Catbomb. That is the name I give to occurances like the one pictured here. Turn around from my computer and there are 3 cats on the bed (used to be with all 4 but Stinker is no longer allowed upstairs in the bedroom). Normally they are all spread out, but for some reason they all gathered in on me to pester me until I pet them. Left to right, Missy, Miney, Baby.. the 3 girls. This is not a rare occasion, normally all 3 are upstairs with me while I am at the computer. Missy is the one that might be missing at any time, due to her leaving to eat some of Stinker's food downstairs. Stinker eats, leaves a few nuggets for Missy. Missy comes in and eats them and licks the bowl clean. I keep food and water out for these 3 cats on the counter upstairs where Stinker cannot get to it. Even with Stinker being fed so little, and then Missy taking some of his food, he is still not losing any weight. I cannot bring myself to feed him less, so I guess as long as he is happy with his situation then we will cope with it too.
Missy likes to be around people, even if they are making a lot of noise (except vacuum cleaner). Here I was remodeling. I had removed a fireplace (cheap insert type) and the surrounding framework. She came to help me by holding down the carpet padding that I was using to pad my knees as I worked down low. She seemed comfortable so I took a break for the day.
This is Snidely (but I call him Stinker because he used to unexpectedly climb my leg when he was a tiny kitten). He is one of Baby's last litter in 2005. He weighs in at around 27 pounds. He is not a tiny cat. He is not graceful nor too overly aware of his surroundings. He is special. He is very friendly (especially to missionaries or strangers that come to visit). He is strong but not aware that he is strong. His sister Miney, at about 1/3 his weight picks on him every time she gets a chance then runs away before he can grab her. If Stinker is in your lap and decides to leave, you should not try to hold him back, he has very good traction with his claws dug into your leg.. though he does not intentionally hurt anyone. I'm not sure why, but he just LOVED this issue of Reader's Digest. If you are saying to yourself that we should put him on a diet, well, he gets 1/4 cup of dry catfood about 10 am, and another 1/4 cup at about 10 pm. He is probably not as active as he could be if we would play with him more often. 
This is Miney (or Minie? Not sure how my wife intends it to be spelled). She was 3rd in Baby's first litter of Eeney, Meaney, Miney, and Moe. She is a feisty cat, denser in build than her mother or aunt. She is not as friendly as the other cats but she is still a good cat, with short soft fur. If I ignore her for long enough while at the computer, she will head-butt me to get my attention. If that does not work, she will poke me with her claws like her mother does only a bit more forceful. I picked this picture of her because it makes her look mean, but she is really yawning not making any kind of threat. She has one objective in life, torture her younger brother whenever she gets the chance.
This is Missy, sister of Baby and she is an automatic paper-weight. Actually, all of our cats are automatic paper-weights. You look around and see no cats, lay a paper or book on the bed or floor, look away for a couple of seconds, look back and there is a cat holding your item securely in place. I think they take turns watching me to see when I lay something on the bed behind me as I sit at the computer. I think Missy has the softest fur of the group. She likes to be around someone all the time.. anyone.
This is Baby, Cat #1. She is the sister of Missy and the mother of Miney and Snidely (more about Snidely in another posting). She weighs in at a tiny 4 or 5 pounds. She is probably the most adventurous of our cats, likes to go outside (we don't let her out anymore) and as soon as she gets out.. she RUNS to the neighbor's small tree and scratches on it. I've been unable to break her of this even though for most other purposes I've been able to keep our cats in a small area of our yard most of the time. It would not be a factor any more since the neighbor has removed that tree and landscaped with a variety of nice plants. I'm afraid Baby might try to scratch on some of them and ruin them.
This is Mouse, my first cat that I got as a kitten. He could sleep in the palm of my hand when I first got him. Black, Blue eyes, funny, full of mischief, playful, loving, friendly. He got his name one day (I'd had him more than a month before I named him) when I dropped a piece of cheese and he hissed at me as I reached for it. I asked him if he was a cat or a mouse.. he grabbed the cheese and ran.. so he was Mouse.
Just so you know that living cats are not the focus of my life, I'm putting this picture in to show you my first "Tonka" toy.. only it was made by 'Cat'epillar. I think this one adopted me when I was very young and I can still remember the smell of the hydrolic fluid, oil, diesel fuel, and dirt on her as I played. We often picked dirt clods off for "dirtclod fights" with neighborhood kids. I often helped my dad as he repaired the many machines that were stored at our home. My long, skinny arms would be able to reach a dropped wrench, washer, nut, or bolt much easier than his. Then I started driving this D6 (or was it D9?) when I was about 9 yrs old along with a front-end loader (I could not drive the trucks because I was too small to see out of the windshield). My dad would fix them, perhaps welding on new teeth or a broken track. Sometimes he would move them out to a place for testing, and I would run them through some tests to make sure his repairs would hold up during use on the job. I think some of the tools my dad used to fix these machines weighed as much as I did at the time. During summers, I often went to work with my dad when he was fixing something out in the job site. They had a Bulldozer, Front-end loader, Crane, Dump Truck, Rock Crusher, Earth Mover, and a trailer for moving these machines. They probably had more, and probably some accessories that went with these machines, but I'm not sure. Sutton Escavating, I think, was the name of the company. Mr. Sutton retired and sold all of the equipment so my dad went to work in a factory as a maintenance man. 
This is Buttons, my first cat (well, he was my first step-mother's cat until he discovered that I would pay attention to him). Long soft fur and I think he was gray and white pretty much as you see him here. This picture of myself and Buttons was taken around 1962-1965, not really sure. Looks like I am wearing my brother Floyd's Air Force jacket (and if you could see my feet, probably his boots too) since I wore those most of the time back then. 
