Day 22 of Penny

Some people would argue that cats are not real pets. You don't really own a cat, a cat does what it wants. This is true. If you want a low maintenance pet, that doesn't really require a lot from you, then cats are perfect.

I have two feline companions, because together they make one good pet. Radnar, the orange tabby is my favorite. I got Malcom who is his brother and litter mate, because I thought Radnar should have a buddy to play with. They have full names; Randar Vesuvius Danger-Kitty, and Malcom Murderface, Murderface, Murderface. Congratulations if you understood the pop-culture references.

Malcom is a sensitive loving soul. He is a super-mouser and prefers to spend most of his time down by the river hunting and performing black opps. He likes to make small talk and even though he is a rather large cat (12 lbs) he has a tiny little voice. Kind of like Mike Tyson. His tail looks like it belongs on a Raccoon, and he has very large green eyes. He likes to touch your face, and will try to lick your nose or clean your finger/toe nails when you are not paying attention. I love him to pieces, but he drives me nuts.

Radnar is a man of leisure. However, when you get out his favorite toy he will jump and do back flips. The little guy has hops and can clear the couch when properly motivated. His bone structure is smaller than Malcom's, yet he out weighs him by 2 lbs. He's built like a stripy brick outhouse. Rad's favorite thing to do is sit in my living room window and watch stuff. He likes to hang out in my office with me while I'm trading, and when I have guitar students over he lays on the couch and watches them play. When he is feeling frisky he runs drills to work on his Cat-Fu He also has beautiful green eyes, but closes them every time I take his picture.

They are my buddies. Raym is really only home about 10 days a month, so I spend a lot of down time in the evenings with my cats. I watch Top Gear and they run Cat-Fu drills and have MMA fights in the living room. It's rainy outside today and Mal sprained his leg, so they are shedding all over my couch. I vacuum a lot.

It's cool though, for the amount of effort I put into my cat relationship I get high returns in awesomely bad cat behavior. The run on top of the house at night. Mal broke into the house last summer and woke us up at 4am to let us know there was a hole in the window screen in our living room. Radnar has an ongoing turf war with the Yorkie next door. I'm pretty sure Malcom slaughtered an old stray cat on our lawn mafia style a couple of months ago. He came in that morning and in his tiny little monotone basically said "Um, Mom, I totally killed a guy on the front lawn. He was eating my cat food and peeing on my stuff. Um, Haters don't be playin me. Where's the cat chow?"

They both have girlfriend cats (they are fixed, so it's cool), and they invite them over sometimes. There was one meowing on the back porch last summer and Rad was like "Let'er in mom, she's with me." So I did, and they all watched a movie together while I did laundry. Mal's girlfriend looks exactly like him, only she has a white tip on the end of her tail, and I think she's a little bossy."

As you have probably seen, my cats go on road trips with me. They love to hang out with my folks, even thought they don't much care for the two hour drive to their house. I get some pretty funny looks when people see a large orange cat stretched out on the dash of my pick-up. Malcom, of course, complains the whole time and gets into things.

Bottom line. I think everybody should have a pet. I love dogs, and horses too, and someday when we move "out of town" I will have a whole menagerie. I do plan on having a "normal" family someday, and I think kids should get to grow up on a farm. I'd like to have some Watusi and Longhorn Cows and some pigs too. And Chickens, you can't not have chickens--you've seen the ones with Afros? And peacocks, and....