Happy Halloween!

(I swear this blog will not solely be filled with cat pictures, but frankly, I just haven't done anything interesting to blog about! And, why wouldn't I want to post such cute pictures?!?!)

Happy Birthday, Dad! (Again)

Today is my dad's official birthday and since we celebrated it five weeks early, I wanted to send him some birthday greetings today. My dad is a great inspiration to me and I am so thankful he is a part of my life. He is a strong, hard-working, supportive and loving father.

Happy birthday, Dad!! I love you!!

The Boys

This is what they look like when they're all together. I just had to try for a picture. It's not great, but they're there! Left to Right - Sam, Fred, Beeker and Wilbur.

Beeker

The story of Beeker must first begin with a brief history of his current owner, my husband (not me!). Before I met Zach, he had almost no reason to interact with animals and he certainly did not seek out their company. As we started to get to know each other, it became apparent that our views about the animal kingdom were vastly different. And at one point, our relationship was up in the air because of my inability to consider a life without cats or dogs and his supposed allergies that were always present when he visited my apartment. Thankfully, there's a happy ending as his allergies magically disappeared and he found his true love, Beeker.

Beeker was found in Mechanicsburg on a very snowy night as Zach walked home from Grandpa's Growler (one of his favorite places to grab a drink and cheap food). I received a telephone call regarding this super sweet cat that he found who appeared to be trying to enter a particular home. My cold-hearted response was to leave it there because we did not have the room for him at the apartment and it appeared obvious that the cat had a home already. Not five minutes later did he call back and beg me to pick him up because he could not leave the cat alone in the snowstorm. I agreed, but made it clear that it would only be until we found his owner. Eventually, we came to the conclusion that Beeker probably didn't have a home. One of the neighbors kept him at her house for a few days and then he'd leave and come back several weeks later. So, after two months, found ads, and knocking on doors, we considered him ours...err, Zach considered him his.

I cannot say that Beeker has settled into our cat family perfectly. Rather, I'd say he has completely disrupted my peaceful cat family. On multiple levels, the poor guy is just not compatible with my three boys, Fred, Sam and Wilbur. My boys are very subdued and don't really do a lot of rough-housing. In fact, Wilbur doesn't do much of anything. Beeker, unfortunately, has a ton of energy and spunk, and I think he really would like to play with my boys rather than attack them. It just never really works out that way.

But, if we're just talking about Beeker, he's got some cool traits...

He is super fast and goes crazy charging into his cube and sliding across the floor (it is a tent material and on carpet it really goes the distance). After just two days of post-op recovery from his tendonectomy, he succeeded in killing the mouse that I knew was living somewhere in our pantry wall. My boys had been staring at the wall for several months prior, but that's about the extent of their mousing.

He is also now capable of following the commands "sit," "wait," and "OK." This is an absolute necessity because he will, without any hesitation, bite into your hand if you try to offer a treat directly to him. (Believe it or not, you can train a cat. But, I'm not implying you can train all cats. Case in point - Fred. He's a little slow.)

And of course, there's his ridiculous loud and long meow that made Zach choose his name, Beeker. (I swear I have heard him hold his meow for a full minute.) Apparently the meow is similar in pitch to that of the Sesame Street characters' voice.

More Beeker stories will follow. Stay tuned.