After writing the first post, I decided to post a picture of the cats. Big Boy is the big gray and black tiger tabby on the right. Baby Girl is the pretty brown and gray tiger tabby on the left.
Enjoy!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Cats & Dragons
Welcome to Cats & Dragons.
Maybe you are wondering about the name. Well I was sitting here at the desk, thinking about Dragons and DragonHawks, some of the more important characters in my sci fi series called the DragonHawk Saga when my two assistants jumped up onto the desk.
That would be our two cats, Big Boy and Baby Girl. They are what we refer to as our "Hurricane Grade" cats.
In 2008, in the summer leading up to Hurricane Ike, we were having a mouse problem in our neighborhood. Part of the problem was due to a hail storm on Mother's Day that damaged a bunch of roofs. So several of us were having our roofs repaired. And in our case, the siding as well. Mice and or rats got under the hood of my wife's car and chewed up some wires and made a big mess.
Well. we finished our repairs about 24 hours before Ike knocked down the fences, broke some tree limbs and plastered a bunch of leaves all over our new paint job.
In the wake of Ike, Cindy and I were visiting one of the pet stores and we stopped to talk to the pet rescue people. We were looking for a big, mean onery tom cat to take care of our rodent problem.
"Oh, you need to talk to Chris!" they pet rescue people told us. It turns out that Chris took care of abandoned animals on Galveston Island. She had these two cats, Big Boy and Baby Girl, that had survived the hurricane underneath a collasped shed. These two cats were pretty ferel, so it took a week for Chris to catch them for us.
When we brought them home, we had this little pen set up in the back yard. We were going to keep them penned up for a while so they could adapt to our neighborhood.
Baby Girl had a different idea. She escaped and disappeared that night.
Big Boy was a little less enthusiastic. He had an abscess on his head and was still under the influence of the pain killer. So he stuck around for a few more days. Then he took off.
We did not see "hide nor hair" of either cat for about two weeks. Then one day, Cindy saw Baby Girl walk by in the flower bed outside our study window. We quickly opened up a can of cat food and set it out on the porch. After a while, Baby Girl snuck out of the flower beds and ate the food. Then she sat on the porch and cleaned herself.
This went on for about a week and then Big Boy showed up. We kept feeding them outside, but could not coax them to come inside. Not yet.
But eventually, on their own schedules (They are cats, after all), they came in and we gradually got closer and closer.
Now the cats spend as much time inside as they do out. We haven't seen any mice for some times and the squirrels have stopped digging up the bulbs in the flowerbeds. We have become very attached to the cats and they have gotten use to being around us. Baby Girl is still pretty skiddish. We think she was abused in the past. She had an abscess in her mouth and when we took her to the vet, he discovered that she had six broken lower teeth, three on each side.
Looks to me like someone kicked her in the lower jaw. So, she has her reasons to be skiddish and nervous.
She and her brother (lover? we will never know) have become very familiar with us. Especially me, it seems. As soon as I sit down to write, both cats will jump up on the desk if they are in the house. Big Boy will rub his head against your and wanting you to rub his head. Baby Girl will walk up and down on the desk and sometimes let you rub her back. Sometimes she will lay down on the desk and if I place my hand on her back, she will roll over and let me rub her belly.
Big Boy is vocal and will meow really loud. We have never heard Baby Girl make any sound other than purring. I think her voice box was damaged by whoever kicked her lower jaw. It just makes you love her that much more.
They are tough cats, but loving cats. You can rub Big Boy's back and feel the fight scars through his short hair. You see how much the two of them care for each other, especially Big Boy for Baby Girl and you wonder what all they have been through. Hurricane Ike on Galveston Island and whatever happened before then.
So that's why I called this blog Cats & Dragons. Whenever I am working on the latest adventures of my Dragons and DragonHawks, my cats are usually near by.
Maybe you are wondering about the name. Well I was sitting here at the desk, thinking about Dragons and DragonHawks, some of the more important characters in my sci fi series called the DragonHawk Saga when my two assistants jumped up onto the desk.
That would be our two cats, Big Boy and Baby Girl. They are what we refer to as our "Hurricane Grade" cats.
In 2008, in the summer leading up to Hurricane Ike, we were having a mouse problem in our neighborhood. Part of the problem was due to a hail storm on Mother's Day that damaged a bunch of roofs. So several of us were having our roofs repaired. And in our case, the siding as well. Mice and or rats got under the hood of my wife's car and chewed up some wires and made a big mess.
Well. we finished our repairs about 24 hours before Ike knocked down the fences, broke some tree limbs and plastered a bunch of leaves all over our new paint job.
In the wake of Ike, Cindy and I were visiting one of the pet stores and we stopped to talk to the pet rescue people. We were looking for a big, mean onery tom cat to take care of our rodent problem.
"Oh, you need to talk to Chris!" they pet rescue people told us. It turns out that Chris took care of abandoned animals on Galveston Island. She had these two cats, Big Boy and Baby Girl, that had survived the hurricane underneath a collasped shed. These two cats were pretty ferel, so it took a week for Chris to catch them for us.
When we brought them home, we had this little pen set up in the back yard. We were going to keep them penned up for a while so they could adapt to our neighborhood.
Baby Girl had a different idea. She escaped and disappeared that night.
Big Boy was a little less enthusiastic. He had an abscess on his head and was still under the influence of the pain killer. So he stuck around for a few more days. Then he took off.
We did not see "hide nor hair" of either cat for about two weeks. Then one day, Cindy saw Baby Girl walk by in the flower bed outside our study window. We quickly opened up a can of cat food and set it out on the porch. After a while, Baby Girl snuck out of the flower beds and ate the food. Then she sat on the porch and cleaned herself.
This went on for about a week and then Big Boy showed up. We kept feeding them outside, but could not coax them to come inside. Not yet.
But eventually, on their own schedules (They are cats, after all), they came in and we gradually got closer and closer.
Now the cats spend as much time inside as they do out. We haven't seen any mice for some times and the squirrels have stopped digging up the bulbs in the flowerbeds. We have become very attached to the cats and they have gotten use to being around us. Baby Girl is still pretty skiddish. We think she was abused in the past. She had an abscess in her mouth and when we took her to the vet, he discovered that she had six broken lower teeth, three on each side.
Looks to me like someone kicked her in the lower jaw. So, she has her reasons to be skiddish and nervous.
She and her brother (lover? we will never know) have become very familiar with us. Especially me, it seems. As soon as I sit down to write, both cats will jump up on the desk if they are in the house. Big Boy will rub his head against your and wanting you to rub his head. Baby Girl will walk up and down on the desk and sometimes let you rub her back. Sometimes she will lay down on the desk and if I place my hand on her back, she will roll over and let me rub her belly.
Big Boy is vocal and will meow really loud. We have never heard Baby Girl make any sound other than purring. I think her voice box was damaged by whoever kicked her lower jaw. It just makes you love her that much more.
They are tough cats, but loving cats. You can rub Big Boy's back and feel the fight scars through his short hair. You see how much the two of them care for each other, especially Big Boy for Baby Girl and you wonder what all they have been through. Hurricane Ike on Galveston Island and whatever happened before then.
So that's why I called this blog Cats & Dragons. Whenever I am working on the latest adventures of my Dragons and DragonHawks, my cats are usually near by.
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