Cat Saturday # 14 -- Happy Endings
Quote de jour
"Most beds sleep up to six cats. Ten cats without the owner."
Every cat has a story. If we're lucky, we know the circumstances of their birth, their kittenhood, their early adventures. But what about the cats we adopt from shelters? We might know a few facts but never the whole story. Their sad or fearful eyes hint at untold horrors. Some cats enter our lives as if they had an appointment with destiny. This week's beautiful Cat of the Week is Axl, who lives with his mom Valerie, in California. He one of the lucky ones. This is his story.

One rainy night a few years ago, Valerie heard a cat meowing at her back door. She thought nothing of it. Her two cats were inside but she opened the door anyway. A tiny black and white cat pushed her way inside and made herself at home on Valerie's bed. This feline stranger refused to leave. It didn't take long for Valerie to figure out why. A few weeks later, the cat, now named Rosie, gave birth to four kittens. One of these kittens was Axl. He bonded immediately with his sister Smiley and you guessed it, they're still together three and a half years later. The other two siblings found good homes. All the kitties got spayed and neutered. If all pet owners took on this responsibility, we wouldn't have to euthanize 800 dog and cats every hour in the U.S, but that's another story.
It's a lucky cat who gets to stay in one home with a sibling and their four-legged mom. Sadly, Rosie died a few month ago but Axl lives on,snuggling every chance he gets with Smiley and Valerie. She claims Axl isn't super smart and needs to stay indoors to keep safe. I say, who needs to be smart when you're beautiful and loved. A lucky cat indeed.
Care to find your own lucky cat? http://www.petfinders.com
Meanwhile, my lucky cat Merlin continues as my muse. The harsh noon light cast exquisitely deep shadows on the porch last week.

"Most beds sleep up to six cats. Ten cats without the owner."
Every cat has a story. If we're lucky, we know the circumstances of their birth, their kittenhood, their early adventures. But what about the cats we adopt from shelters? We might know a few facts but never the whole story. Their sad or fearful eyes hint at untold horrors. Some cats enter our lives as if they had an appointment with destiny. This week's beautiful Cat of the Week is Axl, who lives with his mom Valerie, in California. He one of the lucky ones. This is his story.
One rainy night a few years ago, Valerie heard a cat meowing at her back door. She thought nothing of it. Her two cats were inside but she opened the door anyway. A tiny black and white cat pushed her way inside and made herself at home on Valerie's bed. This feline stranger refused to leave. It didn't take long for Valerie to figure out why. A few weeks later, the cat, now named Rosie, gave birth to four kittens. One of these kittens was Axl. He bonded immediately with his sister Smiley and you guessed it, they're still together three and a half years later. The other two siblings found good homes. All the kitties got spayed and neutered. If all pet owners took on this responsibility, we wouldn't have to euthanize 800 dog and cats every hour in the U.S, but that's another story.
It's a lucky cat who gets to stay in one home with a sibling and their four-legged mom. Sadly, Rosie died a few month ago but Axl lives on,snuggling every chance he gets with Smiley and Valerie. She claims Axl isn't super smart and needs to stay indoors to keep safe. I say, who needs to be smart when you're beautiful and loved. A lucky cat indeed.
Care to find your own lucky cat? http://www.petfinders.com
Meanwhile, my lucky cat Merlin continues as my muse. The harsh noon light cast exquisitely deep shadows on the porch last week.




Axl and Smiley are indeed lucky. We went to Petfinders and that is how we got our two boys, the ones you featured last week.
I notice Axl is a Tuxedo. My daughter researched Tuxs last week and found they are the most wandering of cats, which possibly explains the Puss n Boots story. And the behavior of all tuxedos.
Your two kitties are always lovely.
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That's interesting about Tuxedo cats. When I started my cat rescue group in Toronto, we had an unusual amount of Tuxedo cats.
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Hello to Axl from three other California kitties, D-2, Jonquil and Emily, also Sylvie the Pom
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Yep, seems to explain things. I wonder if Axl's mom was a Tuxedo. But being preggers, she would be looking for a place, anyway.
I took in a stray, once. More than once. But one time, it was this beautiful long-haired Tuxedo cat. Yep, she was preggers, too. Gave birth while we were on vacation, had no idea she was pregnant. 3 big babies. The next year, she gave birth to 4 sets of twins. Each time, some were Tuxedos.
A long-haired tuxedo across the street, PaPa - actually his name is Puppy, he wanders into people's houses all the time. The Mormon kids across the street used to kidnap him for fun. Seeing as they had no other way of having fun.
I enticed Papa to come into our house once, to see if he wanted anything to eat. He took one look at our boys and hissed - first at them, then at me.
He has a good memory, because now he refuses to enter our house.
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Very touching story Layla.
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I love that 'freckle' on Axls nose. What a great story, but too bad about Rosie.
I absolutely adore those black and whites of Merlin the Magnificent. There's just something about black and white photography that really appeals to me, but then I may just be warped. I'd rather watch and old Pre-Code black and white movie than anything Hollywood has presented lately.
I'm not a big fan of bells and whistles special FX and I abhor the ADD/mtv editing.
See you next week. OXOX-- Mugg
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