Terry
Junior Member
Central Illinois, USA
Posts: 1,466 
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Post by Terry on Mar 9, 2014 4:43:56 GMT
My husband and I jokingly call ourselves The Kitty Sanctuary. Between the cats we've adopted, the cats that were born here (before we got them all fixed), the cats that have been dumped here, and the feral cats that have shown up and adopted us, we've wound up with quite a few! We currently have 15 barn cats and 2 house cats. We love it, though, and we definitely don't have a problem with mice!  Here is our kitty family...
Muerte. She is 8 years old and one of the first cats we got after we built our barn. 
Muerte's daughter, Emma 
Muerte's son, Snuggles 
Cleo 
Cleo's daughter, Saddlebags 
Cleo's daughter, Tail Light 
Cleo's sons, Garfield and Fluffy 
Casper and Catnip (brother and sister) 
Booger 
Smudge 
Smudge's little brother, Splint. He's a Manx, and he's one of our two inside cats 
Crush 
MJ. He was a feral tom cat that showed up here 2 years ago and decided to adopt us. He now follows me everywhere I go! 
Jinx. He was a feral tom cat that showed up here 1 year ago and decided to adopt us. 
Cali. She was found wandering alone and scared in a grocery store parking lot. She is our other inside cat 
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Post by shadowlark on Mar 9, 2014 5:35:13 GMT
At least you have a house and barn! We had 8 cats in a 2 bedroom apartment. Plus the degus, hamsters and and chinchilla :D Pets are awesome! We're down to six cats and one chinchilla in a 3 bedroom townhouse now...still crowded but I wouldn't trade them for the world!
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Lipizzan
Junior Member
Europe, Croatia
Posts: 2,572
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Post by Lipizzan on Mar 9, 2014 11:12:43 GMT
Jinx and Crush are my favourite, they are beautiful all.
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Post by horselady on Mar 9, 2014 12:24:46 GMT
The are a wonderful family of kitties and the white ones are my favorite.
I had one show up at my farm with a broken leg and i had him doctored up with a pin and he has not left the farm. an orange tom that i named Thomas after my grandfather.
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Post by horselover4life on Mar 10, 2014 2:01:46 GMT
Quite a family...obviously they knew where they would have a safe home and warm meal and fed belly... Glad they stumbled into your life...  |
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Post by diamondgirl on Mar 17, 2014 1:02:26 GMT
You have lots of beautiful kitties Terry. They are so lucky to have you.
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redzip
Junior Member
Posts: 1,701
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Post by redzip on Mar 17, 2014 10:14:17 GMT
Awwww, beautiful kitties!
IDW, but Snuggles instantly stole my heart heart balloons
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Terry
Junior Member
Central Illinois, USA
Posts: 1,466
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Post by Terry on Mar 17, 2014 14:28:21 GMT
Thanks everyone. They are a sweet bunch for sure.
They all have their own stories, of course, but redzip, since you said Snuggles instantly stole your heart, I'll share his story right now.
He was born to Muerte here in our barn in April of 2008. He was one of 4 kittens in that litter. Muerte is a very good mother and always produced very nice kittens. When this litter of kittens was old enough she took all 4 of them out for the day to teach them to hunt. When she returned she only had 3 kittens with her... Snuggles was missing. We were getting ready to have a big rain storm, so hubby and I went out looking for him, but he was nowhere to be found. The storm came in hard and we had to give up the search. It rained so hard that our creek turned into a raging river! The next day there was still no sign of Snuggles. We had hoped that Muerte would have gone back out for him, but apparently she felt it was more important to stay with the other 3 kittens. We continued our search, but it was looking less likely that we were going to find him. My hubby decided to expand his search to the neighbors' properties and as he was searching along the creek where it separates their properties he finally found Snuggles burrowed into the tall weeds and grasses! He brought him home and immediately brought him into the house and placed him in my arms and I just burst into tears! I was so happy to see Snuggles again, because I had begun to fear that he might never be found. It's a miracle he wasn't washed away by the creek during that storm. Many of our cats like to roam, but to this day Snuggles doesn't leave our property!
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redzip
Junior Member
Posts: 1,701
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Post by redzip on Mar 17, 2014 17:34:50 GMT
Thank goodness he was okay. Its something about his beautiful eyes  |
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Post by 1fatmule on Mar 17, 2014 19:56:01 GMT
of all the cats i have had in my 51, and 31/16 years i have never had an orange kitty so aside from the manx, ANY orange kitty has my heart.
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Terry
Junior Member
Central Illinois, USA
Posts: 1,466
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Post by Terry on Mar 17, 2014 23:26:31 GMT
Well then you must really love our bunch, since so many of our cats are orange!
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hugs
Junior Member
Posts: 2,647
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Post by hugs on Apr 11, 2014 14:00:15 GMT
of all the cats i have had in my 51, and 31/16 years i have never had an orange kitty so aside from the manx, ANY orange kitty has my heart. 31/16? Now you're just messing with us, aren't you I like cats in concept but my allergies make it really miserable when we bring our two cats (yup, they adopted us too) into the house in winter. Wouldn't have it any other way though, we don't have a warm enough barn to feel comfortable leaving them out. Maybe I could kinda sneak something like that in to the horse shed we'll be building in a couple years, hmmmm... Cats are like flowers aren't they, all of the colors and length of fur. They're just so very pretty, every single cat you have is adorable. Thanks for being the cat sanctuary. Plus you're doubly lucky because your hubby is a cat person too, it just don't get no better than when a person's life partner shares a love for animals like you do. |
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Terry
Junior Member
Central Illinois, USA
Posts: 1,466
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Post by Terry on Apr 11, 2014 14:17:03 GMT
 , I know what you mean about cat allergies making things difficult. You wouldn't know it by the number of cats we have, but I am horribly allergic to cats.  Fortunately I've found that Claritin (or more specifically, Walmart's version of Claritin) works really well for me. I take it every day, and it's a non-drowsy allergy medicine, so I don't feel like I'm in a fog all the time.
I am very lucky that my hubby is an animal lover too, because I'm sure there are plenty of men out there who might have a real problem with my "petting zoo" here  but my hubby enjoys them all as much as I do, and he's as big of a softy as I am, sometimes even worse than me! We have a hard time turning down a kitty in need. For example, he went to visit his mother one day, and when he came home he had Casper & Catnip with him! He said he was driving home, saw a sign that said free kittens, and just couldn't help himself! He stopped, he saw, he brought them home!  My vet was surprised to see them the next time she came out to take care of the horses, because all of our other pure white cats had come from her! |
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Post by 1fatmule on Apr 11, 2014 21:14:20 GMT
hey, i never had an ALL white kitty either ...
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Terry
Junior Member
Central Illinois, USA
Posts: 1,466
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Post by Terry on Apr 11, 2014 23:53:36 GMT
hey, i never had an ALL white kitty either ... I never had an all white kitty before, but now I've had 5 (4 of them are still with us). |
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Post by horselady on Apr 12, 2014 0:55:24 GMT
I have had 3 orange cats. 2 males and one female. and never white.
i am going to adopt another cat to keep my barn cat company and perhaps i will get one that no one wants. just to make sure i save a life .
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Post by 1fatmule on Apr 12, 2014 19:28:56 GMT
then truthfully, from what i understand black kitties have about 2% chance of being adopted from a rescue, or hsus, or your local "shelter", and i DID have a black kitty, for 19 yrs.
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Terry
Junior Member
Central Illinois, USA
Posts: 1,466
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Post by Terry on Apr 12, 2014 21:02:21 GMT
That's always been my understanding as well. All black cats are the least likely to get adopted.
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Post by horselady on Apr 13, 2014 0:40:10 GMT
Thanks for reminding me about the black cats. it is the same for dogs also.
sooo when i go to the cat shelter i will ask for black.
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Post by diamondgirl on Apr 16, 2014 5:12:55 GMT
I don't understand why black kitty or black dog would have more problems being adopted, but I have heard the same thing. I don't know what difference color makes. Heidi has one mostly black kitten and I just love her. Or rather I think I love her. Maybe I just love him. I am not really sure at this point. We had a black mixed breed dog once. She was a sweet heart. I like any color, and I don't think it's fair that dogs, cats, or people would be judged by their color.
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Here is our kitty family...
, I know what you mean about cat allergies making things difficult. You wouldn't know it by the number of cats we have, but I am horribly allergic to cats. 
Fortunately I've found that Claritin (or more specifically, Walmart's version of Claritin) works really well for me. I take it every day, and it's a non-drowsy allergy medicine, so I don't feel like I'm in a fog all the time. 
but my hubby enjoys them all as much as I do, and he's as big of a softy as I am, sometimes even worse than me! We have a hard time turning down a kitty in need. 
My vet was surprised to see them the next time she came out to take care of the horses, because all of our other pure white cats had come from her!