Pets

We currently have five rescued cats and two rescued dogs.

KATY

Katie Tooters Fluffington
Estimated birthdate 3-20-12
Rescued 5-2-12
Black longhair with green eyes

We moved in Katy, TX in 2012, and our cat had passed away the previous year. I had thought about getting another cat, but I guess I was still grieving "AJ" and just couldn't get any interest in looking.

One day we received an email from the president of our neighborhood association with the above picture of a rescued 2-month old black kitten. She included a plea to either claim or adopt her. Those eyes got to me. I kept looking at the email and finally emailed her the next day to to inquire if anyone had claimed the kitten. She immediately responded with a "No! Are you interested?" I forwarded the email to my husband and both my kids and asked them what they thought. All three said "yes, you need a kitty in your life again" So I emailed the president, and she arranged for the rescuers to bring the kitten to me.

When the man and his wife brought her, I found out the story behind Katy's rescue. The man was a runner and frequently jogged along a very busy street south of our house. For two or three days, he kept hearing an odd sound when he jogged past some trees in a median. Finally he investigated and saw a kitten up in one of the trees. He went home and got a ladder and rescued that kitten! How she ever made it across that busy street and up into that tree in the first place is a mystery. He took her home but they were unable to keep her because of the other cats they had in their household, and that is when he contacted the neighborhood association.

She has been a great cat who has handled four house moves and lots of change in her kitty routine. She is the only one of our cats that is allowed outside. When we lived in a house that was surrounded by an 8-foot privacy fence, we let her outside under supervision. We lived on 5 acres from 2016-2020, and she went outside to watch squirrels and rabbits. Now that we live in a subdivision, she stays inside!

Katy's eyes still get me!

JACK

Jack Nicklaus Gingerton

Estimated birthdate: 6/30/16

Rescued: 8/25/16
Ginger tabby with gold eyes

In 2016 we sold our suburban home and purchased 5 acres with my husband's Mom and sister and her son. We bought a manufactured home to move onto the land but had to wait a couple of months before it was out of the factory. On the day of closing, we went early to the office to have one more look at the model home for measurements. As we started out the back door of the office, the salesman warned that there was a stray kitten lurking around.

And indeed there was a little orange kitten. He was panting and meowing and purring and kneading. I talked to him and tried to pet him, but it took me 10 minutes to finally touch him. Once I did, he was completely trusting in my arms. After signing papers, we took him to a vet. Once I found out he was male I named him "Jack Nicklaus" on the spot, after my favorite golfer. The funny thing is that I had had a dream about an orange kitten named Jack a few nights earlier. So it was meant to be.

We were living with our son and family at the time, and our "living quarters" were in the large second floor playroom. Jack settled right in with our cat and our son's kitten, playing and being wild. He was so wild one day that he went through the railing that overlooked downstairs and fell onto the floor below! I was terrified and ran to check on him. He was stunned and not very happy but seemed fine. I immediately called the vet who told me he was probably OK but to keep an eye on him. After a night of rest, he was back to his normal wild self the next day.

Jack is now a huge beautiful ginger tabby. He demands my attention if I'm too focused on quilting or my computer, and he is a frequent companion in my sewing room. He is very vocal and fairly aggressive if he doesn't get enough attention. He loves to "steal" things and will take anything in a plastic bag off our kitchen counter and run with it. He makes us laugh out loud.

Jack is a big boy! But I still see the
sweet little orange, needy kitten when I look at him.

ROSIE

Rosemary Joy Purrington

Estimated birthdate 7/23/16

Rescued 11/23/16
Lynx Point Siamese with blue eyes

A few months after we moved into our former mobile home, we had decks built on the front and back of the house. Late one afternoon the carpenter knocked on the door and said "ma'am we have a problem". I thought he meant a building problem, but as I walked outside he said that a little kitten had just run under his pickup. I knew both my cats were inside, so I was perplexed because I had seen no other cats around. We both got on the ground to look under his truck, and I was able to flash a light on a little kitten up in the tire well! As I crawled toward her, she ran out and around the side of the house and through a small hole that went under our house. I spent at least an hour trying to coax her out with food and water but finally had to leave her out there.

The next day I was able to get her to come out from under the house, but only as long as I was several feet away. So she lived under the house for two nights, and it was possible she had been there longer. The last night she was under the house we had a storm. I was so worried about her and the next morning went out to check on her. It was chilly but sunny, so I just sat outside next to the hole for a long time. She finally walked out and came up behind me. After about an hour of stealthy moves, I got close enough to pick her up. She resisted for about two seconds, then she was fine! I took her to the vet the next day and kept her in the guest bathroom for a couple of days. The other two (Katie and Jack) hissed a lot but didn't take long to adjust to her.

Being a Lynx Point Siamese she is a white and gray tabby with blue eyes. She had more white as a kitten but has gotten more gray/brown as she has matured. How such an exquisite little creature ever made it to that remote location is beyond me. And where were her mama and her siblings? If only cats could talk.

Rosie is still pretty small and has the sweetest nature of any cat I have ever had. She lost any feral nature she had in the beginning and seems relaxed and happy. She makes us laugh when she meows, because for such a little thing she has an alto voice.

She loves to get into any kind of box or small container and will sit under a table and meow until we notice her or look for her, then purr loudly when we acknowledge her.

When we run the vacuum or when people come to the house, she always runs to hide under our bedspread. She thinks she is hidden.

Rosie is my daily companion in the sewing room. We certainly weren't

looking for a third cat, but now I can't imagine life without her.

TOBY

Tobias Oliver Tuxington

Estimated birthdate: 9/1/2018

Rescued: 6/24/20
Tuxedo with light gold eyes

We began noticing Toby on our former 5-acre property during the early part of 2020. He first showed up at my sister-in-law's house and sat at the edge of her yard, then he began to lurk around our yard. Sometimes I would hear him at night making the "tom cat" call. We certainly weren't looking to add a fourth cat to the household, but at some point we started leaving food and water on our deck for him. He did not look malnourished, but he was thin and obviously hungry. There were many days he did not appear, and we speculated that he had an owner somewhere; but we checked with our neighbors and never found anyone who claimed him.

Over time, he made a habit of checking our deck for his food, and I began to approach him, but he was very skittish. One day I put a can of wet food in a dish and took it to him, and that was the key to his heart! Slowly we made friends, and he purred and seemed to crave petting.

Toby began to act interested in following me into the house and often laid right outside our TV room window looking adorable, I decided to talk it over with my husband. He had been expecting that conversation for a long time! He agreed that Toby should be inside with us where he would be safe from predators and weather. Initially Toby was confined to a bedroom until he made his first vet visit. There was considerable hissing from our other three cats, but they slowly accepted him. The vet estimated his age at two years or maybe younger, and he weighed 10 lbs, but at the most recent visit he weighed 17 lbs!

He is a very active boy and loves to climb on everything.

He recently mastered the new Simply Sixteen by Handi Quilter

He is a big, beautiful, gentle, sweet, silly, and talkative boy, and we are delighted he allowed us to adopt him.

GUS

Augustus McCrae “Gus”

Estimated birthdate: 5/8/21

Rescued: 10/8/23

Black "Bombay" with gold eyes

The first time I saw Gus was late summer 2021. He was lurking in our back yard, skinny, panting, and in very rough condition. I immediately took some food and water outside, but he ran, so I left it near the fence where I last saw him. I kept leaving food and water outside, and it was usually consumed, I hoped by him.

Gus's sibling

Then Gus and another small black kitty, probably a sibling, started coming into our back yard during November 2021, so I started leaving food on the patio. They would not eat in front of me, preferring to hang out under our shed, but we could see them through the windows, and they would often sun themselves in the yard.

I  noticed Gus had a clipped ear, indicating he had been TNR'd.

Gus with his new blanket and mousie

After we rescued two dogs in January 2022, we didn’t see those little cats at all until I happened to see Gus in our front yard in August 2023, looking thin with patchy fur. I started leaving fresh water and high calorie food for him near our front door, and he would warily approach and eat, but he mostly came at night. After a few weeks he began to wait outside in the mornings for his food. I bought him a catnip mouse and made him a soft padded blanket, and he made biscuits and played!

The final persuasion was when I began to put Hartz Bisque in a bowl and push it toward him. He couldn't resist! One day he finally let me pet him, then I was able to get close enough to him to see that he was a boy. I named him Gus after my favorite character in Lonesome Dove - Augustus McCrae. After that he began showing up almost every morning, glad to see me and letting me pet him more each day. We speculated that he might be sleeping under the shed of a neighbor, but there is a farm at the end of our street, so he might have been sleeping in one of the farm buildings.

After a few weeks, he began to act like he wanted to come in the front door, and after checking around our neighborhood for a possible owner, I brought him into the house early morning Oct 8, 2023. I took him to the vet that day, and she said Gus was in great health, and he was cleared to cohabitate with the rest of the kitties! She estimated his age between 2 and 3 years old, probably closer to 2, so based on that, he was probably less than a year old when I first saw him.

First day inside!

First day biscuits!

After a brief stay in the guest bathroom, he resided in my sewing room and finally moved into our guest bedroom. He gradually began to explore the house, and now he is one of the crew and seems very happy to be in the house. He and Rosie do a bit of hissing and batting at each other, but overall his transition was successful.

He is a shiny, black, beautiful boy and an absolute sweetheart - very gentle and shy, and quite vocal. I am so grateful to have him in the house out of the elements. I would love to know his background - if only cats could talk! And I wish I knew what happened to his little sibling. I hope he/she found a home.

IN MEMORY OF SWEET BUDDY

Buddy Boudreaux Buddington
12/3/06 - 1/6/21
Adopted 3/10/07
White lab/Dalmatian mix with black spots and dark brown eyes

In 2007, we lived in Edmond, OK. One day we ended up at either Petco or Petsmart where Free to Live, a no-kill animal sanctuary in Guthrie, OK was holding an adoption day. We wanted to get an older dog as a companion for our elderly dog Holly. On our way into the store, we saw a little pen with two puppies and stopped to look at them because they were just so darned cute. They were litter mates, and the female, "Daisy" was friendly but would not stop barking. "Duke" was not barking but just looking adorable, so I had to pet him. When I reached down to pet him he rolled over on his back and showed us the prettiest little spotted pink belly with his tail wagging on the ground. And that was that. We adopted him and renamed him "Buddy". Holly was not exactly thrilled, but she gradually accepted him, and they were friends until she passed away three years later. After several months of complete puppy shenanigans, he was the best dog ever.

Buddy still loves to show us his pink belly.

We lost our Buddy in January 2021 and miss him every day.