This is Beany cat, who is now officially seventeen years old! You can sort of tell that she’s on the skinny side, but only just a bit. She sure hasn’t started ACTING her age! She still goes a little crazy from time to time and tears around the house, and she still thinks it’s safe (and maybe funny?) to walk along the stair railing while I tell her to get down before she falls. And she’s still *definitely* the boss of the animals!
We have five cats, and I used to be able to say, “but two of them are outside most of the time,” except that they’re now all very much indoor cats. (The youngest one sneezed up a bot fly larva about a year ago, and that was Too Much for me, so now they have to stay indoors.) I won’t go on too much about each of them, but I will say that the fifth cat really balanced things out nicely. You don’t hear that very often! But we had three female cats (who, after a lot of turmoil between the younger two, had settled into more or less of a truce), and then our neighbor’s male cat decided he’d rather live here, thanks, and that really brought chaos into the cat community. He did settle down after we got him neutered, but it wasn’t until we got him a friend (a male kitten) that most of the wrinkles got ironed out.
This youngest cat (Bitsy) has always floated around as though the world were made for him, a little prince whom everybody loves. And it’s like the other cats went, “I guess we DO love him?” I’ve caught him snuggled up with all four of the cats at various times, and he’s seemed to make the others more accepting of one another, as well. It’s not 100%, but it’s pretty good, considering. I like to say that they went from being four random cats to a working cat colony once there were five of them.
But Beany is still the boss. She has been since I got her when she was a nine-month-old cat child. I had an older male cat already, and Beany came home and started running the place. But she’s always been good with kittens — I think it helps that she doesn’t doubt her position at the top! I really hope she’s still stealing my spot on the sofa many years from now.
Hi Anna,
Who wouldn’t love Beany Cat? Sweet face. I have two cats, a large black/white Maine Coon male and a female tabby. I have had him “Jimbo” since a kitten and he is 10 years old now and the tabby “Starfish” is a little over one year. They love on each other and have always been pals. Before Starfish I rescued a 10 year old female “Ashley” when Jimbo was about 5 years and after a short time of adjustment for her they became best friends. I live in a very small 3 room apartment so without the luxury of rooms to separate for adjustment and having to share a litter box, etc. I have been very lucky with that. We lost Ashley in April of 2022. she had 3rd stage kidney failure when I got her but we kept her alive and happy for 4+ years and Jimbo was with her to the end. Looking forward to more posts. Take care and be safe.
Sending good wishes, Barbara