"PaBo" <silverwrist@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1104837516.726322.263950@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...

Hi!  Hope you enjoy yourself here!

This deserves a string all its own!

My current set of cats are: Mama Kitty, Jayne, Spock, Shadow, Scotty, and
Ruby.  Have had lots over the years, ever since I was a kid.  Mom had a big
old barn full of cats, and they all got named.  I usually just let the cat
tell me their name.  After a while I start to notice personality traits and
the name just sort of follows.

However, there are some notable exceptions:
*) Mama Kitty - formally 'Sylvia', big longhair shiny-white with blue eyes
(not deaf).  She was the next-door neighbors cat but by the time she was 8
weeks old she had moved in with us - the neighbor had lots of cats and told
me she didn't mind if Sylvia preferred us, so that was that.  We had little
money in those days, so the poor cat had kittens before we could get her
fixed, then kept getting preggers (hence the name Mama Kitty) until I
finally found a vet that would "spay now - pay later" for us.

This was about 13 years ago, and at the time I didn't know about groups that
would help defray the cost of spaying/neutering.  We lived in a very rural
area and most animals didn't seem to get fixed, but that was changing
rapidly by the time we moved away.  Now all my pets are spayed or neutered,
and I think they're all happier about it.  I know Mama Kitty is!!!

*) Jayne - A brindle-colored Scottish Fold female that showed up on my porch
one day about six years ago.  I forbid the kids to pet or feed her, hoping
she'd go back home.  Eventually she got skinnier, with the exception of her
belly (yep, preggers!), so I had the kids take her door to door looking for
her owners.  No one claimed her, so she had her litter in my closet and we
soon got her fixed.  At the vet's we had to come up with a name for her
records - I chose Jane because she was such a 'Plain Jane' cat - not pretty
at all.  But then I felt that even a plain jane deserved something a little
fancy, so gave her the Jayne Mansfield spelling.  The vet also was able to
give me a clue as to Jayne's possible origins.  He told me that a local
family had tried to raise Scottish Folds for profit, but found the
associated health problems too hard to deal with (they were apparently
breeding two Fold Ears together, instead of using just one - big mistake).
The family had since left the area and their cats were abandoned.

*) Spock - One of Jayne's kittens, now all grown up.  He is technically
called a Straight-Eared Scottish Fold.  His big, upright ears earned him his
name.  He's a big (15 lb.) boy, a gray and black Tabby.  Full of attitude,
great guy.

*) Shadow - Spock's all black sister, also a Straight Eared Scottish Fold
from Jayne.  She's a very delicate cat that would be a ballerina if human,
very smooth and beautiful motions even if she's just walking across the
room.  A real beauty!

*) Scotty - Another of Jayne's kids - a brindle Scottish Fold male with the
Folded Ears.  Is already getting the stiffness that some Scotty's get, as a
result he's pretty much floor-bound and worries about being stepped on, so
he's usually hiding.  Poor guy.

*) Ruby - A grey and white shorthair female that was born to a stray in our
barn.  The mother and the rest of the litter mysteriously died, so one of my
kids finished raising Ruby and named her because she thought Ruby's eyes
were like jewels and thought that ruby's were blue, you get the picture.
Ruby is another not real friendly-type, only wants me or my daughter to
handle her, but a pretty little girl just the same.

One note:  I've learned my lesson with regards to spaying and neutering -
all of my pets for the last 10 years have been fixed - don't let your pets
propagate without good reason - finding good homes for all the offspring is
hard - that's why I have so many of Jayne's kids still with me!

~Shelly~