June 28, 2020
#393
Gentle reader,
Although there may be people that collect animals, we do not. But since the Blog is called The Robb Collections this article falls under it.
As a child in a small town in rural Kansas in the 1960's our parents got us a Corgi puppy who later was run over by the milkman.
Lest you do not know the term "milkman" means, they (probably exclusively men) worked at local dairies and had delivery routes in nearby communities. He would bring however many bottles of fresh milk direct from the cows to your home.
Enough about that. Since a dog did not work out, we switched to cats. I have been a cat lover ever since.
Where I worked years ago, was a subway rail yard. There were a number of trailers on the properties for contractors.
There were wild animals there, raccoons, foxes, muskrats and some locations, woodchucks or groundhogs.
There was also a cat, a female, who you will meet soon. She was not shy about coming in the shop looking for food. Also, obviously at least one male cat.
That's her on the right sharing a meal with two of her litter. More photos of her below. Interestingly, one of the kittens has her tail straight up which means she liked me.
The subway and bus system worked 24 hours a day and between myself on day shift and another fellow on evening shift, we fed mom and later her kittens. I named her, above, Tiger.
I dubbed her Longhair.
Above and below is Gracie.
Mom was tiger striped, I imagine there is a more correct title for her fur pattern.
She was skinny and dirty, but with pretty markings.
Looking as close to roaring as a cat might in this photo, she was telling the girls she was back.
The kittens were wild, having no contact with humans but I was determined to tame them.
I did so by making sure they figured out the yummy food came from me. And with introducing them to a mouse toy on a stretchy string.
Before long, they became comfortable with my presence and came out when they saw me.
Tiger became my favorite.
To get them used to contact, I would lightly stroke their fur.
At first, they were skittish, but soon calmed.
As time went by, I carefully picked each one up.
I murmured to them and held them for a few seconds then gently put them down. Before long, they enjoyed the contact.
I brought it a pet carrying crate with a nice soft blanket inside. The that afternoon, I checked and Gracie and Tiger were inside. I closed the door and brought them home.
The next morning, I put the crate back out and that afternoon, Longhair was inside.
This all occurred over the summer of 2005. However, Longhair did not take to living inside at all and we were forced to take her to the animal shelter.
"Tiger, what IS that?"
Some months later in November, it was bitter cold with a strong wind. A track worker came to me and said, "Are you the cat man?" I thought about that and said that I was. "I found a kitten in the yard. We called and called for it's mother, but she never came. So I brought it to you." His hands were empty so I asked, "Where is it?" He raised his long beard and a tiny black kitten was hanging on to his coat beneath.
Meet Monkey.
The Vet estimated he was eight weeks old.
As we were waiting to be seen by the doctor, I spied a small puppy. I showed it to Monkey and he hissed at it! "You are tiny, how do you know about dogs?"
I named him Monkey because he loved to climb up and sit on my shoulder or if I had a hoodie on, into the hood.
I used to collect things. Still do. Thus the name of the blog. All the toy/trainer rifles and 98% of the film cameras seen and not, are long gone.
When Monkey saw our other cats, he ran up to resting Tiger and snuggled up to her. She bopped him on the head indicating, "I am NOT your mother!", much to Monkey's dismay!
Tiger go over it. Gracie, whom we found a home for with my wife's boss, also let Monkey sleep with her.
Monkey grew to be an enormous cat. Sadly, he developed a disease which took his life.
When we moved into this house in 2001, we got these two mitten kittens. Leah and Aires.
The beige computer and floppy discs show how long ago this photo was made.
Polydactyl is the scientific term for mitten kittens. They had extra toes as you can see here.
Tiny Aires misses Mom, above and Leah playing, below.
We adopted another cat whom we named Mo. He was SUCH a lover of a cat!
Aires markings darkened as she aged.
She liked to sleep in this position as you can see here and below.
Cats love boxes, but I found this hilarious.
Bookends.
Leah darkened as well.
I am a photographer and when finished with the models, Leah walked into the room, posed and said, "You may photograph me as well."
Mo, the only male pet we have had, had no problem as a substitute mom for baby Monkey.
He liked to sit on the stairs like this.
We lost him last year. He got SO thin near the end. Virginia clay is hard to dig into. What a great cat he was.
I scanned almost 100 film photos for this article. I came across the two below first and positioned them on the scanner. Then found the one above, which is fuzzy and included it.
I got off work much earlier than my wife. She always came to find me when she got home. One day, she did not. I found her downstairs in our room. "What's going on?", I said. "It's true what they say." And pointed down to a tiny Dachshund puppy who saw me and her little tail wagged. "Oh! So cute!". My wife said that I "turned into a big man puddle", when I spied the puppy.
And thus, we became a two-species family. Meet Gretchen, above. Aside from what you see here, there were/are two outside cats that became ours.
We dubbed her, MS Grey. Our across-the-street neighbors had an identical cat. They were military and were transferred to Hawaii. Hardship posting.
We heard from them that their cat had gotten out of her crate at the airport and ran off. Months later, MS Grey showed up on their former porch. She had a flea collar on. Same cat? We'll never know. She preferred to be outside and eventually was hit by a car. Very affectionate cat.
We live in a cul-de-sac and one day our daughter found a tiny kitten in the street. She named her MS Clause as she found her near Christmas.
They moved to another neighborhood and as MS Claws (we changed the spelling because sharpens them often) too preferred to be outside all the time, they were afraid she would not be happy there.
We lost Tiger a few days ago after fifteen years with her. She was NOT a lap cat for years, it was not her thing. Then one day, my wife had dozed off in her chair. Tiger looked up at her, saw she was asleep and jumped into her lap!
As she aged, she mellowed and really enjoyed lap time and petting. As we let the dogs (two Dachshunds and two Prague Ratters) lick our plates, she, being the only cat left, joined in. The older she got, the more canine she became.
Prague Ratters are the smallest dog breed in the world. Bred in the Czech Republic more than 600 years ago, they resemble Doberman Pinschers but predate them. Maria snuggling with Mo, above.
Mini with Tiger near the end. We lost Maria before she was five. She stopped eating and the vets could not figure out what was wrong.
Tiger being one of the dogs on our bed.
One day, our daughter came over, she and my wife took Gretchen and went somewhere.
Hours later, they came back. I was sitting on the couch. "Why am I looking at two dogs?", I asked.
"She was going to be put down tomorrow. We had to save her!" So, Heidi, who was skin, bones and nipples when she came to us, has filled out.
The girls tend to stand at the top of the stairs if we go to the front door.
Mini, on the left was our daughters. When my wife saw her tiny eight-week-old puppy which could fit in your palm, she asked if they had any more.
Unbeknown to me, she went and bought Maria (between Gretchen and Heidi) and presented her to me for my birthday.
Mini, before she was fully grown standing on a #10 envelope on standard stairs for scale.
Maria back from the hospital, on the right.
Mini, looking fierce behind the gate at the top of the deck stairs. We had taken Tiger out back so that she could enjoy the outdoors before she passed, and did not want the dogs running around.
We could tell she was loving the experience.
Two final photos. Tiger loved to lay on the vents when the heat was on. No matter what we did, she found a way to defeat our efforts to stop her.
And finally, Leah and Aires, polydactyl cats sleeping silly.
I hope you have enjoyed this history of our feline journey. Right now, MS Claws is all we have left. She likes to nap indoors and we have a bell hanging from the front door knob. She rings it to let us know she wants out. Smart cat. But not lap friendly. Yet.
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Scott
June 28, 2020
#393
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