When I first met Big Daddy (all the way back in September of 1996), he had just taken in a kitty -- Mr. Pea Body. They were the best of friends...
Although it was rare, Mr. Pea Body even liked me sometimes, too...
Then, around my our first Christmas together, I felt we needed to even out the house and add another female... ok, I just wanted a kitty of my own. Meet Mrs. Pea Tunia...
Mr. Pea Body hissed and growled for several weeks,
until he warmed up to this ball fluff and love...
This was our Logan apartment with a south facing exciting busy window in every room (and might I add with some interesting and rather eclectic decor). Mr. Pea Body spent all his nights running from window to window checking it all out. Occasionally, we'd wake up to a crash to find he'd fallen out of the window after relying too heavily on the screen. We'd always find him the next morning, dirty, lonely and huddling under the crawl space of the house next door.
From this apartment we moved to one of Heber J. Grant's old houses in the Avenues (261 E 2nd)... with no real window sills or windows low enough to peep out of.
And then we had a baby... who cried. a lot. But browsing through pictures, at least Mr. Pea Body did come out at times.
Then we moved into a noisy apartment building with no way of really accessing the windows... and then came another baby who cried and made noise.
Although I know they were there because we continued to change litter boxes and buy food, I don't remember them too much through those years. I don't know... call it the fog of childrearing.
Then came the move to Ruston. LA... we were already pinched for funds so how do we move 2 cats when we are taking the bus? Of course, we fly them out. ;) They flew from Salt Lake to Dallas and then were driven to Ruston. I have to say, I really think that move aged them. Suddenly, they were our "old" cats. They both spent all their days in Ruston sleeping under our futon and when we moved, there was a rug of cat hair to prove it. The first house in Texas did have some windows, but Mr. Pea Body's night life was significantly hampered by his age. One morning he jumped up into the laundry room window (I cannot imagine him jumping that high now) and pushed out the screen -- reminiscent of his old Logan bachelor nights. Only this time he fell on his face and lost a tooth. I felt terrible looking at this geriatric old man of a cat with blood on his mouth like he'd been in a brawl. He must have been humiliated. Seriously.
Our home sweet home now has lots of wonderful windows with birds chirping and fluttering about every morning and squirrels traversing tree branches and fence tops, but alas, the cats chose to slumber. The only thing that really gets them going is an occasional laser light and a piece of cat nip (and that cat nip is like the movie Awakenings or something -- very funny to see instant moments of animation followed by hours of catatonic rest).
Mrs. Pea Tunia has taken on the role of nanna. She joins us each night up stairs for story time and curls up on Tiny Toeses bed until she has fallen asleep. When I see her come down, I know Tiny Toes has finally given it up and gone to sleep. Sometimes she joins her again later in the night, but mostly she sleeps on the couch
So why this long post of Mr. & Mrs. P's odyssey through life? I don't know, I can't believe I've spent this much time and effort on a Saturday typing and thinking about cats except that a good friend recently lost a sweet family dog and it really got me thinking about our cats. Mr. P and I have never been too close, but I appreciate the love he has always given to Big Daddy. At night, he often yowls if Big Daddy has to go out or doesn't retire to bed in a timely fashion. And Mrs. Pea Tunia keeps me company during the day. She is especially keen to my moods and stays close when I am sad and for that I am thankful.
The other night Big Daddy and Tiny Toes came to get me to show me Mrs. Pea Tunia in a rare yoga pose...
We had fun taking some pictures and treating them to some cat nip...
And then there's Bugsy -- my studio mascot. He was an adoption from a neighbor and we love him. He is very affectionate and loves to eat carrots. He thumps when he's feeling ignored and loves a gentle pet on his nose from my students. On the days I don't teach, he gets very lonely. Our favorite thing about Bugsy is his penchant to frolic (back and forth behind the chairs) when he's happy -- he kicks his back legs up like a donkey.
He is very sweet and we love him in spite of the fact that he occasionally eats his own poo poo.
