Lazy New Year's Day

It's been a lazy New Year's Day filled with food, family & football. The picture below sums up the laziness...

 Best wishes to all for a happy 2012! 

Smokey the Cat

In February of this year our next door neighbors moved out, unfortunately due to foreclosure. I guess they could not afford to keep all of their pets because they left at least 2 cats behind. One of these is rather wild, always wandering the neighborhood and we feed him whenever he comes looking for food. The other cat is super friendly. For as long as we've lived here he has come over begging for food and loving on us. He has a damaged eye, I think he can see a little out of it but you could tell he didn't like living outside because of it. When we found out for sure our neighbors were never coming back we decided to adopt him. We named him Smokey because he is a beautiful grey and white cat. I'm so glad we kept him because he is the sweetest, most loving cat I've ever met. He sits in my lap every night, in fact he is unhappy if he's not sitting on one of us! He gets along fine with the other cats after a brief adjustment period and even likes Cash. He had 2 big dogs at his previous house so I'm sure a dog that weighs less than he does is not a threat!

One funny story about Smokey. We were convinced he was a girl, mostly because a year ago in the spring I thought he was pregnant. We hadn't seen him all winter but the previous fall he had been kind of skinny. Guess he gained weight over the winter! Anyway, I was convinced his hard, fat belly was a pregnant one and then not too long after that we kept seeing this adorable grey & white kitten following him around. Every time Smokey came to eat, the kitten followed him. So when we adopted Smokey and took him to the vet I just told them he was a girl instead of having them check. We found out otherwise after they cut him open to spay him! My vet still laughs about that every time she sees us. She says at least she's made that mistake once and won't do it again!

Toby & Alex

Here are my beloved cats Toby & Alex:

TOBY

Toby is 5.5 years old & weighs about 20+ lbs! I got him when he was 6 weeks old from my next door neighbors in Memphis. He gets along ok with Alex, I think he would prefer to still be an only child! To be fair about his weight, he was around 15 lbs. when we got Alex and I guess he was afraid the new kitten was going to eat all of the food so Toby ate constantly! He's been better lately, I don't think he's gaining, just maintaining the same weight. I have him on diet food! Toby is named after the Christian singer Toby Mac because I was totally in love with him when I was in college & always wanted to name a child Toby, then realized that it wasn't the best name for an adult but a good name for a pet.

ALEX

Alex is now 9 months old - we got him when he was about 7-8 weeks old from my sister-in-law Nikki. We had been thinking of getting Toby a companion and I fell instantly in love with Alex when we were over at Nikki's house. I begged & Darin relented so we took him home that day. He looked exactly like Toby did when he was a baby so I couldn't resist! They still look almost exactly alike except that Alex has a white spot on his chest. Alex has been a handful though - he's a yeller and pounces on Toby at every opportunity. But they seem to play well together most of the time and we often find them curled up sleeping together. Alex was named after one of our favorite Royals, Alex Gordon.