Meet the cats behind Cat
Good morning, afternoon, or whenever it is that you read this.
This morning I read this post from Desi at Stitching, who was inspired by a different user, Becky/OnlineGoddess. So, since I love gushing about my cats, I decided to make my own contribution to #BearCats.
As an interesting aside, the mascot of my undergraduate alma mater is a bearkat. Not that the mascot makes any sense, of course.
I live with two cats, and a dog. I got both of my cats together just around ten years ago, and they were born probably sometime around late June? My aunt is a wonderful woman, and her and her partner would foster cats from the ferals that lived on their street. They would capture them, get them a check up, and have them sterilized to prevent more kittens from roaming the streets. Those who could be rehomed were, and those who couldn’t be rehomed just got to live in their backyard. But one of the cats they captured had a litter of three kittens when they found her - two orange kittens, and one white kitten. However, they later found a slightly larger white kitten hanging around with the mother, and took him in as well. I got that kitten as well as one of the trio, while my aunt and her partner still have the siblings.
This is Ridge! He is the potentially older cat? But admittedly, we don’t really know if he was a litter mate, or just shared a mother, but he was still a baby when he was brought in. According to my aunt, he was already bigger than his siblings, but he looks very similar to the white kitten from the original trio. Like the other kittens, he was friendly and people oriented.
He’s much closer to the idea people have of cats if they’ve never been around them. He is prone to hiding when new people come over, but he doesn’t hiss at people. He’s never bitten or swatted unless you were playing with him (he likes being a little rougher). And even then, his claws are never out, and when he bites, his teeth just kind of sit on your skin rather than applying any pressure. Once he gets to know you (which doesn’t take long), he is a cuddly lap cat. When I was dating my now-wife, Ridge took maybe two visits to start coming out. With my mom, he adjusted even quicker.
One of the local outdoor cats looks almost exactly like him. I slapped a collar on him to keep me from having a panic attack every time I see his doppelganger outside. Ridge is still not sure about the dog. Sometimes he’ll tolerate him, sometimes he runs away. Our dog, Oolong, doesn't really acknowledge either cat. Ridge used to try to get out when he was younger. The last time he tried was when the 2021 winterstorm (aka the Texas Snowpocalypse) had us trapped in our homes. We were fortunate to keep power through the whole ordeal, but as a silver lining: he took one step into snow and has never tried to get out since.
He used to even bolt away from the door when it opened.
This is Bit, and she’s what I affectionately call a gateway cat. She will say hello to pretty much anyone. I asked a coworker (who had never been around cats) to check their food while I was hiking in Big Bend years ago. Despite claiming to not like cats, she fell in love with Bit. Bit will trot up and greet me when I come home and flop down right by your feet. She’s gentler and much lighter than her brother, and she would ride on my shoulders when she was a baby.
She doesn't like to play as roughly, but she’ll wrestle with her brother a little bit until one of them gets too real. When I play with her, I just kind of walk to different points of my house while in her eyesight, and turn around and lower my hand, and she’ll trot up. She's so far the only cat to somewhat open up to Oolong. They seem to be trying to figure out how to communicate after six years of living together. When Oolong runs down the hallway, Bit will sometimes run with him.
She’s not the most cuddly girl, surprisingly. She enjoys being in the room where I am, but she just prefers to sit near by, and come over to paw me for a pet or two before she returns to her spot. The exception is when my wife is asleep - Bit likes to curl behind my wife’s legs.
Bit likes to get into places she shouldn't. My second weekend I had her, she found her way into this old wooden laundry hamper we used to have and got her poor claws stuck within. I drove her to an emergency vet, but she was perfectly fine. Unlike Ridge, Bit has not learned her lesson, and will try to slip into the closet, the shower, or dresser drawers. She's why we have child locks despite not having any children. Fortunately, she hasn't expressed any interest in the outside.
Thanks for reading, if you made it this far!
