Linus the cat

We have 9 cats and 3 dogs, and I know I'm not supposed to have a favorite "child," but Linus is just so cute! Somehow I discovered that he likes to retrieve paperwads, so I have spent many, MANY hours throwing and re-throwing paperwads for him to bring back and drop at my feet. He goes wild whenever he hears paper rustling, expecting the paper to turn into a ball that we'll throw for him to chase afer. I call him my "tabby retriever," certainly a more dignified description than alley cat!

We got him and 3 of his siblings 5 years ago from a local rescue organization, Woodstock. We got 3 of the kittens first and had them for several weeks before their scheduled spay/neuter appointment. When I went to pick them up the evening of their surgeries, I was informed that I also had to take the other 2 siblings, something I had not previously known about or agreed to. But the kittens needed a foster home, so we took all 5 home with us. After several weeks, Jason and I were so attached to them that we almost couldn't bear to take them to the adoption center, but we did. A week later, we went to see if any of the kittens were left and were shocked to see that none of them had been adopted. Those 5 sweet babies had spent an entire week of their short lives in a cage! We couldn't stand the thought of it, remembering how mischievously they had romped through our house. So we asked if we could take them home to let them get some exercise. Woodstock agreed to let us do that, so we prepared the carriers to transport the kitties back home. But before we could leave, one of the kittens, Little Hoss, was adopted. He was one of the more energetic and mischievous of the kittens, so we named him for his similarity to one of our adult cats, Hoss, who also likes to gallop and play. (He's the big, orange tabby who walks in to see what's going on in the video.) Thankfully, he got a wonderful home, and we heard later that his family absolutely loves him. Anyway, we took the other 4 home and have kept them ever since. We just couldn't bring ourselves to let them go. We had 10 cats them, certainly more than we needed, but we loved them all and couldn't part with any of them.

So this is Linus, my favorite. He's the kitty I play with; he also sleeps on my pillow and shares my breath at night. I'll share about Pelly, Hoss, Slick, Patches, Julie (who also appears in the video), Lilly, Lucy, and Felix in subsequent posts. I'm sure you can't wait!