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Uhura, the Siamese mix, and Moose, the dilute calico, are sisters from another mister. They couldn’t be further apart in personality. Moose prefers a warm lap all day, and the occasional cat treat. Uhura prefers to stalk the resident dog around the house, and steal food off of human plates. One thing they do have in common; getting crazy with some Grade A catnip and scratching posts and passing out afterward.

My cat, Ichigo, is surely the Cat’s Meow! He is so darling and handsome, always there to save the day.

Not only do I have rescue dogs, but as an “equal opportunity” pet owner I also have three cats.

Dashidelic 55k (55,000): Why is he so special? We can’t quite pin it down, but we think his Twitter bio sums it up best: “Yes that’s my name. I’m a most extraordinary tuxedo cat. Action packed and handsome, like James Bond. Even cooler than cool, ice cold, like Andre 3k.”

Izzy (left) is a gray tabby with a strong personality. He loves to go outside so much that he has learned to open doors to get out.

Leo is my cat. He is a nice kitty. He is black and tiny, and he is fun to play with. My family adopted Leo from the San Martin Animal Shelter in August. He was 3 months old. They had a lot of kittens when we visited, but Leo was special. He didn’t mind the other cats in the shelter, but he really liked me. I felt special that he chose me. Adopting Leo made me happy because I wanted a friend. My family is new to Morgan Hill, and I didn’t know anyone. It was hard to start a new school. Things are so different here than in Illinois where we used to live. Each day, no matter what kind of day I have at school, Leo is happy to see me. We hug before I do my homework or eat a snack. It makes me laugh when he does somersaults while playing with toys or his tail. Leo is super cuddly and very soft. He likes to watch me do my homework and play Legos.

We adopted Belle Star from a farm in the mountains of El Dorado county. She was the runt of the litter but her Calico markings were beautiful and my teenage daughters fell in love with her. Belle Star could be very feisty, but also very loving. She took turns sleeping on top of all of our pillows throughout her life - purring non-stop and tickling our faces with her whiskers. My daughters would jokingly say that they loved her so much that they would be willing to marry her one day.

I've always had cats and dogs in my life, but Charlie stands out most likely because of his unique personality and the fact that he lived well over 20 years. In 1962, I felt it was time to bring a cat into our home and followed up on a newspaper ad for a free cat. On arriving at the address I found a scrawny flea-bitten adult Manx cat and he pretty much adopted me! I immediately brought him to the vet for a check-up and the doctor said Charlie was so flea-infested that he was anemic. After much love and care, Charlie blossomed into a beautiful butterscotch and white fluffy cat. He was with me through every move, from Southern California to Los Altos to San Jose and, finally, Morgan Hill.  In Los Altos, we took in an abandoned pregnant cat. When she had her kittens, Charlie watched over them and would hiss if the dogs got too close to their area. In San Jose he'd take his morning walk along his private freeway (the tops of the neighbors fences) and you could hear the dogs barking as he travelled along! When we moved to Morgan Hill, a series of stray cats heard through the cat grapevine that I loved cats. Each cat was brought to the vet for a check-up, vaccinations and neutered or spayed.  We ended up with six cats and Charlie watched over each one. In the mid-1980's Charlie's kidneys failed and I held him as the vet put him to sleep.  He's buried under a tree at my home.

Cassie came into my life only as a temporary guest. My oldest daughter had adopted her from the San Martin Animal Shelter. Within that year’s time my oldest daughter passed away and my loyal dog shortly thereafter.

His name is Bagheera (named after the panther in the Disney movie “Jungle Book”). A local pet shop does animal rescue. I stopped in one day and they had a little black kitten. He was so sweet. I was on one side of the cage and he got up and jumped to my side to say hello. A kitten size “meow hello.” He had arrived weeks ago with his siblings and now was all alone. You see, no one wanted him because he is all black. He had so much personality we decided to bring him home.