I Love Cats

I am, through and through, an animal lover.  I'm not in the extreme side of things, joining PETA or protesting or anything, but I do have a deep and impossible to ignore love for almost any creature, particularly cats.

Currently, I have two cats that I love and adore.  The first one is Nina, my approx. 11 year old spayed female cat, and the second is Oreo, my approx. 12 year old neutered male cat.

Nina

Nina belonged to my boyfriend before I met him.  She was adopted from a farm in Iowa, apparently hiding until the very last moment of my boyfriend making his decision before popping out and stealing his heart.  I know he spells her name differently, but I like to spell it Nina.

Over-all, she's a fantastic cat.  I call her my beautiful baby kitty, because I can't count the number of times I've had people gawk over her beauty and say how she's the most beautiful cat they've ever seen, which I agree with.  She's a black tabby cat that has a gorgeous mix of golden-tan and white spots, particularly above her eyes like seen in the picture.

In the first few years of being around her, she was mostly a solitary cat, not being much for attention and falling into the habit of just sitting in one spot for hours and just staring at you unflinchingly.  It apparently really freaked out my boyfriend's best friend when they were roommates together.

Now though, as I've been around her for 7 years and actually lived with her for 5, and also likely because of her aging, she's all for the attention.  She can't get enough of it, and often rolls around on the floor in a sort of hissy fit until I give her said attention.  If that doesn't work, she'll just walk around and meow endlessly until we try and shush her, effectively giving her attention.

One of her most endearing traits she's fallen into lately is how she'll sleep in bed with me.  While a lot of cats like to sleep between your feet or even sometimes next to you, Nina finds her place of choice is right on top of me.  My little diva will wait for me to lay down and stop moving before jumping up on the bed, crawling on top of me, and just curling herself up on my side, considering I usually sleep on my side.  Let me tell you, she's a fantastic heat blanket!  Of course, her getting comfy doesn't come without a lot of mewing and sass, considering she loves to get some attention before really falling asleep.

The only thing that drives us nuts about her is often occurring mistake of missing the litter box when she's going #1, and her rare habit of peeing on anything wet left on the ground.  If anything, it just taught us to hang up our shower towels and robes right away instead of leaving them laying around.

Oreo

Oreo, on the other hand, was adopted from a shelter by my boyfriend's mother.  Apparently, he highly resembled a cat that his family had owned and that had recently passed away, and his mother just couldn't say no when she spotted him.  Heck, I know I wouldn't be able to say no, it's why I avoid going to shelters.  I'd bring the entire shelter home!

Oreo is a maine coon cat, and is a model specimen of his breed.  With a vibrantly black and white coat, his distingushing feature is his 'beauty spot', a small black circular patch of fur on his left lip right in the middle of a patch of white fur.

Beyond his handsome appearance, Oreo is a playful, gentle cat who can never get enough attention.  He likes to be pet very rough, although will sometimes end the rough petting session with undeniable energy to play with the hands that were petting him.

We believe that before he was found or given to the humane society that my boyfriend's mother found him in, Oreo was mistreated by an adult male, considering he is skittish and wary of my boyfriend's movement even after 5 years, while barely caring what I do or how I move about him.  He used to be scared senseless of new visitors and people, hiding in my boyfriend's roommates closet way back when, but has now received enough love and attention from us to be comfortable and attention loving from new people.

At night, once my boyfriend and I have gone to bed, Oreo often gets lonely, or bored, unsure which, not realizing for whatever reason that we're just upstairs with the bedroom door open, and will proceed to pick up a toy and walk around, meowing with it in his mouth.  The sound that is produced is this weird, airy, chirpy almost meow that I'm sure has drove my neighbors nuts on more than one occasion.

His favorite toy is a small catnip cloth mouse, that if he gets particularly spunky with, will play fetch with.  I throw it, he flips out and chases, maybe chucks it around a bit, then brings it back meowing in that weird 'toy-in-his-mouth' way he does, all proud he caught his prey.

One of his odd habits is his 'love nibbles' as I've affectionately deemed them.  When he really desperately wants attention, and his two humans aren't giving it to him, he will often nibble on our elbows, arms, or even our sides sometimes to make sure we know he's still there and that he still wants attention.  While it's just meant to get our attention, more often than not it will hurt, considering Oreo is a ridiculously strong cat.  It's never broken the skin by any means, but it's definitely the attention grabber he's aiming for.

Over-all, I don't think I could have asked for two more perfect cats.  Our household use to consist of three cats, but unfortunately our landlord's inconsistency with their pet policy forced me to give our youngest away, thankfully to my brother who was kind enough to take the little rascal in.

Still, both Nina and Oreo will be living their lives out, happy and healthy and full of attention, until they pass from old happy fat-cat ages.