posted March 19, 2004 12:38 PM         

Juni, I looved hearing about all your four-leggeds.. Sounds like a dream come true!
*sigh* I fantasize about having my own plot o land with all manner of creatures to share it with..

For now, being the renters that we are, we have just one kitty..

A short haired, green-eyed black cat with an unusually long tail. I named him Jupiter Morrisonn (extra n at the end for a better numerological vibration), Jupiter cause I'm a Saggie and Morrison cause I looove Jim Morrison. (another Saggie.. )

The story goes.. back in the fall of 99 I took solitary vows to study the Mysteries for a yesr and a day before I committed to walking the path of the Goddess. As the year and day drew near to a close, I wondered what sort of gift to get for myself to mark my commitment to the study of Witchcraft.. I toyed with the idea of getting a cat but didn't actually go looking for various reasons.. Ever since I was a little girl I'd always wanted a black cat. Silly perhaps but for as long as I can remember I've been facinated with the image of the wise old crone with a black cat on her shoulder. I felt weird about going out looking for a cat for the specific purpose of it being black. It just felt wrong.

So, the the year and a day anniversary, I was working late as a bartender in a neighborhood tavern when lo and behold!
A lovely little black cat saunters in the door! I was immediatly struck by his unusually long tail which he held straight up so regally as he proceeded to walk down the length of the bar, past my handful of customers, to the end of the bar where he came around back to stand at my feet and say in his quirky voice, 'MEOW'. It's a goofy 'meow' like it's a foreign sound to his vocal cords and it always comes out sort of raspy, crackly and stuttery. I fell immediatly in

He was so sweet and loveable I was afraid that he wasn't a stray.. But one of my regulars at the bar, who lived in the shabby apts. next door, said that his owner had been taken to jail and the poor kitten (I estimated about 6 mo.) had been trapped in the apartment for a MONTH before the landlord finally opened up the place. Jupiter had totally ravaged the entire apt in search of food and the landlord just let him run off. He'd been roaming the neighborhood for a couple weeks before I found him, apparently- or should I say he found me. .

It seemed so magical, that a year and a day after my committment the Goddess sent me this little bundle of wonderful!

For the first 6 months or so he would always sleep on my tummy and follow me around in my dreams. Seriously.. He was rarely, if ever, the focal point of my dreams but without fail he was always there in my dreams following me through everything, walking beside me or just behind me. He stopped sleeping on my tummy once I got big and preggers but he still frequents my dreams. I feel like he is my protector in them.

As for in the waking life, he is a well behaved (mostly!) cat. He is super intelligent and only misbehaves in order to get my attention cause I'm not paying close enough attention to his needs.. food, water, wanting to go outside.

He's super tolerant of my two year old son who chases him around the house and grabs him and generally terrorizes the poor feline. Jupiter generally just takes it without resistance. In these cases I become the protecter of Jupie, as I like to call him from time to time.

Oh and he also likes to push the bathroom door open and watch me pee!

He likes to go on walks with us too. Sometimes I swear he's a dog trapped in a cats body...

He also does this weird scratching thing prior to drinking anything- everytime. He has to first put his paw in the water, to test the level or whatever, then he paws the ground around the dish repeatedly before drinking. It's strange and I wonder if it's cause he was locked in an apartment for a month and got used to digging around looking for sustainence. Does anyone else's cats do this?

posted March 19, 2004 01:03 PM         

Love your story. So cool and cute that your cat follows you in your dreams! So awesome.

My cat Yoda, was a little man in a cat's body, and I know he was a dog in a previous life. He acted so much like a dog. He was very attentive, constantly wanted to be with me always. He was jealous of boyfriends and the computer. He was a black cat too, with green eyes.

Do you think black cats are more talkative than other cats?

My other cat was a Tortoise-shell calico and she was talkative too. The thing, though, ever since I got my cats, I *always* have talked to them, just like you would your child or your dog. I think that's why they were so verbal?

posted March 20, 2004 12:29 AM         

*apologises for skipping around subjects, does this all the time. Sometimes even starts up conversations from last week, much to the confusion of others till i clarify*

posted March 22, 2004 11:55 AM         

juniperb

posted March 24, 2004 02:02 AM         

this is my little pomeranian Bella

*say hi leli, woof woof!*

http://www.dogster.com?14588

posted March 24, 2004 01:14 PM         

I am glad you posted Bella on Dogster so we can see her!!!! She's a cutie pie! You have to change your link there's a period at the end so it won't work for other people.

posted March 27, 2004 03:24 PM         

There are many varieties of aquariam catfish. This is a link to the particular one we have, and you can also research other kinds there if you like.

Yeah, my hubby's a little weird (Aqua) so what can I say? His reasoning was that catfish produce a distinctly unpleasant odor so they should be named appropriately. He picked Stankula as a homage to one of his favorite groups, Outkast ... they have an album named "Stankonia". Funkula, for him, was a natural association between bad odors and cool things ... "that's funky" could mean either. The "ula" suffix was because of Count Chocula, seeing as I had already pick "The Count" as a name ... although I chose it in reference to my favorite Sesame Street puppet/muppet - "One banana hahaha Two bananas hahaha ..." I didn't really mind the names because with the "ula" at the end they remind me of my favorite treat ... chocolate! (We have a thing about vampires, too, so we've always liked Count Chocula cereal because of Count Dracula.)

posted January 09, 2008 08:19 PM         

I no longer have that Beta fish.

We now have a cat, Antoine, who we have had for 1 year, and Oliver, our honorary adopted/foster/neighbor's cat who lives at our house.

posted January 12, 2008 09:13 PM           

Zeke will be 18 years old on April 14 this year. He has been my owner since before he was weaned. I bought him special kitty formula at the pet store to finish weaning him. Zeke was one of a litter that my friend's cat had. He grew up with my cats Patches and Mirandee. Patches died at the age of 17 in 1995 and Mirandee died at the age of 21 1/2 in 2004.

Max is going on 4 years old now. He showed up one warm Oct. evening on my porch only about 3 weeks after I lost Mirandee. He was only 5 or 6 mos. old and was lost. Our front door was open and he followed the sound of our voices to the porch. He was meowing and climbing up on the screen door wanting in. I went out and talked to him and he came up to me right away and was very affectionate. I brought him in and kept him in the spare room until Zeke got used to his scent and to him in general. Didn't take long because I think Zeke was lonely after Mirandee died. He had always been with other cats. I did not feel at that time that I was ready for another cat because I was still mourning Mirandee's death. My intention was to care for Max until we found his owner. We tried to find the owner with flyers in the neighborhood and asking people but no one claimed him and he was so sweet and cute that I was by that time attached to him so we kept him. I took him in to the vet and had him neutered and all of his shots.

The strange thing about Max is that when he was allowed free reign of the house he automatically went to the exact spot that Mirandee always slept under my bed when she wanted to be alone. She had pulled down part of the covering on the box spring to make a little opening for herself to climb in and sleep there. It's like Max knew that spot was there. I came to the conclusion that Mirandee sent Max here because I was mourning her so deeply. She and I had a special bond. Even the vet that cared for Mirandee when she was dying of cancer found it strange how Max just showed up on my doorstep that way so soon after Mirandee died.

Zeke and Max are buddies now. Max gets a little too rough with Zeke at times but Zeke knows how to keep him in line. Max has taken to my husband and crawls up in his lap to be petted. He never does that with me but then, cats choose their favorite people, we don't choose them. I call him a little "traitor" because my husband did not want me to take him in when he first showed up. Max won my husband over in no time.

posted January 12, 2008 10:09 PM         

It does sound like Max was "sent" to you.

Your cats live so old.....you are very lucky. What do you feed them?

posted January 16, 2008 05:18 PM         

------------------
~
What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world is immortal"~

posted January 18, 2008 08:23 PM           

I named him after Maximillian Kolbe

Max is an American Medium Hair and Zeke is a Tabby.

Zeke is losing some of his muscular structure but he was always a big cat. He has Bobcat ears and one of his vets said he looked like he had Bobcat in him. Was almost as large as a Bobcat.

Max has short little legs and is a furry little chub ball. LOL He has very large paws so I sometimes call him " Maxipaws."