Tone Parsons

Last night, I was sitting in my garage, petting my cat Magellan, and it stuck me…. we’ve had a lot of cats in the past 20 years that my wife and I have been together.

I’m totally a cat person. I like dogs too (I have two of them, Shasta and Chloe), but there’s something about a cats attitude that strikes a chord with me. They aren’t domesticated, they live with people because they choose to, and they’re chock full of attitude.

I started thinking of all the cats we’ve had…

• Vermin – The first cat I could call my own. She was pure attitude, and hated everyone but me. She would disappear for days on end. One day she came home with a new collar and tag (showing she had been immunized). Then she quit coming home. I saw her one day in the window of a house down the street, so I know she found a new home.
• Fritzie (the first) – My wife’s cat when I met her. She brought him over from her old place (where her ex lived), but Fritzie wasn’t happy, so she took him back.
• Jazz – a stray my sister brought over one day. We had him for 9 years until he went out and never came home again.
• Mode – Jazz’s brother (he didn’t stay long)
• Bear Tank – one of Vermin’s kittens (the only one we named). He went to a good home.
• Quinto – A vicious little bastard who would attack me as I slept by biting my nose (I worked graveyard and he didn’t feel that his human should sleep during the day). A co-worker of mine adopted him when we moved to a new apartment.
• Pookie Bear – A loving kitten who became feral later in life after my eldest son was born and had to be put up for adoption at the shelter (I hope he made it).
• Fritzie (the second) – a great cat. He finally died of old age two years ago.
• Magellan – We also call him “Jelly” because he’s the fattest thing you’ve ever seen. He’s a great cat with one exception: He’s obsessive-compulsive about spraying everything in sight (he is now our garage kitty).
• Icon – We think she suffered brain damage when we had her spayed. She went from being a great cat to being incredibly stupid overnight. She met a bad end with an automatic garage door.
• Cisco – an all white kitten adopted from the shelter. He had the feline version of kennel cough. We paid a small fortune trying to keep him alive, but he died just 2 weeks after we got him (on my wife’s birthday).
• Bondi – a brother of Cisco. We adopted him after Cisco died, and if not for the immediate medical care we got for him, he would have met the same end as his brother.
• Switch – from the same litter as Cisco and Bondi. He received the same medical treatments and barely survived.
• Darwin – quite possibly the coolest cat that ever was. Darwin got his name from the fact that he’s a polydactyl (he had extra toes on his front feet that looked and acted like thumbs). I loved that little bastard like I’ve loved no other. Sadly, some bastard ran him over. He now resides next to Fritzie (the second) in our back garden.
• Roxie – Darwin’s sister, and quite possibly the most expensive “free kitten”I’ve ever owned. Every year, she does something to herself that requires emergency surgery. She is quite the lover though.
• Seven – another polydactyl (seven toes on each foot). This one is pure attitude. She is the queen of the house, very vocal (she has to get in the last word if you talk to her) and is famous for walking in front of you, plopping down, and demanding affection when she desires it.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few of them (my will will point them out later today once she reads this).

Oh… and the most original name I’ve ever seen for a cat one my sister has. Her name is Noname (pronounced: “No-nham-ee” but spelled like “no name”) 🙂