Love at first bite.

Now's a good time to introduce my other baby!
That's right, my cat gets his own post.

This is Rex Cat:

His coat is all white except for a little white tip on his tail.
As of today he's 8 1/2 years old. That's 50 in human years.
I rescued him when he was only 8 weeks old.
I had heard my friends dad's cat had a litter of kittens.
Kittens? YES!
I went to go love on them.
Little did I know I'd be bringing one home.

He was the runt of the litter.
(You'd never believe that now.)
Even though he had jet black fur I could see the fleas swarming him, even in his eyes and dirty little ears.
It was dinner time for the little kitties, and they were trying to edge him out of the milk bowl.
He saw me sitting on the couch and bounced, literally, over to me with an ornery twinkle in his eye.
He then proceeded to climb my leg with his tiny razor claws.
I had a skirt on.
Ouch.
He circled on my lap, plopped down, and dug his teeth into my hand.
It was love at first bite.

Well, I had no choice.
I was madly in love with that flea bitten varmint, so he came home with me that same day.
I locked him in the bathroom to keep the fleas contained and immediately took off to Target to get him flea shampoo, food, litter box, and flea collar.
The next day I called the vet and made a same day appointment to have him checked out.
He got dewormed and shampooed again, and was on the up and up.
The only rough patch we had was his mommy abandoned him, so the people that previously had him were feeding him cow's milk and he had horrible diarrhea.
It was so bad in fact that I had to give him a bath every day.

Little did I know I had also taken home a dog.
That's right, my cat thinks he's a dog.
Seriously.
(He's also part horse, goat, raccoon, rabbit, kangaroo......)
His demeanor is exactly like a dog.
When he was little he loved his baths.
LOVED them.
He doesn't like to be alone, ever, and follows us from room to room.
He insists on sleeping on us at night.
Not just by us, but nearly on our head, scooted up against our rump, or piled out on our feet.
He's a very touchy feely guy.
He thinks the outside is his real house, and the indoors is just his food/catbox cabana.
When he was little he would bring me his toys to throw.
He would fetch it and bring it back to me.
He was so much like a dog in fact, that I gave him a dog name.

Rex.

He was no longer "Tippy," (for his white Tippy tail) as his previous owners called him.
Although, when I get mad at him I call him Tippy and he gives me his I'm-So-Pissed airplane ears.
Here he is with his "squeaky meat" dog toy:


 (An old camera phone pic. Sorry 'bout that.)
He's 16 pounds of muscle & tuna now.
(And OK, a smidge.......smidge of tummy pooch. But he looks more like a mini panther.)
He stays fit by playing hard, as you can tell:


His front paws are polydactyl, and he really does use his thumb like a thumb to pick up and throw his toys.
"Thunderpaws" as we call him.
He drools when he's really, really happy and if you let him sit on your lap he will lick your arm until it bleeds or you make him stop.
His biting issues have settled down a bit since he's been romping outside more.
His preferred sleeping position?
Face down:

Did you know he also has super powers?

He's my buddy.

I never knew you could love an animal that much.

We've been through a lot together.

During some struggling financial times in my life, I had to shred newspaper for his catbox.

I would forgoe one dinner for myself to buy him his breakfast tuna for the week.

Oh yes I did!

I can honestly say I have a cat for a friend.
My Roo.

After 7 years he was an only child no longer.

Baby Maeve was on the way.

He was a lap cat.

The baby of the house.

Do you think my big prego belly stopped him from cuddling?

Nope.

He cozied right up to my big ol' space heater.

Once Maeve got big enough that you could feel her kick, the real fun began.

She would kick.

He would bat at my tummy, thinking there was some small rodent in there.

Kick::::Kick

Bat::::Bat
They would play until one of them got tired and fell asleep.

And so a bond was born, well before her actual birth.

Rex tested out her toys first for her, like a good older brother:

And then once she was finally here, they were inseparable:

Like any siblings they have their good days and bad days together.

.....My two spoiled babies. I don't know what I'd do without them!