Our Pride and Joy! :)

Lynn and I have not been blessed with sons or daughter of our own; however, Lynn and I have been a mom and dad to three cats.

Patches, our black and white short hair cat, was the first to leave us. Patches died before we left Utah in 2007 of liver failure. We brought him (or Patches brought himself) into our lives as a feral cat, which means Patches had no or very little human contact for the first few months of his life. Many of his feline insecurities and shyness surfaced because of those early conditions. But, we loved Patches with all of our hearts and I am sure Patches in his own way loved us as well. Lynn and I cried for weeks after Patches died and still find ourselves reminiscing about many of his antics that made us laugh and find ourselves inadvertently calling one of our other cats, Patches. (In a multi sibling household, who has never been called the name of their brother or sister?)

Maxwell is the old wise cat of the bunch. Max is the elder of our little family unit. He continues to show us various sides of himself, which makes us laugh and which also makes us cry. Max has always been flexible to change and this characteristic has made our house happy and peaceful. Max loves the car and actually enjoys car rides. Poor Max was not happy when we moved to Illinois. He had 3 of his canine teeth removed and now resembles Snaggle Pus, the cartoon cat w/one lonely canine. - - Max has missed Utah and his private backyard. Max has settled quietly and patiently into his life in Illinois. We have a porch that is high off the ground which Max likes to stretch out on and relax. Max is nearing his 16th year. Lynn and I know we will not have Max with us much longer; so, we will enjoy the time we do have with him for as long as we can!!!!

Lynn and I knew before Patches died that we would be moving to another state. With Patches gone we didn't feel like we could move to a new state, a new house for Max that had no familiar surroundings, without getting another cat. Lynn and I went to the Humane Society and purchased a small black female kitten who we named Citty Cat (CC for short). Immediately CC brought spunk and a new surge of energy into our home. CC has gone to great length to groom us all. She wants to lick us clean much to Max's horror and loud piercing objections. CC amuses us every day. We are thrilled CC is part of our two and four-legged household.

Max and CC both have very unique characteristics and antics. Max all of a sudden has decided that he no longer wants to drink out of their water dish; Instead, Max wants to drink out of the bath tub faucet. Just a trickle of water and he is happy! CC loves romping in the snow on our deck. Here are small video clips of our dependents in action.

-Shelly