Here he is hanging out with Princess at the bar. And he is only three... He claims he is only having a soft drink.
Boots has a two-inch tail and a Persian-type face, complete with underbite. He is colored like Sylvester from the Warner Brothers cartoons. His paws are white - hence the name Boots.
Boots had a recurring problem with feline urinary tract syndrome, or FUS. This condition can be fatal in males. Princess had a run in with FUS when she was three, and we were able to cure her of it by changing her diet.
Boots gets a gel dietary suppliment to keep his urine pH low and he only eats Iams food. Plus, he has learned to drink from the faucet by watching Pumpkin. Also, we bought a pet fountain that circulates and filters their water. He loves to drink from it - it is just like a faucet! We play a game with him in the tub, and after playing we turn on the faucet for him to drink. He has been "vet-free" since October 1999, except for shots.
His secret - likes to be held like a baby and get his chest and tummy scratched. While this is going on, he purrs and drools like a bull dog!
We found Snowy along the Ghost Town Trail near Eliza Furnace (Vintondale, PA) in July, 2001. She was along the road and had crossed it when we were starting our bike ride. We gave her some water and went on our way. When we came back she ran across the road again and visited with us. She is very friendly as was in need of food and a good home. We took her in with the intent of beefing her up, having her spayed and finding a human to adopt her.
She got spayed at the end of July, but proceeded to bust her internal stitches (translated - kitty hernia) and had to go back in for another surgery. By then we were hooked. This picture was from the "in-between" time of surgery. She had broken her stitches and had to be discouraged from jumping. There are couch cushions stacked up as a ramp to the end table so she can look out the window by walking up instead of jumping. She is fine now!
Her secret - she has a "Pooski (a nickname of hers) Pad" that we got for her at the WalMart in Indiana, PA the day we found her. It is a small pet bed pad with imitation sheepskin on one side and green cloth on the other. Whenever she sees it she starts purring and hops onto in. She immediately begins kneading and eventually curls up to sleep. Also, she has taken to Shelby as if he was one of her missing kittens - she had a litter of kittens prior to our taking her in. We knew that by the stains around her nipples. She was dry, so they had been weened. We looked for them the next week, to no avail. Anyways, she plays and wrestles gently with Shelby, and they groom each other occasionally. It is EXTREMELY cute!
Shelby is a young domestic short-haired red mackerel tabby male. His ears are slightly bent at the tips, so he may be a Scottish fold - or not. I have never experienced a kitten this young. I found him on the way to work on Friday, August 23, 2002. It was definitely fate that I found him! I had taken the morning off as the gas company was supposed to stop by for an inspection but never showed up. It was a little after 1:00 PM and I was headed down PA Route 48, less than half a mile from work. I came around a bend and there was some small animal on the road in the right tire "groove" in my lane. I saw him clear as a beacon, and I was doing 45 MPH! I swerved around him. pulled off the road and jumped out. I ran up the road in the lane waving my hands to divert traffic - I did not want to see him hit before I could reach him. I scooped him up as two women in an Infinity pulled off the road in front of my Grand Prix. They helped me look for his mother and any siblings - to no avail. We were in a gorge with fairly steep walls, so he must have been dumped. He stayed in a box with a blanket under my desk all afternoon - he slept peacefully. I stopped at Petco before I headed for home and got kitten formula, bottles, weaning formula mix and Kitten Chow. He ate a full serving of the kitten formula before I left the parking lot. He turned out to be about 4 or 5 weeks old, weighed about one pound, and had over 300 cat ticks! He would have died from anemia within a day or two had I not grabbed him and bathed him to remove the ticks. It took three days and four baths to remove the ticks. What a disgusting situation. But we adjusted and he is thriving!
Diane was a saint - she found a home for him with a woman from work once he was tick-free and old enough to eat normal food. The next day disaster struck our home. Pumpkin, my personal lap cat, was diagnosed with Feline Leukemia. The woman who was going to take Shelby said if we needed to keep him to ease the pain of Pumpkin's eminent loss, she would understand. We do plan on keeping him if the house is free of the FeLV.
Why Shelby? For Carroll Shelby. He was found on a highway and is as fast as a 1969 Mustang GT-500KR! We tried to get a Firebird related name for him, but could not find one that worked for us. We prefer names that end in "y" - the cats seem to respond better to those!
His secret - He is too young for secrets! Check back in a few months...