Mittens and Heidi

Mittens was named for her white mittens on each paw.

Heidi got her name on the way home,

 because the first thing she did was to 

 try to hide behind a Kleenex box.

 She was small enough that we could 

have put her in a Kleenex box!

It was my bright idea to get two female kittens, one for each of the girls. Kittens  very quickly become cats, and female kittens become Mommy cats!

 

 More of that in my next blog...

I Love Cats!

I am definitely a cat person.  I have loved cats for a long time.

My mom said that this must have been a neighbour's cat, since we didn't have a cat when we lived in Winnipeg. But just look how much it loved me!

My family moved to Steinbach when I was 6. Then we had a dairy farm near Steinbach for four years. We had lots and lots of cats there, but apparently never took pictures of them. We also had lots of puppies.

(Right - me with 12 puppies.
    Left - me on my horse, Rusty)

We also had two horses for a year or two.

Here I am on my horse Rusty. I was terrified of horses. I rode her once. This is the 'before' picture, while my Dad was holding the reins. I don't remember who took this picture, but I guess no one took an 'after' picture of me with my dislocated shoulder. My apologies to any horse lovers who might be reading this, but horses are not one of the critters I have loved.

This fluff ball was one of our first cats after Derek and I were married. Her name was Muffin. We had to give her away when Kalene had some allergy problems. Unfortunately, Kalene's allergies  didn't go away after we gave away the cat, but our household was catless until we got Mittens and Heidi. (next blog)

I don`t like dogs.

Mommy, can we keep her?

Mommy,      

Can we keep her?

Puleeease?!

I don't like dogs.

I'm a cat person. I've always loved cats. Especially  kittens! One day, sometime around 1989, my Hubby came home with a surprise inside his jacket. He opened his jacket, and inside there was this adorable kitten! He asked, "Can we keep her?"

That was when we were first married. Since then, we have been a cat family. We remember events in the past by which cat we had at the time. A few years ago, one of the kids coined a new phrase, "That was three cats ago," and it's been a running joke in our family ever since.

But then the kids started begging for a dog. I don't like dogs. Dogs are so much work. They have to be walked, fed, potty trained, obedience trained...

Cats are so much easier. They pretty much train themselves - just provide a litter box. You don’t have to worry about obedience training. You don’t train them, they train you.

But then, one day in the summer of 2009, Hubby came home with something in his jacket again. He told the kidlets to go to their rooms and close their doors so Daddy could talk to Mommy. Yeah, right! He closed our door, and they stayed in the hall with their ears to our door.

 Hubby opened up his jacket, and showed me a tiny furball. He had that, “Mommy, can we keep it?” look on his face, with puppy dog eyes.

So that is how Brandi came to be a member of our family. Guess who feeds her.