Believe it or not, I have cats too!

It seems as though I talk about my dogs most of the time and hardly ever of the cats, which is a shame since they're equally as wonderful!

The Lhasa Asshole/Rat Bastard has hated them from the day he arrived; I had hoped that within 6 months he would have learned to have lived with them, but sadly, no amount of acclimation has occurred.  Therefore, in order to protect the cats, we have baby gates in place to act as a barrier in the home.

Judah was my ex's cat when we first started dating way back in 1996.  "Ju-Ju" is a dream of a cat; he has so much loyalty and just wants to be with you.  In fact, he does remind me a bit of a dog as he will follow you around and cuddle with you.  Such a sweet boy.

When my ex and I moved in together 2 years later into an apartment, he decided that Ju-Ju needed a friend; we did go look at kittens which were advertised in the paper, but he did not like the home and therefore, no free kitten (there was a pretty black & white which I was ready to bring home).

Then, we found out there were kittens in a local pet store (this was before I learned how terrible most pet stores are which sell live animals).  We went there to see 4 tabby/tortie mixes in a back window.  One in particular saw us, stood up spread-eagled on the glass, and YOWLED!  My ex said "we'll take THAT one".

And so, Kayzee came to join us.  Kayzee received her name the first night:  she purred so loudly that I proclaimed that she sounded like his Kawasaki KZ 750... hence her name (originally spelled KZ but no one ever knew how to pronounce it, since "Z" can be "zed" or "zee"; we chose the American pronunciation).

Judah wanted NOTHING to do with her that first night (Sunday); he couldn't get far enough away from this interloper.  Happily, coming home from work the next day, we were greeted by the sight of the two of them cuddling, and Judah grooming Zee.  They have been inseparable ever since.

At Zee's first vet visit, she weighed 0.8 lbs, and rather than the 7 weeks we were told she was, the vet believed her to be more like 5 weeks old.  That began our education about the evils of live animals in pet stores.  Zee is still a healthy little girl all of these years later, but early on she had inappropriate urination issues, which could be related to the early separation from her family.  She is also a compulsive groomer, and her belly and legs are usually bald; but otherwise, she seems happy at 11 years of age!

Judah has also had a life-long heart murmur, first picked up at 4 years of age when we first moved into the apartment; he has been on medication since then and has been completely fine until a year or so ago, when he lost a LOT of weight (he was down to 8 lbs when he should be 12 lbs) and was vomiting often.  Testing indicated that he had early onset-kidney failure, along with hyper-thyroidism; medication and a different diet reversed the kidney issue and regulated his thyroid.  Today, a year later, he is at his healthy weight and looks and behaves wonderfully for a 17 year old cat!

And of course, living in a house of dogs which includes foster dogs, Ju-Ju and Zee are our stunt cats to determine whether a foster dog can live with cats or not.  ALL have passed (with only some showing excessive interest, but not aggression); how's THAT for irony.... I adopted the one dog that cannot live with them!