I've Got You Babe

Happy Gotcha Day to The Outlaws!

2007 - It had been 7 months since our dear cat Patches passed away suddenly from heart failure. Even though we had had at least one cat in the house our entire adult lives, we had decided to wait until we finished purchasing our house before getting any more cats. In those 7 months, I realized how much I, a life long dog person, missed having cats in the house.

On April 26th, we signed the papers for the house. On April 29th, DH fell in love with some beautiful medium hair gray kittens at an adoption event a local rescue was having at the petstore. We all went down to look at them - they were cute little boy kittens from the same litter named James and Jesse. Hmm... Jesse was a cute name, and I liked how Jesse and James worked together as names, but couldn't see calling a cat James for 15 or more years.

We found out on April 30 that we did not get those kitties.

DH went online that week. Now that we owned our house - it was time for cats! He found a beautiful calico kitten on a rescue site and talked to the foster mom. She had a litter of 4 - two boys, two girls, all different colors. Our application was approved and on May 2, 2007, DH went to the vet she worked at to see the cats and pick out the ones we wanted. I had just started a new job and couldn't go with him until after work, so I said - Your choice. My main criteria is I want kitties that will cuddle with me, and won't be too scared of the kids and dogs. Not knowing what combination of genders he would come home with, I gave him 2 boys names and a list of 3 girls names to choose from for them. (Left to his own devices, DH once named our black and white female cat Bozo. Now I try to take point on naming.)

The calico was too shy. The other 3 were pretty outgoing. The males were particularly cuddly, and the orange male would cry until you picked him up. We had 2 dogs, the limit in our town is 5 cats/dogs over the age of 4 months. We adopted three of them, and took them home that night.

They became ... The Outlaws:


Wyatt Earp



Jesse James



Calamity Jane.



Our GSD Daisy wanted to badly to play with them.....


and eventually they came around.



At four months we had them spayed and neutered. Calamity lived up to her name, having complications and requiring two follow-up surgeries.


They put up with excessive cuddling...


and playing.


They grew up.




They handled the arrival of a new puppy.



And they made me laugh.





Does this couch make my butt look big?


Happy First Gotcha Day to Calamity, Jesse and Wyatt. It's been a wonderful year, and I look forward to many more.