Cats

Ah yes, cats. I used to dislike cats, quite a bit actually. This goes back to my mother's back yard. She is an avid gardener and I remember her toiling away at flower beds and plantings, only to have them dug up, peed on and sometimes even eaten by the neigborhood cats. Then there was the fact that she loved feeding the birds. Her little yard was a bit of a bird sanctuary, until of course one of the local cats came prowling and had to be chased off. That was done by my dad and myself. My dad's favorite thing would be to hide behind the patio door waiting for the feline stalker to creep into the yard, then when it was close enough, dad would throw open the door with a massive bang and shout at the same time. Many a cat was sent scrambling away by this, much to the amusement of my sister and I. For the longest time I felt cats were sneaky, annoying little things that deserved to get chased away with water pistols, yelling or other means.

How things have changed...

I blame our lovely friends Darrin and Alexia. They used to foster kittens from Vokra, a local organisation that rescues abandoned kittens. One day they had another litter and a 5-year old Kai came up cradling a little black kitten, a sight far too adorable for words.

This of course quickly lead to the fateful "wouldn't it be good if he had a pet" type discussion and a few days later we had adopted a kitten. We named him Loki. Kai was ecstatic and I had to admit, the little cat was pretty cute. He grew fast and about a year later we decided that two cats would be better than one, mostly to keep Loki company during the days when we were all out at work and school. So we went back to Darrin and Alexia's place, Kai picked another kitten that he called Mike. This became Mikey. After some inital angst on Loki's behalf, the two cats bonded and are now best pals.

Yeah, what can I say? Pretty cute. I do love these guys, they have amazingly complex personalities and are fascinating to observe. They can be crazy loving one moment and blur of motion and claws the next when chasing a feather toy. We've had many good moment with these guys so far and I am now firmly no longer of the opinion I mentioned above. In fact I love cats. There, I said it.