Cats – This Is Drivel

Catface 1987 – 6/17/1990

My first cat was a brown tabby with black stripes. For a long time, I couldn’t come up with a name for her. A friend started calling her Catface, and it stuck.

Catface was a rescue I adopted from the Denver Humane Society. She lived with me in my apartment in Aurora, then in our house (also in Aurora) after we got married, and even moved overseas to Germany with us when we were assigned there.

HOBBES 1990 – 1991

We adopted Hobbes as a kitten from a shelter in Berlin, Germany. Sean named him after the tiger in the Bill Watterson comic strip Calvin & Hobbes.

a grey tabby kitten with black stripes lays across a sleeping man's chest; the kitten is glaring at the camera — Hobbes July 1990

Hobbes had a lot more personality than we bargained for, tearing around the house like he was crazy and keeping us awake at night with his howling. He didn’t like being cooped up inside, so we let him out at night by opening one of the windows in the living room. We lived on the second floor of an apartment building then. He would walk out onto the ledge, jump down to the awning over the florist shop below us, and drop to the ground from there. In the morning he would be waiting on the window ledge for us to let him in.

Hobbes wasn’t a good match with us and I knew someone at work who wanted to adopt him, so he remained in Germany after I was reassigned to Denver.

Kamakita 2002?

Kamakita was a rescue we adopted from the shelter on Misawa Air Base. The people who ran the shelter named her and we liked her name, so we kept using it. She was a white standard short-hair cat, rather small. She lived with us for about one year.

Bonkers 2003 – 8/14/2014

Bonkers was a stray from the streets of Misawa, Japan. We adopted him from the on-base animal shelter. We named him Bonkers because he was a little crazy and because he used to bonk his head into our legs when he wanted attention. He could bark like a dog.

a tabby cat with black stripes and a gray coat with a golden belly sits on top of a book case, looking to the right; his eyes are emerald green; he goes by the name BONKERS — Bonkers strikes a regal pose, Misawa, 2005

Bonkers had an unusual superpower: lapdar. No matter where he was in the house, he could detect the moment anybody sat down and made a lap for him to sit in. He would rouse himself and make a beeline for the lap, claiming it for his own before any other cats could. There he would curl up in said lap and slumber. Sitting in laps was Bonkers’s favorite thing to do ever in his whole life.

a black-striped tabby cat sits on somebody's lap — Bonkers’s favorite place in the whole wide world was anybody’s lap.

face of a gray tabby with black stripes sleeping on somebody's leg — Bonkers’s favorite place in the whole wide world …

When there were no laps to be had, Bonkers made do with the back of a sofa or recliner.

a black-striped tabby asleep on the back of a sofa, stretched out as if melted — Sleepy Bonky.

Later in his life, Bonkers suffered a strange event. One day he couldn’t walk in a straight line and the pupil in his right eye blew out. Several different vets examined him but couldn’t explain it. Over time he regained the ability to walk but he had trouble eating and drinking. Even so, he carried on for many years afterward.

portrait of a gray tabby with black stripes; he has one snaggle tooth and the pupil in his right eye is blown out — Bonkers in his later years with a blown-out pupil

Boo 2003 – 2/29/2020

Boo was also, like Bonkers, a stray we adopted from the on-base animal shelter while we were stationed in Misawa, Japan. She was less than one year old. Barb, who volunteered at the shelter, brought Boo home one day to show me her toe beans, which went pink-pink-black-pink on one paw, and black-black-pink-black on the other paw. We adopted Boo very soon after that.

We called her Chessie until she started playing hide-and-seek with us, peeking out from her hiding place as if to say “Boo!” when she caught us looking for her.

Her coat was made of the softest fur I have ever touched. Its color was an overall ash gray with very slightly darker stripes, and she wore a tiny white bib under her chin. Her eyes were emerald green.

a standard gray house cat with a bright white bib and green eyes — Boo striking her own regal pose.

In 2019, Boo had her own medical event: The teeth on the left side of her head were rotting due to cancer. The vet removed quite a few, leaving her face lopsided.

a standard gray house cat with a white snout and a white bib — Boo after her surgery to remove several cancerous teeth.

The last photo of Boo in my camera reel is her curled up in my lap, asleep. We put her down two days later, February 29, 2020.

a standard gray house cat curled up on somebody's lap; her paw is extended and her tail is curled up to the top of her head — The last photo I have of Boo, curled up in my lap.

SCOOTER 12/22/2015 – present

When we adopted Scooter from the Dane County Humane Society, they told us they weren’t sure how old he was but that they thought he was three or 4 years old at least. Our vet told us he was a year and a half at most. So that’s a total mystery.

The humane society also named him “Cruise Control” — that was never going to stick around here. For a long time he went without an official name until one day Barb called him “Scooter Dooter Pahtooter.” “That’s it! That’s his name!” I said. “No no no no,” Barb backpedalled. “Well that’s what I’m calling him,” I said, and ever since then he’s been Scooter.

Scooter is Barb’s cat. He sits with me sometimes in the morning, but he cuddles with Barb any time of day. He has chosen her.

a white standard / Siamese mix sits on top of a book shelf; he has a black cap and a black tail — Scooter surveys his kingdom from atop a book shelf.

portrait photo of a white shorthair cat with a black cap of hair over his left ear; his snout suggests he has a little Siamese cat in him — Scooter snuggles up to Barb for a scritch.

Sparky 12/22/2016 – present

We adopted Sparky as a kitten from the Madison Friends of Ferals (which is now known as the Madison Cat Project). He was so playful and full of spunk that I loved him the minute I saw him. “I like this one,” I said to Barb. “Well we can look around a bit more,” she suggested. “No, it’s this one,” I said.

The Friends named him “Benoit” but that didn’t stick with us. I wanted to call him “Stinker” because he farted a lot and his farts stunk worse than an outhouse, but Barb wouldn’t have it. (I still call him that, but it’s not the name on his records.) Once again, it was Barb who offhandedly called him “Sparky” one day, and it stuck.

Sparky’s very friendly but also painfully shy. He disappeared five minutes after we brought him home and we couldn’t find him for hours. He was hiding in the tiny space behind a cabinet. He still disappears for hours until he has stored up enough gumption to face people.

a gray tabby cat with black stripes lounges on the top level of a cat tree; his ears are perked up — Sparky as a newly-adopted kitten.

a light gray tabby cat with black stripes stretches out on a sofa, asleep; his forepaws are curled up under his chin; one rear leg is stretched over the arm of the couch — Sparky stretches out for a nap.