Our ZOO

Aspects of

Text Box: This is Jazz, who is Black-Cat-In-Training to be THE black cat in the house. (once you meet Obo, you will understand). She doesn’t, however, consider herself to be ‘only’ a cat... She romps in the yard with Jade, the Lab, and spends quite as much time playing Dog as she does playing Cat.

Text Box: This is Callie, who is sister to Jazz. She is our Flower Child.

Text Box: Callie is often seen up on the roof of our house. She goes out early every morning to check out the neighborhood; see what is happening. One would never know she is nearly blind, and please don’t tell her that we know.... She thinks she’s hidden it for all this time. To make up for her problem, she is often a bit aggressive with any who try to get too close to her without her permission.

Text Box: Jazz plays Dog, and Jade plays Cat... Together they help to make our family a loving unit. They work together toward providing early warning of any disturbance in the neighborhood.
Jade is gentle and loving, loves to travel to the mountains with us. She is also a very comfortable person to take to family gatherings because she also brings very nice manners with her. Everyone always says she can come back to visit, anytime, which is more than is often said about either me or Adam!

Text Box: Muttley came to live with me when he was ten years old already; it was love at first sight. He was with us for seven years, left us in November 2002, leaving a large space in our hearts as well. He was my shadow, although he loved us all. Incorrigible cat chaser when he first came to live with me, eventually he and our cats came to mutual understanding.

Text Box: Obo is THE resident Black Cat. She is now nearly 18 years old, spends most of her time sleeping, but is still a very dominant personality in the household. All of us cater to her. I call her The Sentinel because it often seems as though she watches and guards over us at night when we’re sleeping. Jazz is the only other cat she really tolerates in her area, which is why we call Jazz the Black Cat In Training. Obo is very special.

Text Box: Jazz and Jade are often found cuddled together. We have wondered if there is a ‘color consciousness’ among them, because very often they will deliberately exclude Callie, who does take it personally, with claws on attack mode. It could be differences in personality, though... We don’t know for sure.

Text Box: Shelby is the most recent addition to our extended family of critters. She lives in Riverside, California, with her family. When Jade went with us to visit them, none of us was confident the two dogs would like each other, especially since Jade was the guest. Shelby could have either fought or ignored her. She did neither. She was delighted to have company, and they’ve been friends ever since. Just recently Shelby came visiting here in Bakersfield, and both dogs played furiously the entire time. Jade moped around for several days after they’d all gone home.

Text Box: He’d been Adam’s cat for many years, but once he met me, we knew we were meant for each other. Instant friends. He left us in the fall of 2001. While Obo was definitely the Queen, he was always truly the King, very royal. He was eighteen. I tried to get him to stay, but he knew very well when it was time to pass over.

Perhaps Adam will write a bit more about him and some of their adventures, on his pages.

Text Box: Dude and I recognized each other right away as kindred spirits.