I Am The Crazy Cat Lady

I am about to make a confession...I have become the Crazy Cat Cady. To be more specific, I am the Crazy Cat Lady on the Hill. One day little children will be frightened of me and run screaming from my home. Now becoming the CCL was not intentional and is by no means something I have aspired to become. I love cats, but not that much.

I live in the country and have gone through a few cats over the last 10 years. I have a cat door and so my cats are indoor/outdoor cats. This means that they run around outside a lot and several have come up missing...I think this is due to all the wild animals out here; my guess is coyotes. I hate to think about it, but it is the truth. I loved them all and miss them all still.

Even though I've had multiple cats, I've never had over three at a time, and that was by accident. Here is my history with cats: Simon was my first cat. I had just moved in to my new home and wanted a cat. A neighbor brought one over that she got from a lady she worked with. He was about 5 weeks old, black with white spots and I named him Simon.

About a year or so later, I found a cat at work. I was working for the Highway Department at the time and a grey striped kitten had crawled up onto my work truck's front tire. Not sure where he came from, but there was an empty box nearby. There were no houses close by that he could have come from, so I took him home and named him Tat (as in Putty Tat).

Sadly, Simon went missing and never came back home. My cousin's in-laws had some kittens and she brought me one. He was white with black spots. I named him Oliver. Within the next year or so, Tat went missing and never came home.

I had Oliver and then Charlotte just showed up. I was out burning trash one day and heard a cat crying. She was a half-grown thing and very friendly and totally black. Obviously someone had dumped her. That happens a lot out here in the country. I was down to just one cat, so I took her in. I was back up to the two cats I enjoy having. Then I lost Oliver (I really loved that little thing...I loved them all).

My G'ma keeps a cat farm. Well, it's not really a cat farm, but my G'pa hates snakes and believes that if he has multiple cats around, they will keep the snakes away. They never take the cats to the vet, none of them get fixed, and they are always hungry. I think my G'pa thinks if he feeds them too much the cats won't catch mice. I hate to tell him that cats catch mice for fun, not food, and if his cats are too weak from hunger to run and play, they won't be catching any mice...but I digress. Since I was down to just one cat, I took one of her kittens home (saved him really), a grey tiger-stripe that I named Reiley. Well, come to find out, Charlotte hated the kitten and within a week or so, she left. I waited a few days for her to come home, then went back to G'ma's and got one of Reiley's brothers. He was all grey, so I named him Winston (as in the cigarettes because he was a smoke color, but I call him Winnie).

Well, Charlotte came back after being away about a week. That was my first step toward having too many cats, but I rationalized that three wasn't too bad, and we moved on.

About two summers ago, Reiley came down with what we around here call the "tick disease". It was rampant that summer and my aunt lost a cat as well as a neighbor. Once the cat gets bitten by a tick that is a carrier, the cat dies, usually within a day or so. Reiley came home and was acting all listless and drunk (sorta like after they come home from being fixed) and within a few minutes he couldn't even stand up. It was terrible. I called the vet and rushed him into town. Within thirty minutes he was so bad the vet had to put him down. I cried for days. I still well up thinking about it. It is so different actually seeing your pet die as apposed to them just never coming home. I buried him in the flower garden and put a cross over his grave.

I was back to two cats. Eventually Charlotte decided Winnie was okay (this took about a year or so) and everything was grand. Then Noel showed up. I'll admit it... it was all my fault. It was Christmas Eve (that's how she got her name) and she was wondering around my Uncle's house across the road. I brought her into the house (come on...it was so cold outside), and she probably would have just adopted me anyway. The reason I couldn't resist is because she was a calico. I always wanted a calico. Here's where the story gets good and I become the CCL.

Noel (pronounced No-well) was just a half-grown kitten. She was comfortable living with me, but there was one problem...Charlotte. I had conveniently forgotten how much Charlotte hates other cats (I mean...she had gotten use to Winnie). Charlotte attacked Noel on a regular basis and finally Noel just left. We had a terrible ice storm that winter and I felt bad that Noel was out in it.

Fast-forward about 3 months. I was heading to church, getting my picture taken for the new directory, and there was Noel. She was just sitting under the awning of the Church door. I couldn't believe it. My church is over 10 miles away from my house! I took her back home. Charlotte still hated her and now Noel was skittish, even around me. A few weeks later, I new we were in trouble. Noel was pregnant. I had put off taking her to the vet to get her fixed because I wasn't sure she was going to stick around and I sure didn't want to pay all that money if she just up and left. So right at the end of the school year, Noel had four kittens.

Luckily my friend took two, but I just couldn't seam to find a good home for the other two, and so I now have FIVE cats in the house. Five! Bella and Cullen have been added to the mix. I went and had Noel fixed. Now even Bella and Cullen have been spayed and neutered. Bella is a beautiful, long-haired tabby with light brown markings. Cullen is tabby and white. Can you tell by their names that i was reading the Twilight series at the time?

Anyway...I love all my cats, but I never wanted to be the Crazy Cat Lady on the Hill. Please don't chalk this up to me being single. I know a lot of people out there who have too many pets. For some reason people always think it is just the single women who have too many cats. My G'parents have more than I do, I just take care of mine.

As a funny side note: I recently had another half-grown kitten show up at my house. It was starving, so I fed it. I know that was a mistake, but I was late for work and didn't have time to do anything else. I tried to take it over to my Uncle's shop where he has a few cats, but it had already zeroed in on my house...then it found the cat door and moved right in to the house. I HAD to find a home for it. I was NOT going to have SIX cats in the house. Luckily, my mom called her neighbor who had just lost a cat and the neighbor came over and took the kitten.

So maybe I am destined to be the CCL that all the kids are scared of. I hope not.