New Cat

Once again, I am covered in Cat Hair. Note to self: People who own a lot of black clothing shouldn't acquire cats with lots of white hair! evildoom_bunny and I wear loads of Black because we're goths, I mean nerds, I mean cool, I mean, from Melbourne. In fact the drying rack to my left is so covered in Black clothes it looks like it's off to a funeral.

So when we finally got around to getting schnitzelrug a new friend, this is what we acquired:
Welcome Vanilla Milkshake. Hey, if we can call our other cat Schnitzel Rug, we can call our new cat Milkshake :-P Picture is a bit low rez, it's from evildoom_bunny's phone via Facebook....

She is a five and a half month old generic domestic short hair from the wonderful people at Save A Dog who, of course, also save Cats. So now I am covered in white cat hair.

There were lots of lovely cats there when we visited. A huge black and grey cat called Oscar who was ten years old and had a tendency to wander. And a lovely ginger twelve year old who tried very hard to make friends with us. *subliminal message* go and adopt them now *subliminal message*

schnitzelrug was born into a house full of cats and kittens, but has somewhat forgotten how to play with 'em. So Milkshake chases her from room to room and schnitzelrug has no idea what to do! She's slowly getting the hang of it, and maybe all this running will burn off some of her gut. Milkshake is a friendly playful little thing, I suspect she'll wear down Schnitzel by shear cuteness.

Weirdly, years ago I owned a white cat, well, my family did, before I even went to school. We called her - wait for it, it's brilliant - Whiteness. Hey, we were kids. Anyway, I keep almost called Milkshake Whiteness, it's like it's deeply embedded in my brain.

(Note to self: whatever became of whiteness? I remember she went to live with my dad after my parents got divorced, but don't remember much of her beyond that. In fact, I'm not even sure she was a she!)

Anyway, it's true what they say - the second fur baby is easier than the first :-)
We fretted all the time when we first got Schnitzel, now it's just a matter of pouring more food and delivering more patting...

Speaking of Cats

When we got schnitzelrug, aka fir baby number one, I got chatting to my Mother about Cats. And indeed other pets.

We seemed to have had a lot of them over the years. Here's a partial list, almost in chronological order:

1. [insert name here] - A possibly tortoiseshell-ish cat my parents had when I was born, who had a some kittens, including Daggle (it's also possible I'm confusing two cats for three here)
2. Patch - a motley cat with a black patch over one eye
3. Daggle - no idea how she came by that name, my sister and I were very young and probably made it up
4. Whiteness - A white cat (who would have thought) which my sister and I also named
5. [insert name] - a small light colored kitten who got very ill a few weeks after we got her and died, possibly from diphtheria. Sad!
6. Panda - Panda was the first cat who was mine. Predictably, she was black and white. And utterly neurotic
7. Crystal Tips - one of Panda's kittens
8. [Panda's kitten two]
9. [Panda's kitten three]
10. [Panda's kitten four] - Panda's kittens all went to various homes, including at least one who went to live with my Aunt and Uncle
11. String (or Shanti or at least one other name) - a cute grey striped cat my mother found in a box labeled "Free to good home" at her work. Moved to Tasmania with my mom and was adopted by a family there
12. White and Grey stray - We found this kitten wandering around my family's beach house in Ocean Grove. We think it'd been abandoned by the tenants. She didn't get along with Panda and String, and ended up jumping over the back fence and getting herself adopted by the nice family there. As an adult we'd sometimes find her prowling around the front yard

Crikey, that's a lot of cats. Especially since I didn't own a cat between 1992 and 2006... And for the most part we never had more than two cats at a time... Now there are two kittens (one of whom is killing a peg) in my flat. No, I am not going to turn into one of those Cat People with the sixteen cats!!!!

Next, I will attempt to list dogs, chickens and lambs(!) my family also owned over the years. If I have to get started on fish, I'll cry.