Cat #2 - Missy

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.

Cat #1 - Baby

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.

Mouse

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.

Other Cats I have loved

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.