Friday Funny 11-01/19 (Felines Always Rule)

It was National Cat Day on October 29th. Here's how Elsie, and Gus celebrated.

Elsie asleep on the settee.

Gus asleep on our bed.

"I could get so much done, if I didn't have to sleep 18 hours a day"

The horrors....

Back at our previous land home, we were cat-less, then Elsie showed up at the door one snowy day in October. She was so grateful to come in, and be held, that she draped herself over my shoulder, and became LC, which stood for Liquid Cat. As she took over the ownership of the home, her named morphed into Elsie.

Enjoying the fire.

The next year, or so... it's hard to remember back that far, we heard a banshee screeching through the woods, and Bill saw a white streak. He fed her...  naturally, and the second cat decided she was home.

This is Beyza.

Beyza is a Turkish Van, that's a cat without an undercoat, swims, and uses that luxurious tail as a rudder. The name Beyza is Turkish for snowball. She was a small cat, and didn't get along with Elsie very well. The two of them tolerated each other mostly, and the only interaction was when they tried to occasionally maul each other. We could hear them at night when Elsie, who far out-weighed Beyza, was "interacting", we called it, Elsie playing Beyza ball. Sometimes we would have to get out of bed, and separate them. Thankfully Beyza bonded with my daughter, and when we moved to the boat, Beyza moved to live with her in Seattle.

This is a normal position for Beyza, she likes to drape herself across you when you sleep.

One summer, along came Gus, who refused to come inside, or spend his nights in the warm garage. I've written about how one October day, at -5degrees, Bill picked him up and brought him inside.

Elsie says, "Move along Buster, this is MY house, and I already have a roommate that I can barely tolerate."

This is the day we brought Gus inside, Bill had been feeding him warm water, and kibble.

"I'm cold!"

The next year, a big tabby showed up, he looked just like Gus, and we were thinking he was Gus's Dad. I was adamant about no more cats in the house, three was enough, so Sammy went to live in the garage. He'd obviously been in some kind of scrap, because he had a big bite taken out of the side of his head, and Bill nursed him through it. Sammy needed a family to love him full-time, so we took him to the no-kill cat lady shelter, to let her try and find someone for him. We later found out that he belonged to a neighbor down the road, and the pit bull they were looking after, had been the one to take out that bite. No wonder Sammy ran away.  We let them know where Sammy was, and it was between them and the cat lady as to who would get custody.

So, now we have Elsie, and Gus onboard Denali Rose.

Permission to come aboard.

This is the day we moved onboard for good. Neither one of them were very happy, having just spent 9 hours in a cat kennel, either in the hold of an airline, or in a baggage cart. Gus was yowling, and trying to bite the bars of the kennel, and Elsie was seriously miffed. They got over it.

Elsie getting her beauty rest.

Gus surveys his domain

We're angels....

We want out!

DAD!!!! I can't untangle this line!!!

Both of them have taken ownership of Denali Rose, at different times one or the other has had to repel boarders. Gus even took on a barking german shepherd, he puffed up, yowled, and faced him down. The shepherd was on a leash, but we didn't tell Gus that.

In case you missed it, they were part of a feature in a popular blog post by my friend Ellen.

The Cynical Sailor & His Salty Sidekick

PS, if you like cozy mystery books, Ellen has written three so far, The Mollie McGhie Sailing Mystery series, Murder at the Marina, Bodies in the Boatyard, and Poisoned by the Pier. A fun read that isn't too intense.

PPS. I wonder how the current owners of our previous land home, deal with all of the strays that seem to show up in that location?


As always, we enjoy hearing from you, either here in comments or on our Facebook Denali Rose Sailboat page.