Barbara Graham:  

Life My Pets We have 4, soon to be 5 kitties. We lost 3 of 4 12/14 year old cats to cancer in 7 months of 2000...that certainly wasn't the year of the cat! After mourning them, and seeing our lone remaining old girl hunt all over for her friends, we decided we needed a new family, and decided we would get breeds that we had long admired from going to many cat shows. First we acquired our Bengal, Peepers, who doesn't know a stranger and is wonderful with all the other cats. Then came Autumn, the graceful and regal Abyssinian. Finally, just this weekend, we found our latest, a little boycat who is a hairy Sphynx. I think he'll fit in just fine. This is his first day out of quarantine, and he's having a grand time exploring with big sister Peepers following his every move. We plan to get a Birman named Buster in the next month, when he's old enough to leave his Mama. He, along with Whirlpool, the last remaining old cat, will make our family complete. Never a dull moment! 2005 update; Our old Whirlpool finally gave up the ghost in January this year, after l7 years, and she left a big hole in our hearts. The little Birman, Buster, died of a virulent pneumonia after only 6 months, and that too was heartbreaking, and shortly after that we lost Autumn to a congenital heart problem, compounded by a nasal blockage that we couldn't control. After a while, we really knew we needed a Birman to balance the wild bunch, so we got Yasquatch, a seal Lynx Point, with stripes instead of solid points...he's lovely and has grown into a wonderful mellow and HUGE cat! Oliver is now 16 lbs, and loves to chase the rest, Peepers is independent and loving at the same time. Our breeder of Abys felt so bad about our losing Autumn that she gave me a little Blue Abyssinian...very nice of her, and we named the new kitty Luna Sea...she lives up to her name, and is all aby. We still needed a ruddy, so we got Zazu, who, if we wanted to show her, would walk away with all the ribbons...Expand for more