A Non-Knitting, Kitty Post

I should probably start a list of Works in Progress in the sidebar, because I've got plenty of them! Tonight, though, all I've got are kitty pictures.


This was the first picture I took with my digital camera, about a year and a half ago. It was an appropriate first photo, since Simon is usually on my lap. Oh, and if you look behind him, that white rectangular object is my iBook, which is also frequently on my lap.

Simon is really my sister's cat. She and I lived together for several years, along with her cats, Simon and Schuster (funny, huh? and I'm the librarian in the family!) and my cats, Charlotte and Aggie. Aggie died in October 2001, from an inoperable tumor on her jaw. She was 13. Charlotte died almost exactly a year later, at age 18, of the old-cat nemesis, kidney disease. She was an incredibly nice cat - a lap-sitter, but not annoying about it. And she had been with me through a lot. Like Simon, Charlotte was a tuxedo cat. Someday I should scan some pictures of them....

I didn't plan on getting another cat right away, but a friend of mine had been feeding this cute little tortoise kitty with one tan paw. We managed to catch her, and she came to live with my sister and me (and Simon and Schuster) about a month after Charlotte passed. I named her Harley, short for Harlequin, because she sort of looks like she has a mask on.

Sorry for the scary eyes - she's really not possessed!

As you can see, she's not so little anymore! Like many cats who grew up outside, half-wild, she's still kind of skittish. But she likes to sit on the chair back behind me while I knit and 'groom' my hair. And for some reason, she always follows me into the bathroom, to be petted. Maybe someday she'll be a lap-sitter.

When she first came to live here, Harley wasn't spayed. Before I got her to the vet, she went into heat. Boy, did she like Simon! Of course, being long-neutered, Simon had only a vague idea about what was going on. It was hilarious! As soon as possible, Harley was spayed. She's still in love with Simon, although now she doesn't know why, either.

My sister got married a couple years ago, and when she moved out, Schuster went with her. Simon stayed, though, because Harley and I are so fond of him. And Schuster, who never liked any of the other cats except Simon, whom she tolerated, is very, very happy to be an only cat.....