Life with my Quilty Kitties

I have had a request to see my furry quilty helpers ... so here they are!

Butterfly, the black and white tuxedo cat, is almost 9 years old and is my daughter's cat. She is one of the most affectionate cats I have ever known with her family, but she does not like strangers. Boyfriends must pass the Butterfly test if they hope to be around for any length of time. ;-) My daughter and hubby plucked her from a shelter one Saturday while I was away with my camping gals teaching an outdoor cooking class. My daughter who was thirteen at the time had a month earlier stood holding her three year old birthday kitty while she had to be put to sleep suffering from feline leukemia. We had adopted that kitty from a friend who did not know the mother was suffering from this disease when she had her litter. Lily at three years old was then longest surviving kitty from the mother and her babies and we even had a eye removed surgically to prolong her life. We did everything we could to make Lily's short life as happy as possible. My daughter needed a new baby to love. My husband says this kitten was just laying there and showed no personality and he tried to talk my daughter into a "more animated" kitten. My daughter insisted this was the one and named her Butterfly before they had even signed the papers. Butterfly has shown herself to have a lot of personality! LOL Since my daughter is away much of the time now at college, her cat and I frequently console each other while "Our Girl" is gone.

Butterfly thinks all my quilts are hers!

Mina dissagrees ...

Our other cat is Mina, a 17 year old dark tiger stripe. We have had her for about 8 years now. My daughter is also responsible for bringing this feisty little feline into out home. A friend of hers in high school was being forced to give her up when she was moving to an apartment which did not accept pets. Mina was literally in a carrier on her way to be put down when my daughter called me after school one day and asked if I really meant it when I said I would consider taking the cat if her friend could not find any other home for her. I thought that I asked all the necessary questions ... was she healthy, neutered, clean, could she go out, etc ... I forgot to ask if she got along with other cats! At the time we had Butterfly and our old and late cat, Gennie, who was the friendliest, gentlest cat I have ever known. Gennie passed on at age 19 and I still miss her and have her photo above my computer smiling down at me. Gennie trotted right over to bump noses and say "Hello! Oh, how nice! A new kitty came to live with us!" Mina took one look, growled and disappeared into my boys' bedroom to hide under a bed and not come out for a week or two. She could be heard, though. How that tiny cat can produce a growl as loud and sinister as a mountain lion is one of life's mysteries. Her friend's Mom had been reading Dracula when this kitten had needed a name and she was named after Willamina in that novel. Mina has been called "Vampire Kitty" and "The Claw" at times. She was covered with fleas (and she had been an indoor cat!!) and was scrawny and she was very angry. Poor kitty! She just needed someone to love and she "bonded" immediately with my oldest son and still follows him around meowing 'my hero" after him whenever he comes ot visit. She is a such a sweet little kitty. We think she may have been unfortunately abused at some point in her life, maybe for her unfortunate trait of scratching upholstered furniture to shreds. Ah ... we do love Mina. She is now flea-free and glossy furred and is even chubby (for her) .... and, ah ... she still shreds the furniture though. She loves to help me with my quilting and whenever I get up for a few minutes I find she is in the middle of whatever I am working on when I return and I have to pet her and coax her to curl up on her own folded piece of batting next to my sewing machine.

Butterfly is still a very large and territorial cat who wants to rule the house. Mina is still a smaller feisty "you are not the boss of me!" cat. The fur flies over the quilts sometimes.

So now you know the story of my quilty kitties!

I could not imagine life without being loved by a cat or two ..

:-) Pat