From commentor JustPeachyAndYou:
… We’re the crazy people down the street with lots of cats, currently seven. OK, we’re not certifiable, but we are down the street.
This is Chance, from around 2002. In the late 1980s we lived in L.A. Mr. JustPeachy was outside one pleasant evening in December after dark. He observed the budding psychopath neighbor kid throwing overhand a white cat against a fence in his backyard. The cat found a hole in the fence and quite literally leapt into Mr. JustPeachy’s arms, who promptly took him into our garage for safekeeping. After seeing to the wounded and hungry cat’s needs, he took the nearest 2×4 out to have a little come-to-Jesus talk with the kid. That I am not visiting Mr. JustPeachy in the state penitentiary is due only to the kid’s vanishing act. We called the local animal control and filed a formal complaint against the kid, and our vet at the time gladly promised to testify, but we never heard from animal control again, despite the several messages we left. We moved to Colorado soon after.
__
It took months before Mr. JustPeachy could touch Chance without being bitten, and years before Chance would abide in the same room with any other human males. He was an inveterate imp and loved to play. His favorite toy was a rope, with which he would parade through the house with pride, much to the entertainment of other cats who would give chase. Though he’s now old and slow, with heart, cancer, and arthritis, and immune system problems, he’s still an imp at heart.
These are the greys, Dr. Doom (crossed paws, fatter, neophobic even for a cat) and Retief (skinny, gymnastic, and quite tolerant of The Terrible Tonks, about whom more later). They were born on a farm and left in a box our vet’s home doorstep (surprise!). They had their own cage in the vet’s office to see if anyone would adopt them, but no takers. When they were growing out of their cute kitten stage, our vet asked if we might like one. As they’d only ever known each other, we said we’d take both (good thing, too; they terrorized each other instead of the not-at-all-amused older cats we had at the time). Dr. Doom unpredictably pees on certain rugs, and Retief talks all the bloody time, worse than your tipsy Aunt Sadie, but we love them anyway…
(Note from Anne Laurie: FYWP only allows me 4 photos per post, so the rest of the saga will have to wait for the next EMOT)
freelancer
Chance needs to date Smudge!
Make a note, folks, I thought of it frist.
x
lucky bastids.
Bravo to the saviours.
Loves the pooties.
I loves the woozles too, but I am a kitty person. They fit right in to my way. Don’t have to walk them, & they follow me around & wanna be w/me.
Loves me some pooties. Mine are the best.
Luvs them madly.
Brideof Chucky
Retief looks just like our Stormy! He is a cat/dog and we have come to believe if he was a dog he would be some sort of terrier…
Nethead Jay
Aww, Chance looks so happy and cute. Well done, Mr. JustPeachy rescuing him and attempting to “correct” his tormentor’s character flaws. And @freelancer: is right, he and Lady Smudge needs to meet ;)
And the grays are a lovely pair too. Retief looks decidedly languis in that photo and I just love the satisfied smile and glint in the eye on Dr Doom. Wonderful name, too.
Restrung
I love Chance.
Phyllis
That would be Chance ‘While I’m vastly superior to all of you,I will deign to allow you to tend to me in the manner in which I deserve’, correct? What a face.
Luci
Good grief! Is there no end to the fabulous kitties around here? Mine are the best though. ;) How wonderful that Mr. JustPeachy saved Chance, and even if nothing happened, it was good you called animal control. Over time, it seems to me that I’ve seen less and less tolerance for cruelty to animals, and I think it’s because people like you complained and were vocal that attitudes and such changed. No longer do we think it’s ok to beat our kids and animals!
Chance reminds me of a cat that lived for many years at my Mom’s. He was a white short hair named Angel, and he could be the sweetest thing. When you patted him, he purred his brains out… until he struck like a snake and bit you where ever he could get his teeth in. We began referring to him as “Angel you devil,” and that name stuck until he died of old age some years back.
asiangrrlMN
Aw, the kittehs, they are soooo cute. I’m with Dr. Doom (I’m a neophobe, too). And, thanks be that Mr.JustPeachy didn’t land in jail after his heroic act of saving Chance.
2th&nayle
Cute kittehs! I’m thinking the 2×4 might have been a little much though. I think a little dab of dish soap rubbed in both eyes probably would have done the trick. Always worked for me. haha!
WereBear
All cats are neophobes, but that’s balanced out by curiosity. We are now in Day Six of The New Food. We decided we couldn’t trust the big five giant corporations which make pet food, and are exploring the local feed stores more holistic offerings.
They are not amused. But at this point, the New food is starting to be Old food; and they are coming around.
Mr & Mrs JustPeachy are JustPeachy with me.
Life is to be treasured.
JPL
Hopefully Anne will post the rest of the story soon. The cats are wonderful and although Mr. JustPeachy didn’t catch the hoodlum, maybe the hoodlum had the shit scarred out of him.
JGabriel
Record ice melt in Greenland this year:
But hey, it snowed somewhere in North America this week, so, you know, no problem. You can tell it’s getting colder because Al Gore is still fat.
.
zzyzx
We’re about to add a 3rd kitten to our house and I’m definitely worried, but he’s a real sweetie.
JustPeachyAndYou
@everyone: Thanks for admiring some of our feline tribe. There are more pooties coming tomorrow, says the kind AnneLaurie, because we have 7 of the little monsters, and WordPress has a limit of 4 pics at at time.
:->
JGabriel
Dana “Dick Whisperer” Milbank, who is giving up Palin for Lent, tells us why he, and so many others, shower her with attention:
(Pause, while brain shuts down and reboots)
Exactly WHO would be Dana Milbank’s less scrupulous competitors? I mean, it’s not like Child Molesters of the KKK are running a news site.
.
Southern Beale
Amateurs! We’ve got NINE.
Winner winner chicken dinner!
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
FTMFW.
JGabriel
Eight comments in two hours? Where the fuck is everyone? Did Jesus come back and everyone was raptured but me?
‘Cause I thoroughly expect that to happen someday.
(Edited to add: Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen, thank you.)
.
WereBear
This is the scenario Mr WereBear sees before him.
But he is beginning to see the charm therein.
And when we move to bigger digs, he is resigned to what will follow.
Excellent! (rubs hands together fiendishly)
JustPeachyAndYou
@Southern Beale: We bow to your professional craziness for providing a home to nine cats. It’s only because the cat gods haven’t recently gifted us with more strays (like the cat that marched into the backyard and sat in my lap) that we aren’t professionals ourselves.
–JustPeachy
Gus
We,too, rescued a kitten from bad neighbors once. We couldn’t keep him so we gave him to the neighbors in the unit below us. He promptly ran away. Well done on the rescue.
de stijl
Poking around the youtubes this morning and I ran into a Susan Boyle cover of Perfect Day. I can’t decide if it’s genius or travesty. I’m leaning towards genius just because the very thought of Susan Boyle channeling Lou Reed makes laugh like a drunken loon.
abscam
@Southern Beale: Amateur….ten here!
Michael D.
Wow. No CBS Sunday Morning thread, but that Alzheimer’s story was heartbreaking.
jeffreyw
Thread needs more breakfast.
jeffreyw
Thread needs moar white kitteh.
2th&nayle
@jeffreyw: Merciless as usual Jeff! I’m thinking apple dutch babies with crumbled sausage and eggs on the side.
JCT
I love all the kittehs! Dr. Doom is a scream. We only have one and he has decided that he is a dog, walks and all.
But I have hatched a diabolical plan! It’s looking like I will have to live apart from my family while I transition to a new job. Probably in some horrid small apartment on the other side of the country. I think a great way to keep from being lonely is to have a KITTEH! Yes, that’s the ticket. And I can’t take the current kitteh away from his doggie sisters, so this plan requires a NEW rescue kitteh. Stay tuned….
Keith
If you see one like the white one on top, but with one blue eye, RETURN HIM TO ME!
WereBear
@JCT: An even better way, with less loneliness all around, is to have TWO KITTEHS. They don’t take up much more room than one does, you are already scooping a litter box, and they will wear each other out, and keep each other company.
Just another case of: the solution to your cat problem is… more cats!
JustPeachyAndYou
@abscam: Friends of ours have a comics store, so they have home kitties and store kitties, for a combined total of 12.
@jeffreyw: Sweet white kitteh, and scrumptious breakfast. Could you come cook for us?
@JCT: Dr. Doom was named long before we discovered his neophobia — if you take his brother outside for 5 minutes, then bring him back, Dr. Doom hisses at him like we’ve added yet ANOTHER cat to make his life miserable.
I like your diabolical plan. If Mr. JustPeachy anticipated a long stay in a faraway city, I’d personally INSIST he get a new rescue kitteh to keep him company — he’d be miserable without one.
@Keith – was your missing kitty deaf in one ear? I saw one like him at a recent adopt-a-cat day at PetsMart.
mawado
Dr. Doom maybe many things, but that is one beautiful cat.
harlana
Stories of animal cruelty break my heart to the point I cannot even read about them. But this one has such a happy ending. Esp. enjoyed Mr.Peachy’s handling of the situation. Kid probably grew up to be a serial killer or something. God bless for rescuing this beautiful animal from a life of torture and abuse.
Also, Dr. Doom and Retief are gorgeous grays!
harlana
Oh, and I love it when they cross their paws! Ever so proper!
Mister Papercut
@Brideof Chucky: I have one of those cat/dogs, too (BJ Pet Calendar, black cat near the top center of the May page). They are the absolute best, non?
I’m gonna have to get off my ass and do a writeup on him one of these days.
@JustPeachyAndYou: Handsome guys — can’t wait to meet the rest of them.
JustPeachyAndYou
@harlana: We imagine the budding-psycho kid in prison as someone’s pet, if you catch my drift. Dr. Doom and Retief accept your adoration from afar as their proper due.
@Mister Papercut: Thank you — we love ’em all. Have lots of pics, too, seeing as we have a no kids and a nice camera that’s smarter than me (but unfortunately can’t be taught to warn me when I’m about to cut off someone’s head or take a shot of my feet).
JCT
@JustPeachyAndYou:
@WereBear
I have definitely considered the adopt 2 approach — thank goodness my better half doesn’t read this blog or I would be, um, doomed, so to speak.
My alpha dog (female) has neophobia in spades. Heaven forfend we take her little sister to the vet without her, quite the fracas when she returns.
Catzmaw
Are your gray cats polydactyl? That one with the paws crossed looks like he might be. He’s the spitting image of my misanthropic cat Smokey, who particularly hated little boys but had no use for people at all. She barely tolerated my petting and I was the only one who could even touch her without instant feline retaliation as her boxer’s glove sized paws whipped out at blinding speed and slashed with impunity.
JustPeachyAndYou
@Catzmaw: No, neither of the greys are polydactyl; Dr. Doom is just overly plump. Our first cat was, though, and Mr. JustPeachy has been a sucker for them ever since. I once had a tiny Siamese named Ghengis Khan who had a Napoleon complex, and considered petting the prelude to war. He deigned to sit on my lap (and only mine) when being fed his favorite treat, pineapple, and each summer got about a dozen bee stings because he wasn’t going to take any guff from bees he wanted to eat.
J.W. Hamner
Does anybody have some good ideas as to what to do with a pund and a half of pork belly? I sort of impulse bought it because… ya know… pork belly.
Beauzeaux
Always, always, always adopt kittehs in pairs.
However, they do add up that way. We did three adoptions and had six cats.
Mr Justpeachy is a hero.
Annamal
@Catzmaw let’s hear it for polydactyl greys (ours not only has a thumb but an extra claw between the thumb and her paw…we let the vet clip her claws).
Our Dax has this party trick where we throw my old watch down to the floor and she walks over and very carefully grips and picks it up between her thumb and paw.
I think she may be the first step towards can-opener usage and feline domination.
JustPeachyAndYou
@Beauzeaux: I like to think of Mr. JustPeachy as a hero myself; thanks for the compliment.
@Annamal: It is the fondest wish of several of our cats to have opposable thumbs for the purpose of opening doorknobs and thence to sweet, illicit freedom. Your Dax sounds well on her way, and our cats would be jealous.
kc
What handsome kitties! Love the ee-ville expression on Dr. Doom. Great name, too.
Ab_Normal
I’d expect a cat named Retief to be a great diplomat and popular with the ladies… (ob Keith Laumer ref.)
Such handsome and/or pretty kitties, as appropriate by gender and temperament!
arguingwithsignposts
There are other cats involved, people! See here.