Starting to blog...and how Horus came to us

6/30/06

I might as well give it a shot. But then I'm probably too boring to interest anyone. ;-)

The most recent devastation to enter our lives was the death of Horus, one of our two cats. So let me chronicle first how he came to us.

We adopted him about three years ago, the day after we got back from our honeymoon in Las Vegas. I really wanted cats in my life again, after having to give them up for the ex-husband (he was allergic). Matt and I went to Petco, where I found a lovely Siamese adult cat named Samantha that I wanted to adopt. Unfortunately, so did someone else. The seller was Lisa, who took animals from the shelter, rehabilitated them, and then adopted them out for a fee. So we went back to Lisa's house to look at prospective kittens since Samantha was taken. I wanted a Russian blue, but the one she had had an eye infection, which Matt said no to. We looked at a few, but when Matt saw Horus, he was a goner.

Horus was such a tiny thing, barely three pounds, with hairs sticking out every which way. Cute in an awkward sort of way, but Matt has a soft spot for tiny helpless things. His brother was much bigger and looked like a flame-point Siamese. He was white with some orange points. Anubis suited me just fine. He reminded me of my childhood cat, Phoebe, without looking too much like her. Horus poked around Lisa's house and didn't seem too worried by us. Anubis was more timid and standoffish.

So we went home that day with two kittens. We soon discovered which would be the good cat, and thus named Horus, and which would be the bad cat, and thus named Anubis, despite their coloring. We had just spent our honeymoon at the Luxor, so the names seemed appropriate. They were originally named Jimmy and something else...can't remember.

We had to fatten up Horus. He was such a tiny thing. I'm sure his brother ate all the food, so we had to make sure Horus got some too. Lisa had said that these two were the only ones she had managed to save from the litter, and at first she worried about Horus. It's amazing what huge, beautiful cats they grew into.

(Horus is the black-and-white kitten, and Anubis is the orange-and-white kitten.)