Maxx and his littermate, the late great Bogey (on the right). Maxx had been very lonely for the past 5.5 years without his brother Bogey who died suddenly the day that Lance Armstrong won his 3rd (?) straight Tour de France victory. I didn't know how heavily he mourned until we brought the Odd Couple - Felix & Oscar - into the apartment.
Maxx was renamed, Mac Daddy, because his paternal instincts kicked in immediately (well in about a day). Felix & Oscar follow Maxx everywhere, like he is their beacon. It's pretty funny.
A couple of days ago, I got this shot. Kinda creepy because for a split second I didn't know who was Maxx and who was Felix - hard to believe Felix is only 7 months old.
Maxx no longer howls in the apartment all night long. He no longer wakes us up 4 times a night. He sleeps pretty much til 3 or 4a, then wants his snack and goes back to sleep. We (mom & I) are not falling into this pattern with the Odd Couple. Maxx is fed separately and the kittens are left to wonder what is going on. Even if Maxx lives to be 20, I will not be awakened by Felix or Oscar in the middle of the night.
Other posthumous notations here are:
Sebastian, the feral Turkish Van from Texas, now living in Lincolnton, NC with his bipeds The Paris Family. I used to cat sit for him when they lived in Hoboken.
Nova on the left was rescued when she was 3 days old by my mom. Our downstairs neighbors at the time heard that a neighborhood cat gave birth to kittens under the house and as cat haters, they call the Humane Society to come get them. Of course, the buffoons frightened the mother cat away, so these kittens would likely have died. Nova had a brother, mom could only get 2 before the animal control officer threatened her. Nova and her brother were bottle fed by my mom and nursed into kittendom by her and my late cat Topie. At 8 wks I adopted out Nova's brother to a family with an autistic boy. When he was given the cat, the boy came out of his protective shell and started talking. We gave Nova to my friend Liz something like 13 years ago? Anyway, Liz lives in Scotland now, so Nova's a traveller. The cat on her right is Clara, adopted from a shelter in NJ, Liz was convinced the kitten was male and named him Clarence. Upon a visit to the vet for neutering, she was told she had to spay Clarence, because he was a "she". So now her name is Clara.
I love stories like these. Got any to share?
Happy New Year!!
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