When I say I have cats for pets, invariably the next question asked is; “How many?” My answer of eight always results in a gasp from the questioner (and probably the reader) of “eight?” Yes, eight. I did not wake up one morning thinking that eight cats would be a stellar idea or goal that I should strive for.
I had recently moved back to upstate New York after graduating from college. It was decided that my mother and I would combine households to reduce expenses. She had four cats and I had one that she had been watching for me. I had lost my dog, Bear who was almost 10 years old quite suddenly a few months earlier; so being reunited with Miss Hissy was something I was looking forward to. Miss Hissy was a long-haired black Persian with an attitude to match her name. She tolerated me and my mother and no other humans. She was gracious enough to allow my mothers cats to live there as long as they did not interfere with her time on my mothers lap or mine when I moved in.
Miss Hissy had come to me by default. My roommate had taken Olivia (Hissy) in when her owner had to give her up, but the only time she would come out of hiding was when I came home and called her Princess Olivia (I had immediately recognized her as royalty). When my roommate moved out Princess Olivia stayed. Her name gradually evolved to Miss Hissy, because of her superior attitude when dealing with Bear and I.
My mother had started off with one cat named Fred. He was a black cat, she had acquired after the loss of her mother. Fred was about 8 months old and had lived on the hand-outs from the townsfolk, before he came to stay with my mother. She got him by default when it was decided that he needed a home and hers was it. Fred was a friendly cat who loved anyone who fed him or paid him any attention. He would follow my Uncle Eddie around the blueberry patch as he tended the bushes and flop down on the ground to watch him work. If anyone came to the house, Fred would great them and keep them company until they left.
My mother's next cat arrived via her granddaughters. She had promised Kirstin and Megan that they could visit the animal shelter and look at the animals. They had looked at all of the cats, when Kirstin found a small fuzzy tiger with a soft bunny belly. The three of them were hooked, so my mom went home with her second cat. Kirstin named him George after Curious George, because he curiously explored his new home. Meanwhile, Fred did his best to ingratiate himself to the new arrival by lying on his side and pulling himself across the floor to get George to play with him. It took several days, but at last the two of them became good friends.
My mother's last two cats arrived as a matched set. They arrived during the chilly month of November. A friend's son, Timmy had found two small kittens at the town mill and was looking for a home for them. My mother said no several times, before leaving Timmy's house. As she drove down the street towards the mill, there sat these two small black cats shivering with the sun shining on them. She could not leave those small kittens there, so she went and picked them up. They were small enough to fit in the palms of her hands, so home they went with her.
Now Fred was not that thrilled with these new arrivals, so he took up residence in a paper bag to show his annoyance and stayed there for days until my mom threw the bag away. George on the other hand took charge of the girls. He kept them clean and wouldn't take any sass from Fred, once he came out of the bag. The granddaughters named them Dilly and Daisy (both of them girls). The girls played and slept together. They were more skittish than the boys, but gradually came around.
My mom moved awhile later and the gang of four survived the move and was soon joined by Miss Hissy. I joined them all nine months later, after I graduated. Things went well for a couple of months and then Miss Hissy vanished. We searched for her, but were never able to find any sign of her. We lived out in the country, so a coy dog or some other animal could have gotten her or even a car. She had been the only one allowed outside. She had spent much of her life with me going out, because we lived on a dirt road in the country.
