I have two cats; Sid, and a new arrival from the Humane Society (just a month ago) Snoopy.
Sid is a real bruiser. He's 12 yrs old and 16 lbs. His coat is blue grey during the winter and turns brown during the summer. His coat is practically all undercoat (which is the blue grey fur in the winter) which is the fullest and silkiest you've ever felt. He's the single most active cat I've ever met, though he's slowing down a bit now that he's old and arthritic (bad). He's a real character; an extreme extrovert that likes to interact with just about any living thing, and makes friends VERY easily (even of the most shy cats), but also ultra dominant. He's a siamese mix that has the siamese intelligence but applies it entirely to playing hunting games (the bigger the prey the better). He's good at anticipating what you're going to do, your pain tolerance(!), and so on. You can do just about anything to him, but that goes both ways - if he doesn't "win" now then he'll bite you in your sleep. He licks more than a dog (that is to say incessantly), and sometimes that can get creepy. I once lived with roomates that had friends over frequently and one day there was around 5 people sitting in the livingroom. He started at one end and went from person to person (in order) licking their faces, including lips to the point of getting his tongue in their mouth.
He's also extremely affectionate (everything about this cat is extreme) and knows exactly how to be cute. He also likes to sleep curled up next to you with his face on your pillow right next to yours. He also likes to climb up on your chest and lick your face any time he's able to do so (ie you're sitting down with your back at any more than a 90 degree angle).
His M.O. is to be extremely affectionate until a person falls in love with him (which even non-cat people usually do) and then start the hunting games. He will stalk you, and he is nippy (moreso than most siamese), but if he's feeling lazy and you walk by without shoes then he will just catch your sock with a single claw and give you a gaze that says, in no uncertain terms: "I own you." The single most common sound in the house with Sid is: "Hehehe... Hehehe... Hehe- OW! SIIIID!" (Even with my 80 yr old, at the time, grandmother.)
When I lived with my grandparents in the suburbs for a time, the neighbors had reported that he started his own little "fight club," where all the cats and dogs in the neighborhood gathered at the yard on the corner of the block to play fight every day.
I almost lost him about 3 years ago when he came down with fatty liver disease. My gf at the time was working at a pet clinic, which is one of the best around. If we had waited any longer at all there would have been no chance, but they pulled a piece of fat the size of a large burger off of his liver, he ate through a tube in his neck for a few weeks, and fully recovered. The picture below is a little serendipitous because I had walked into the room that he was being kept just about a week earlier, looked at him and thought: "That fire is back in his eyes, he's going to make it!" If you look in the area just under where his chin is in the picture you can see where his neck was shaved for the tube.
All said and done he's actually perfectly behaves. He doesn't get on counters or get into things he shouldn't, he normally only scratches his post, and so on. It (along with his quirky and affectionate disposition) makes up for the obnoxiousness, which can't be overstated.
I just got out of a 7 year relationship with someone that had 2 other cats. As Sid is extremely attention hungry all the time, and has never been without a best friend since he was about 9 months old, I had to get him a new friend. Sid's become extremely demanding and lonely.
I decided to go to the Humane Society so that I could get a cat that was at least
somewhat of a known quantity: older but still playful, good with other cats, small (with my condition it hurts to have Sid in my lap, sometimes for days after), and relatively laid back. I've also always wanted to get a purebred siamese, because I've always had a siamese in my life since I was born, even if just part, and I like the personality.
I've only had this guy for a month, and he promptly succumbed to an upper respiratory tract infection as soon as he came home, so I don't know that much about him. He's just now really getting back to being himself, but he has to stay isolated in the bedroom for at
least two to three more weeks. He is a funny little guy, though. He moves a bit like a ferret, ducking down and darting around. Sometimes he will duck and run to the side like he's running away, only to pop up in your hand to be petted. He's affectionate and like to follow you and talk, and does not like being held. He does like to crawl deep under covers to sleep. He purrs very loudly, almost mechanically, and puts a little voice into the purr so that he kind of trills. He has a very articulated tail, and once in a while he'll stroke my arm with his tail while I pet him.
Snoopy is a 6 year old lilac point siamese, and was apparently an old man's cat until the man moved to a retirement home. Snoopy was given to the man's kids to take care of. Apparently it was only supposed to be temporary, but it didn't turn out that way and they had to give him up because of "allergies." I use the quotes because the house had two or three other cats and a dog and Snoopy hardly sheds (and I haven't seen any visible dander, and I have a black bedspread), but from the sounds of it he was really not happy there at all. He seems to have taken to me, though - he's not being as picky as the previous owners reported, and he only hid for about 16 hours. I think that people that don't know siamese cats have a hard time with their mannerisms and ways of doing things.
I really can't wait to let him out of the room to meet Sid, keep him company, and to see what his personality is really like. I'm waiting for that to rename him. I'm just worried that Sid will be jealous of the fact that this guy is small enough to be in my lap anytime he wants.
She is only a about 11 weeks old, so she is still a baby, and a very playful one at that. Her newest game is to ride on Mordor's back around the house while she swipes at anything within her reach! She is just plain adorable.
