I've been promising to introduce myself more officially so here goes!  My
best friend and husband David and I share our lives with 5 lovely
masters--Clover, Hailey, Gollum, Linden, and Sophie.  We live in a
beautiful, semi-rural area of Northern California near the redwoods--about 2
hours north of San Francisco.  We both work in Health care--David is the
night supervisor in the local hospital lab and I work in Public Heath as a
Microbiologist.

Enough about us--on to the cats!  To properly understand my cat "collection"
you have to realize I never intended to have more than a couple, maybe three
cats at a time--anything more kind of put you in the category of "crazy cat
lady", a title I now wear with great pride.  Unbeknowst to us, our oh so
lovely neighbors decided to stop feeding their cats--most of whom were feral
to semi-feral.  We ended up taking in several cats/kittens at that time,
including Tortle, Hailey and Molly.  Tortle and Hailey were itty bitty
kittens--maybe 5 to 6 weeks old.  Molly was probably about 10 at the time.
And although several others have gone on to the rainbow bridge, we took in
several other cats from this neighbor incident--Samson, Schwartz, Ruby,
Sméagol, Zorro--I don't remember them all. We also didn't realize that some
city folk like to dispose of unwanted cats in the country, thinking that
some kind-hearted person will take them in or that, miraculously these naive
kitties can fend for themselves.  Over the years we have also taken in
several of these poor bewildered cats: Clover and Sophie are two that came
into our lives as disposable kitties.  We have had as many as 7 in the house
and 3 or 4 ferals that we trapped, neutered and then fed--Zorro now holds
that honor.

I thought I'd introduce two kitties that have both made the journey to the
Rainbow Bridge, Molly and Tortle.  Someone on one of the newsgroups was
talking about "heart cats".  Both of these sweet girls were my heart cats.
Tortle was a remarkable little person--loving, playful, all the best things
you expect from a cat.  I posted her tribute when I introduced myself in
February.  She was best friends with Molly, the most unflappable cat I have
ever had the pleasure of knowing.  Momma Cat (now Molly)--the neighbors were
going to stop feeding her, too and she was definitely not a feral.  She
lived up to her name--when we got Tortle and the other kittens she hissed at
them once and then took over mothering duties (except for nursing and she'd
let them try to nurse on her!)  She was about 10 when we got her in 1998 and
we didn't know she was deaf--it didn't seem to slow her down at all.  She
and Tortle have always been best buddies.  We would take her with us on
trips--she didn't mind the car ride at all.  She liked going on walks,
although she wasn't very guidable!  She was really an incredible cat.  She
ended up with CRF but was always a very good patient--we would have to give
her fluids and she would purr throughout the entire process (unlike Tortle,
who had acute kidney failure and would fight like a demon when we'd try
fluids on her!)  We finally had to send her off to the RB last April--she
was at least 17 years old, possibly older.

Here are some pictures, mostly of Tortle and Molly.  The first few are of
Gollum and Linden--more about them later (and more photos!).

http://pets.webshots.com/album/562731766QFUhFL?vhost=pets

Sorry to ramble on so--my cats so much a part of my life I tend to run on a
bit.

Bonnie