I've had animals all my life. I've learned that all of them have very different personalities, and that no two animals are alike. I've always had cats and dogs. The cats are the biggest challenge because they do things their own way. The dogs are a different story they are more dependent than cats. Cats are more independant. There is one thing they have in common; the love they get is the same, because you can't love more than the other.
I've had a lot of cats through out my life so far. Everytime we found a cat we had to beg dad to keep him or her. Dad finally caved and let us keep them. The first we got to keep was after we moved into our new house about thirteen years ago, was Goofy. He was a long-haired black cat , who we thought was a girl so we named him Princess. Dad took him to the vets that day and we found out Princess was a boy! Princess became Prince and later became Goofy because all the crazy stuff he done. Since then I learned to tell how to tell a female from a male!
When we couldn't keep a cat because "we had to many" my mom and I sneaked out to feed them, when dad was at work so we wouldn't get caught. Dad found out and he didn't gat mad. We got to keep a couple of them too! Dad says that I'm like mom because I always feed stray cats.
Our cats don't act like any other cats. They are finicky, lazy, and dumb too. When we let them out, one of the cats would lay out in the sun to hunt and he would go to sleep. He would wait until a mouse crawled up on his head and then catch it. All the boys would let the girls hunt and let them bring back the birds or mice, then take it from them. I'll just say our cats are not normal!
Cats grieve just like we do. One of our cats was killed when a car hit him a week before his first birthday. One of our other was sitting on the porch and saw it happen, he stayed down in the basement for a couple of days real sad. The sister of the cat that was killed always laid on his grave in the backyard everytime she went out. Cats can see spirits and she saw her brother everytime she went down there. Ever since her brother was killed she never acted the same.
We moved into our new house about three years ago. We didn't think we would have any more stray cats to feed anymore. After a couple of months we was feeding three cats. All three of them has died since then. A year later mom found a black cat and her three kittens, who she started feeding. It took a couple of weeks to get the mother to trust us. We brought them in and two of the kittens died before Christmas. We had the thid tested for leukemia, he tested postive. He died a couple of months later. Their mother was tested and tested negative.
Three years ago, one of our cats was born handicapped. He only had three legs and a stub. I didn't think he could do the same thing his brothers and sisters did. He was actually meaner than them! He became my cat and taught me so much about different things. He died at a year and a half from feline leukemia.
Over that year some of our cats died of leukemia and aids. I learned a lot about the diseases, and how it canbe passed. Almost ten years ago we had a cat euthanized because he had aids. It was the only time I've heard about cats having it. Leukemia is passed the same way as aids; from fighting, eating from each other, nursing from their mother, the father, or cleaning each other. It is more common for younger cats to get it than it is for older cats. We have two cats now with leukemia and they will be on medicine for the rest of there lives.
A year ago, one of our dogs was poisoned and he died. A month later we decided to get another dog. We picked a border collie. Little did we know they are very hyper dogs . We got books to find out they are supposed to be intelligent also. Our dog is not very intelligent. She is the dumbest dog that we ever had. When she chases the cats or gets into trouble, we yell at her. She thinks we are playing with her and she rolls over. She is scared of everything. Whe my sister and I wash the dishes she runs to mom and climbs in mom's lap. While she does all this, afterwards she can be sweet.
I think my biggest experiences with cats because I know more about them. The cats have taught me so much about them and their lives. They don't depend on us and are very strong fighters. They are our owners. The dogs have taught me a lot too. They need us and rely on us. The animals need us to speak for them and to tell what their lives were like before they had homes. All they ask for is one thing: love.
