My Cats: Gobble and Amelia

I am experimenting with using flickr to upload photos, so here are some pictures of my cats.

This is Amelia, looking regal and uncompromising, which is how she expects to be treated at all times:


Amelia's about six years old and I've had her since she was a kitten, which makes me feel aged. I got her after a a break-up with a long-term boyfriend who'd been allergic to cats. A friend's neighbor found a box of abandoned kittens and brought them home, where they would wander over to frolic in my friend's backyard. Amelia was clearly the runt of the litter, but also the kitten most likely to start shit with her larger siblings, and i was charmed. I had planned to name her Sexy, sheerly for my own amusement at the idea of coming home to call, "Hey, Sexy!" When I went to pick her up, though, I found that the eight-year-old whose fingers she nibbled to wake up every morning had named her Amelia Earhart, which was too cute to deny.

As cats go, she's fairly demanding. She expects an immaculate litterbox, all doors to be open all the time, and me to remain immobile on the couch so she can sprawl across my belly in comfort. When these are not options, she complains. She's very vocal - I'll post video eventually. She's hissed at me just for closing the closet door, but she can also be very sweet and demonstrative.

This is Gobble, who I've had for a year and a half now:


I got her at the local county shelter, where she was waiting for a home after being fostered by a relative of one of the shelter workers. She was a little older than I liked to introduce to Amelia, but she had all her shots, etc. and came highly recommended by the shelter workers, so I set her up in the pending-new-housemate extra room for a couple days before the Amelia introduction. She was extremely skittish for approximately one hour, after which she did a complete turn-around and loved on everyone present then ate her body weight in kitten kibble. The Amelia introduction is another story.

Gobble is still skittish about a lot of things and does not like to be petted in passing. If you try she'll give one warning paw smack before she starts biting. If she knows you, though, it's simply a matter of time before she'll approach. Then she is ridiculously sweet, butting her face into your hand for rubbing and gazing open-mouthed into your eyes with adoration while you stroke her.

As the photo may indicate, Gobble loves the sink area the most, and will rub against the back of your calves while you wash the dishes. She's not very vocal, but when she does make noise it's unexpectedly strange, including a fast clicking noise from her mouth when extremely excited by birds outside the window. I named her Gobble in part for her style of eating (she dive-attacks the food then jerks backward so it flies upward through the air to land in her mouth), and in part for the turkey gobble sound she makes occasionally when playing by herself in a cat freak-out. Gobble deserves more attention than she gets because Amelia is such a me hog, but as she's gotten bigger she's taken her place more and more.

A typical day's interactions with my cats include Amelia sprawling across my belly on the couch, head resting on a bosom, and Gobble on the headrest next to us, stretching down just enough for her paw to rest on my arm. When I go to sleep at night, Amelia goes to her cat pad on top of a hight bookshelf across the room looking down on me, and Gobble resting in the hammock of the cat tree above my bed, also looking lovingly down at me. At those times especially it somehow feels like family, and I can't imagine my life without them.