Hello all. My name is Sam but my on-line pseudonym is Faust. (A long story
goes with it.) I figured I would introduce myself to the news group.

I am the equivalent to the crazy cat lady, except for the fact I am a guy. I
own, 9 cats and 1 dog. Don't feel sorry for the dog, he thinks he's a cat
too. Pretty funny when he realizes he can't climb the trees.

All of my cats were strays or unwanted litters. I'm tempted to take on one
more cat to give myself an even 10, but I'm not quite sure. I am a thirty
three year old bachelor. I work too much to ever get married. I'm a walking
work-aholic. I have two full time jobs. The dog normally stays in the
laundry room. (It has a door with a doggy door to allow him to go outside.
Yes, the back yard is fenced in. I have a six foot privacy fence.) He stays
in the laundry room, cause the cats learned to use his door. I only let them
out supervised = leash. I do have a big house and everyone is spayed and
neutered. Only one male was neutered late and he's the only one that sprays.
All shots are up to date, I go to the vets at the local university. My
cousin works there and I get a discount because of her and also a group
discount for bringing them all in at once. My vet visits take up entire days
and requires more than one person to carry all the car crates.

My cat collection began with Boomer. He's a seal point Siamese, and six
years old. I was just a single dog owner playing ball with the pooch,
Digger. (He's a mutt who likes to dig. Hence the chicken wire I had to sink
under the fence to keep him from getting out.) I heard this pitiful meow and
I hadn't planned on taking on any cats. I liked cats, but didn't want to
clean litter boxes. (Boy times have changed. I think I should take stock in
Litter Maid, you know, the self scooping boxes.) Well on the other side of
the fence was the awfully dirty brown cat. I didn't think cats could get so
dirty. On a whim I took him in, posted an ad in the newspaper about finding
a cat. Knocked on all the doors in the neighborhood. After a week I became
the proud dog/cat owner.

After Booms discovered the dog door I realized I had to keep him out of the
Laundry Room. I felt really bad leaving Booms all day in the house by
himself so I decided two cats would be a good idea. I went to the Humane
Society and came back with Besa, he's a medium hair gray tabby. It took some
adjusting but Booms and Besa became great friends. A couple months later I
get a call from a friend of mine. Her cat had a litter of kittens, well I
wouldn't call it a litter. The mama cat, Fingers, a medium hair diluted
calico polydactl, had only one kitten. So I brought Evie, a medium hair
calico polydactl, into my home to live with Boomer, Besa and Digger the dog.
The story gets more interesting:

This same friend calls me about a year later, well she calls me often, but
it was a year before she told me Fingers had another litter. This time four
kittens she was going to take to the pound -not- I repeat -not- the Humane
Society. (I know I'm getting long winded here.) She wants to know if I want
another. I thought about it and I had a few beers. I said, "I'll make you a
deal. I'll take the entire litter if you promise me -right- now you'll have
Fingers spayed by the end of the week." My friend agreed and so I
introduced, four kittens all polydactls, Vixen, medium hair diluted calico,
Max, short hair black and white, Thumper, short hair tuxedo, and Garfield,
medium hair orange tabby. I say medium hair because they don't really shed a
whole lot, and don't matt too bad either.

A few months later my friend, should I call her my friend? Anyway, she calls
and says she's moving out of town and will I help her pack. Sure no problem.
Then she drops the bomb on me. She can't take Fingers (now spayed thank
goodness) with her. Would I mind adopting her since I have all her kids. At
this point the house is starting to look like cat heaven. Cat trees, cat bed
and cat toys litter the place but hey I can't turn down an animal in need.
So now I have Fingers.

Where does the last one come in? A year later a man outside of Wal-Mart was
giving away kittens. All of them solid black. I reserved myself to take home
just one. Vincent is now two years old and he doesn't have a white hair on
him. Even his skin is dark in color. He's also a short hair and sheds the
most.

I'm glad you could meet my family.
Faust