if you don't care about who my cats are, but just want to oogle at cute cat pictures, go here.

Otherwise...

I am happily owned by 2 cats, Izzy and Asche. They were born around May/June '97, and aquired me not long after that.

Izzy comes from a farm owned by friends of my aunt. I'd been wanting a cat since I was a child, so shortly after getting my own flat, I started looking for one, and was promised Izzy before she was even born. She arrived here in the beginning of July 97, and the first thing she did was jump out of her carrier, climb up the hat-stand, evade attempts to take her down, scramble down herself, disappear into the shoe-self and kick out the shoes.

She's very energetic and curious, and always friendly to everyone who comes by. Since at the time I was working about 9 hrs a day, and it took me at least another hour to get to and from work, I realized that Izzy would be happier with a 2nd cat.

So, one day I was shopping at a pet-store, and they had a huge cage with one little cat huddled in the far corner, looking horribly frightened and just *begging* to be taken someplace safe. I grabbed her (yes, I know, buying pets at a pet-store is not the most clever thing one can do. I learned that afterwards). She was frightened, had fleas and diarrhea, and spent her first few days pretty much hidden in a small hole between the heater and the wall.

After about 3 days or so, Izzy befriended her and she began to come out, and ended up being called Asche (her actual name is Aschere, which as an Akkadian mother goddess. Also, Asche is German for ash, and she is a grey tabby (I think, I'm a bit confused about the English word for some cat-colorations), and has a unique smell to her fur that somehow reminds me of ash).

Asche is still weary of strangers, and easily frightened by sudden loud noises, or me if I'm wearing shoes, but she and Izzy get along well. As I'm typing this, Asche is lying wedged somehow between the keyboard, my belly, my forarms and the table, curled up and sucking on her tail, purring loudly. (Izzy I can hear making a mess in the bedroom <g>)

There will be more details here, later, when I get around to writing them down.