All My Cats

Scene I -- My apartment; Smucker joins the family

My daughter is quite the cat lover, and in the years following my divorce, she missed the cats she'd had to leave behind on the farm. She was thrilled when, in May, 1996, our new landlord agreed to let us have a cat in the apartment, and she rushed right over to the neighbor's house where they had a sign for free kittens. She came home with a bright-eyed tabby kitten that she named Smucker. Smucker was the funniest little kitten I'd ever known; we laughed until our sides ached as he raced around, skidding on the hardwood floor, jumping in and out of boxes, turning somersaults, and chasing his tail.

Scene II -- My rental house; Lenny joins the family


We moved into a house and had more room, so my son came to live with me. I said, "One cat is enough!" Nevertheless, in November, 1997, he brought a kitten home from the dairy farm where he worked. Another tabby, Lenny was even sillier than Smucker had been when he was little. Even though I hadn't wanted more cats, Lenny stole my heart...and it's a good thing. Within a year, my son left for the Army, and I inherited Lenny.

Scene III -- I take a hike; Noodle joins the family

In April, 2001, I left home and embarked upon an Appalachian Trail thru-hike. My daughter was 20, and old enough to handle the household for the six months I'd be gone. In August I was four months into my hike and psychologically struggling with the journey. From a small town in Massachusetts, I phoned home and learned that Lenny had become sick and died. I was at such a low point in my hike, and the news devastated me. I felt I had nothing left inside me to go on. I took an extra day off the trail, then pushed myself back out there to continue toward Maine.


I had told my daughter I didn't want to replace Lenny, but once again I was overruled. In September, before I had even returned home from my hike, she brought home a stray kitten from her grandma's house. Noodle was similar in type to Lenny -- fine-boned and silky-haired -- but her coloring was quite unique. She was a marbled calico with tabby stripes, unlike any cat I'd seen before. She was a sweet, timid little thing, and she quickly became my sidekick.

Early in 2002, my daughter joined the Air Force,
and I inherited both Smucker and Noodle.

Scene I -- My van dwelling years

With my children no longer living at home, I didn't need such a big house, so I moved into an apartment in my sister's basement. Since the Appalachian Trail hike, I'd lived in a constant state of restlessness. I also detested winter weather, so after a couple of years I decided to try being a snowbird. With limited funds, my chosen method was to travel and live in a van. Of course, I couldn't take my cats. In October, 2004, Smucker and Noodle went upstairs to live with my sister, who already had two cats -- Sammy and Speedo.

Being such a timid little girl, Noodle couldn't settle into the new situation. Sammy picked on her, and she just wasn't happy. Shortly thereafter, she went to live with my aunt.

My snowbird life suited me -- I'd gone back and forth between Ohio and Arizona for several years -- and by 2008, we all accepted that I wasn't going to settle down and take my cats back anytime soon. But that year my sister decided to try selling her house. She didn't want cats in the house when the realtor brought prospective buyers, so Smucker, Sammy, and Speedo all went to stay at my mom's house.

When the contract expired and the house hadn't sold, my sister took Sammy and Speedo back home, but Smucker stayed at mom's. Dad had died in 2007, so Smucker was good company for her.

Scene II -- I go on a bicycle ride; Harry and Lloyd join the family

Unencumbered by cats, I went on a self-supported bicycle tour around the country to celebrate my 50th birthday. I reached my daughter's home in New Mexico in the fall of 2008 and decided to spend the winter there with her, then resume the trip in the spring. She already had a cat, Neko, whom she had adopted when she was stationed in Japan, but while I was there she decided she needed another cat. On one visit to the animal shelter, she found two cats she liked together in a cage. She couldn't decide which she liked best, and since they were brothers, she ended up adopting them both.

Harry and Lloyd may be brothers, but they are so different. Harry is a yellow tabby, and he is (usually) quiet and laid-back. Lloyd is black (though his coat is gray underneath with very faint tabby stripes), finer-boned, silky-haired, and much more active and inquisitive. They're both a couple of characters. (They even started an online pet cat supplies business, but lost interest. Now the dog, Holly, runs it and doesn't do a very good job.)

Scene I -- I try to settle down

After the bicycle trip, I ended up moving in with a friend and attempting to settle down to a normal life. My daughter was being uprooted by the Air Force again -- she would be leaving New Mexico for six months of retraining in Texas before being reassigned to California. She could only have two pets in her Texas rental house, so since I was living in a real house again, in January, 2011, she brought Harry and Lloyd to Ohio to live with me.

Things didn't work out so well between me and my friend, so in June, 2011, Harry, Lloyd, and I moved in with my mom, who still had Smucker. By this time Smucker was an old man, and the younger boys were too rough with him. He developed an abcess from a bite, and Mom didn't like to further expose him to the roughhousing. I was in no position, however, to rent my own place, so Smucker went to live with my aunt in July. He and Noodle were back together again after seven years apart.

Anyone who, as an adult, has tried to live with his or her mother may sympathize when I say I needed my own space. With one and a half part-time jobs, I couldn't afford to rent a regular apartment. I finally finagled an arrangement to rent some space. In October, 2011, Harry, Lloyd, and I moved into an unused office on the second floor at one of my jobs (that's a whole other story), and Smucker came back home to Mom's.

In November, Noodle got sick and died of unknown causes.

I'm sure the saga of All My Cats will continue for a long time to come, so check back for updates. Upcoming installments will answer burning questions like "How long will Smucker live?" "How will Harry and Lloyd get back to my daughter?" and "How many abandoned cats can one person adopt?"

And in case you couldn't keep the story line straight, here's a general representation in graphic form: