Patches & Pirata

Well since I haven't been on here in 2 months it is time to return lol.

Next up my 2 calico kitties: Patches & Pirata.

Date of birth: June 3rd, 1996. Yep that is right they just turned 12 this week.

This was taken a few years ago.

A neighbor of mine in our apt complex was feeding Mama Kat. A little bitty calico cat who was about 6 month old when she got pregnant with Patches and Pirata. Her first litter. It took 4 litters before we were able to catch her and get her fixed. Talk about a little mean cat lol.

I saw them for the first time when they were 3 days old. Soooo cute and tiny!!! My sister and I fell in love with them. For the next 8 weeks we got to watch them grow. I hadn't planned on getting a kitten. We had 2 dogs (Nanuchy and Bonzo, bernes mountain dog). Bonzo unfortunately didn't like little furry animals.

Anyway, I wanted Patches. With her green eyes and open white face I fell in love. Somehow my sister managed to convince me that it wouldn't be fair for Patches to be all alone and that Pirata would miss her terribly. And that Pirata would be hers!!! (yep you read it right sucker across forehead here LOL). And I definitely don't regret getting both of them.

So yes that is how I ended up with 2 little kittens

Patches on the left, Pirata on the right. They were about 8-9 weeks old in this pic.

Oh having kittens was sooo much fun. They loved to play together and cuddle together like you can see lol.

Only problem was that Bonzo wanted to eat them. hmmm not good at all. Since I had the biggest bedroom the girls got to stay in my room. The dogs had the rest of the place.

When the girls were a couple of years old Pirata started having urine infections. It was not a fun time for her at all. Over the next few years she was finally diagnosed as having chronic urine infections. Both girls got to get on special food and it kept control over that problem. At the time Nanuchy was going thru the same problem. So I was on first name basis at the vets with 1 dog and 1 cat having urine infections. Also we did adopt another cat, Tux (he will have his own entry) and wouldn't you know it he developed urine infections too. Yep that makes it 1 dog and 2 cats with urine infections, my vets loved me LOL.

Unlike many cats, Patches and Pirata are very sweet girls. They never bite, or scratch or anything like that. Another thing my vets love is that he/she don't have to be worried about getting injured when taking care of them (unlike my brother's cat: Kamikazy, aka, Psycho cat). And they act more like dogs than cats. They come most of the time when called etc.

One funny story. One Christmas we had a small tree set up. We noticed that Bonzo was extremely interested in the tree and that it was starting to sway and ... meow. Well somehow Pirata got out of the backroom and decided to climb the tree. Bonzo decided this was great: live prey. I rush over to the tree. Pry her out of it and try to righten the tree while trying to block Bonzo from jumping up and snapping Pirata out of my hands. My sister rushed over and grabbed him lol. No one was hurt and the tree survived lol.

When I bought a townhouse and moved out it was decided that I would keep both cats since they were bonded. So when I moved into my townhouse Patches & Pirata, Nanuchy & Patachou, and a big fish tank moved as well.

Patches, up until Jan 07 had never been sick. Not bad for almost 11 yr old cat. Poor baby got a horrible case of bladder stones. 13 weeks of antibiotics and special food and she was finally better. Of course this happened all at the same time as Patachou (rottie) cancer diagnosis. Now Patches and Pirata are on a special diet to help prevent a) chronic urine infections in Pirata and b) bladder stones in Patches (yep my vets love me LOL).

I did find out this year when all my babies had dentals done that both Patches and Pirata have some kind of auto immune disease that attacks their teeth. Pirata had to have 4 teeth pulled. Pirata's problems are worse than Patches and our dental vet (yep we deal with specialists here) said that both of them would eventually end up without any teeth. Thank god not all at the same time.

I love this pic taken last year. Pirata is on the top and Patches on the bottom. They just look so relaxed.

I'm blessed to have my sweet girls in my life. I don't think I'll get anymore cats. But love knowing I'll have them for several more years.