breeium if you want to get technical). He likes to hide in our linen closet and will automatically collapse on his side if he walks through a patch of sun. 

And now, a few more pictures, just because I probably won't do this again and my kitties are adorable and characters unto themselves:

Oh yeah . . . she fell asleep partially on my shoulder once.

So there they are, my messed up little group of kitty friends. I think one day I'll write a story featuring human versions of all my cats, just for the heck of it. I think their personalities are character-worthy.

Do you have pets? What kind? Do they hang out while you write/read? Tell me about the animals - especially the furry ones.