To whom it may concern....

[Linda_Wells]

This is a new message board, so let's start a few threads here!
I'm from Nottingham England, married, with 4 Siamese cats and a black and white moggie. We have a narrowboat, called Bunthorne (after the character from the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera 'Patience') and we take the cats with us when we go on holiday.
After a very unhappy year when I lost 4 cats to various illnesses and old age, we were recently declared disease free by the vet and, in double quick time, have managed to acquire three new girls in the past 2 weeks. The eldest is Peaches, an Apricot Point 4 y.o. Next is Rosie, an OSH Havana (brown) who will be 3 y.o. in April. The youngest is Tia, another Apricot and Peaches' kitten. She is 21 weeks.
The 'old man' of the house (no, not my husband) is a Lilac point 10 y.o. male, named Mr Sapphire (or Saffie for short)
Linda

[Ann]

Oops Linda! I've been calling Saffie "she"! My humble apologies to him.

I hope the Board will acquire a lot of members and that they'll introduce themselves to us all too, although I doubt if anyone could top taking 5 cats with them on their canal trips! I'd love to see the faces of passers by.

Ann

[Linda_Wells]

LOL Ann, No, Saffie is definitely a little boy, but as he has a girls name, I don't blame you at all. He is actually named Mr. Sapphire, but who's going to shout that at him?

[Maria]

Hello there!
I am Maria, and I'm married and live in Kent. I have three wonderful cats, plus a stray that I am trying to integrate into the household.
My three cats are litter-mates, 2 boys and a girl. They are happy moggies, and they 'found me' at the local rescue shelter when they were around 8 months old. I had just lost a much loved 11 year old cat, and decided to offer my home to another cat. I ended up with three!! I call them my 'job lot', or my 'buy two, get one free' deal! LOL.
They are all grey and black tabbies. Bella and Liffey are almost identical. Pie has a lot of white fur, and a different pattern to his 'tabby bits'. Despite being siblings, they all have their own characters. They also have completely different body shapes: Bella is a rotund female, Liffey is a big Tomcat shape and Pie has remained 'kitteny'.
My stray is a big orange tabby fluffball, that I call Ginger-Nut.
I seem to be destined to have tabby cats. The other two cats that have shared my life were also tabbies, although I have never conciously 'chosen' tabbies.
I should also point out that I always get the best cats...but then I am rather biased!!
I look forward to hearing about other people's cats.

[jen]

Hello Everyone,

I'm Jen, married to Peter and proud mother of Sally an eleven year old black and white moggy and the loudest cat in Forest Hall, if not the world. She can't do anything without telling us about it in graphic detail. If we ignore her she swears at us fluently. 2 am is her favourite time for coming through the cat flap, jumping on the bed and telling us what's been happening in Forest Hall before dropping off to sleep leaving us wide awake wondering what that was all about.

Jen

[Catnip]

This seems like as good a time as any for the 5 Siamese Delinquents from Dorset to be introduced to everyone........

First of all, there's ASTRA who's a lilac point female, and the oldest of the gang, aged almost 12. Then ROSCO, a blue point male, aged 10. ELSA comes next, a seal point female, aged 8. Then FARO, a 5 year old red point, and lastly the baby of the family, JACOB, a chocolate point boy who is just 7 months old. They all get on really well together, and live in a nice house with a large back garden full of exciting places to explore. They share the house with my husband and I, and we have been well trained to their very exacting standards.  

Jacob helps to fill the huge gap left in the household and in our hearts after our very best chocolate point boy JETHRO was sadly put to sleep last June, aged ten, after suffering over two years of rhinitis which eventually left him with an inoperable tumour behind his eye. Jethro was a very special cat to us and will never be forgotten.

The Delinquents send their love to Spock and Dracs, and Ann, of course, and we all look forward to reading many more messages about everyone's cats and related topics!

[sass]

I'm Den and I live in London with my partner Rob and 6 cats.

Muffin is a wild an energetic Somali with a wicked sense of humour and bags of energy. She's nearly 3. She has an obbsession with water and we had to buy her a fountain just to keep her from living in the kitchen sink! Her favourite toys are cotton buds which she hunts for very noisily in the bathroom. Once caught she'll play with them for hours. Unfortunatley she loves to rip the wall paper! She was once seen jumping off a cupboard in the living room, getting her claws into the wall paper and then sailing down to the floor with the paper following her!

Cassie is a tiny 3 year old Bengal snow. Her huge blue eyes and incredibly silky fur make her very beautiful but looks are deceiving. Although she looks sweet and innocent she has a will of steel. This is the Maggie Thatcher of the cat world!  She's queen of the household and rules our world with a paw of iron. Her favourite activity is ripping up toilet rolls and kitchen rolls. Our flat regularly looks like a blizzard has hit it.  

Ming is another Bengal snow, 2.5 years old. He is unbelievably clumsy and an expert cat burglar. He'll steal anything, pens lighters, paintbrushes, anything that might be down the waste disposal, anything from a bag that's been left open but most of all he loves stealing cherries. He often wears plastic bags as a fashion statement.

Charlie is a 3 year old brown spotted Bengal with the classic enormous green eyes you often see on brown bengals. His fur is very short and fine and he looks as though he's wearing leopard print lycra. It really shows off his muscles and he is a large and powerful cat. Sadly, although he looks big and tough he's scared of girls and Cassie makes his life hell. If she's in a bad mood it's always Charlie who gets the brunt of it. Size means nothing in our house!

Chi is a 9 year old tabby. He's been know to perform a wall of death around the living room when in the mood. He spends a lot of time outside and thoroughly enjoys all outdoor activities. He strongly disaproves of Ming who always trys to sleep on top of him. Chi has more dignity than that! 8)

Solly is a fat 8 year old ginger cat. Everyone falls in love with him when they meet him but they don't have to live with him! He's lazy and permenantly hungry and looks like a barrel on legs. Dieting is impossible as he can meow continously for hour on end and if ignored will start doing the most amazing whooping howls that echo throughout the house (and the next door neighbours too). We both work from home so he has us right where he wants us! But he is very sweet and affectionate. He's the queen's favourite cuddle.

Sass was the most beautiful chocolate point siamese who ever lived! Sadly he died a few years ago but he still lives on in spirit. He edits our web site and writes to lots of friends via email and is with me now as I write. So we always include him as the seventh member of our feline household.

[Silk]

Well here goes:

I'm Mark and I'm a cataholic....

Sorry wrong forum

I'm Mark and also live in a falt on the 16th floor in East London with my wife Cathrin.

We have five cats, four fishtanks, six snakes, one bearded dragon, one toad and a partridge in a pear tree. The Balcony has been caged off and a cat flap inserted so the cats do have a real view of London whenever they choose.

I have been around cats all my life but the present bunch are as follows

Silk 1/2 Abbyssinian 1/2 B&W Towm who appeared on Xmas day to give his mum a present, result: one over intelligent striped tabby with ear tufts to die for, (well thats what other abbyssinians say anyway). Named after Silk Kheldar from the Eddings books and is every bit the rogue, he manages doors, light switches and even twist locks.

Freyja full Abby, and was a full queen too. She is our debutante, loads of good breeding, but not too bright up top. She knows she is the most beautifull cat in the world and will fight anyone who wants to try and disprove it. She knows just where to sit or what colour material to sit on to show herself at her best.

Shonie, Freyja's daughter, and the wierd one of the family. Actualy that isn't exactly fair, originally we did think that she was just strange and a lot of trouble to try and control. (ie claw clipping requires three people, one to hold her down, one to do the deed and one to phone the ambulance for 1 & 2) , she doesn't seem able to interact with the others at all and it causes amore than a few propblems. Then more recently we discussed her condition with a good vet who agrees that there is a more than fair chance she might be autistic, unfortunatly there is no way to prove that, but a lot of her behaviour patterns do have more than a passing similarity to children with the same problem.

Next is Felia one of a pair.... a right pair.
Two white twins and true twins at that, rather than just litter mates, thay have that unique bond only twins seem to, down to an unspoken language that only they seem to know, also at 2, they are as close now as they ever were.
Felia is stone deaf, china blue eyes and an ability to look criminaly cute all the time, we use some sign language for certain things, to which she undertands it as and when she feels like it, she also doesnt have a volume switch and if she can't find her brother she will stand in the bath and shout (she seems to know it has the most effect there) and boy is it loud!!!

Drizzt
Ah the dreaded Dizzitt!
The cat with the wettest tongue and nose in the known universe, and he knows how to use them.
Actualy when recently asked which of all my cats past and present I would like to be for the day, he is the one whos eyes I would like to see the world through. I have known many cats, from so intelligent it was frightening, so excellent a hunter it was scary to so dim it was downright hilarious.
But to Drizzt, who is far brighter than he lets on, (after all he was the one that discovered the sealed bag of kibble posted as a sample and spent the day solving how to get to them)
To him every day is new, exciting and full of possiblilities and adventure. Everything HAS to be explored fully and every toy played with untill it is defunct. You can see his wonderment at the world in his eyes, and the perfect innocence in which he views it. He doesnt even have a single harmfull bone in his body (unless you are a cricket, and even then he seems suprised when they stop moving due to lack of legs). He is tormentative beyond belief, and at times it can seem almost cruel, but to him the whole world is a game to be enjoyed and I think there are times (especialy when the world seems so complex and almost vindictive)  I envy that above anything else.

BTW I lied about the partridge

[Xinzerella]

<<He is tormentative beyond belief, and at times it can seem almost cruel, but to him the whole world is a game to be enjoyed and I think there are times (especialy when the world seems so complex and almost vindictive) I envy that above anything else.>>

I miss that in myself - when I grew up I thought the whole world was rooting for me, but I soon learned it's not that simple. People can dislike you for little or no reason, all the cliched suspicions about politicians and big business can ring depressingly true, and bad things happen just because they do. I was taking comfort in the cats' own simple reliance in me - it must be nice for them to know there's someone there who is looking after them. Not really sure what I'm trying to say here