I'm not one of those wierd "cat ladies" or anything but I do have 2 cats. Two cats with highly neurotic personalities.
If I had a camera in my hand right this second, I could take a picture of Parada climbing the screen of my sliding door. She's between the screen and the glass door. Why? I just don't know. I believe Parada is part or all monkey. When she first came to me, via Beth Gifford, I struggled with a name. I am a strong believer in naming cats based on their personalities. Parada has this tendency to purr really loud, moreso when she's up to no good. But nothing purr-like was fitting. She also bends her tail back toward her head, much like a ring tailed lemur. I checked in to the names of the lemurs in the movie Madagascar but I guess they don't have names. I ended up with Parada which is a down and dirty version of "Stop that" in Spanish. It could also mean "get down" or "enough already" but apparently it means nothing to her. She doesn't listen much. She also takes full advantage of guests to the house. Apparently, she has the idea that I won't make her get off the counter if someone is there (wrong). She has also learned to follow her antics with this cute little head tilt, cuddle with your feet and lay belly up manuever.
Now Mina, she's a little more chill. To the point of being cold. Unless you have her brush or any brush that looks like her brush. Then she is a total cat slut. Oh, and she likes men more than women too. Me, I'm just the lady who fills the food and water bowls. Mina isn't really happy about Parada living with us. I got another cat because I thought Mina was lonely after Chandler died. Apparently I was wrong and she isn't ever going to let me forget it. They get along a little better now, SEVEN months later but there is still a lot of hissing and growling in my house.
Speaking of Chandler, I posted a few pictures of the little man on my flickr page. Chandler had to leave us last summer after he got sick, unexpectedly. He was only 5 years old but when the doctor said I was looking at thousands of dollars in medical care, I knew my choices were limtited. The people at the emergency vet were really wonderful and even made an impression of his paw for me as a memento. Chandler thought I was his mother and he used to try and nurse (I think) off this mole on my neck. It was a little strange but I'm sure being dumped at the Humane Society and being the last of his siblings to find a family was a little strange for him. Chandler was part Manx, according to his vet, and this explains a lot of his idiosyncrasies. Manx cats are watch cats; they like to be at human eye level so they will often prefer to sleep on the back of chairs or up on furniture instead of on the floor or in baskets. Chandler also preferred sleeping up by my head at night. He was very protective of me and also liked to hunt mostly catching bugs since he wasn't allowed outside. He will be missed but fortunately, Parada has brought a whole new bag of tricks in to the house. There is no point in looking at eye level or on the floor for her- she will be up, up on top of the cabinets or in the high window sill or even up on top of the 4 poster bed (and I do mean on top of the posts- hopefully I'll get a picure of that soon).
