Blaeke Journeyman The one on the right reminds me of my son's cat Marge... She likes to sit on the back of my chair sometimes and watch me play UO.
Andrasta Goodman's Rune Library Your kitties remind me of my Darathy... I miss him so much. So much that I just can't bring myself to have another cat... He was the smartest cat I've ever known. I miss him so much. Give them a hug for me. Darathy was a beautiful black cat.... that I never really wanted and didn't intend to be his slave but... The gal at the pound convinced me ... (Bribed me) into taking him when I agreed to be the human servant of Obi Wan (Obe's)... Darth Maul was an add-on.... because they were brothers. I couldn't separate them! So I agreed that I'd take Darth even though I swore I was NEVER going to own another black cat I wanted something different this time..... Obe's was your Nermal type cat.. gorgeous gray with the beautiful swirl on the side.. He was to be "MY" cat... and Darth..... the kids could have. Well day one wouldn't you know it Obe's wouldn't have anything to do with me. He loved the kids. They played he played. Darth was more "mellow" he liked to just sit by me. So he adopted me.
I didn't realize his intelligence until later... One day I was getting ready for work and needed my daughter to get up and like always Darathy was right there at my feet... So I looked down at him and said, "Darth..... go get Amber up." And to my surprise he ran off down the hall and into her room and soon enough I heard, "Darth!!! Get off me! Mom!!! Darth get out of my room!" I was surprised and I thought ..... nah..... just a fluke... he didn't really just go do what I said. But sure enough each morning I'd ask him to wake her and off he'd go... if her door was shut he'd just stand outside it and holler at her and hit her door till she got mad and opened the door to yell at him. He was amazing... After that I taught him to shake hands, sit up, give a high five, and if I snapped my fingers and pointed somewhere like the chair, back of the couch or counter he would come running and jump right up where I told him to and sit. He learned to say "Out, NO, Help and Mom." Giving him a bath was a real treat as he'd scream "Help! No!!!! OUT!" until it was over... He would give kisses on command as well... and he loved to give you a "hug".... and headbutt....
It took a while but I finally figured out just how smart he really was, he loved attention... and he hated that Obe's always got it because he was just such a pretty kitty... so he also knew he was boring black cat... and no matter how "cute" he tried to look everyone always "Oooh'd and Ahhh'd over Obi... So he learned to do tricks. Doing tricks got him 10 times the attention Obi got. So he was great at it. However... Knowing how smart he was if you gave him the attention without him doing a trick.... you would never get a trick out of him. He was so smart he knew you'd pet him anyway so he didn't need to do tricks for you. So I always warned folk not to pet him first.
Sadly when he was about 10 or so he got sick... and passed away. But true to his nature he didn't want me to know so.... he just went outside and passed away quietly and alone by my bedroom window.
I just don't think I could ever have a better cat friend ever again.