Meet my Kittehs!

I'd like to introduce my 3 furry babies, Liu Jun Pei, Balthazar, and Ghost.  I have a million and one pictures of each of them, and picking just one was so hard!  If you'd like to see more follow me on Instagram.  Here they are in all their feline glory, with a little peek into their personalities & backgrounds.

Stepping out onto the back deck for some fresh air

I got Liu Jun Pei (pronounced Loo June Pay) in 2002 from a no kill shelter that kept cats in my local PetSmart.  Initially I was going in to check out aquariums and fish (I was studying Marine Biology at the time).  Growing up we always had cats, and I have a huge heart for them.  Of course I ended up meandering over to the cats for adoption area, and a lady asked if I'd like to go inside the little room to see them.  Like a bleeding heart fool I said yes and ended up going straight to the sickest, most pathetic kitten there.  A few days later, she was mine.  She had been dumped behind a diner and had an upper respiratory infection, sticky eyes, runny nose, and ear mites.  With some TLC and medication she was 100% healthy in a week or two.  She's quite the shedder, and has a heart of gold.  She can be a bit skitzy though, and doesn't like to be chased by the boys.

I have a bad habit of jumping on the counter

Balthazar, a Bombay, was wandering around our street in 2010, a year after we moved into our new home.  There is a church across the street from us with a huge open yard space - this is home to many stray cats and they are fed regularly by me and the church folks.  Breaking the mold, Balthazar liked to come up on peoples patios and be social.  He was skinny and had a collar on, so we assumed he was abandoned by his former owners.  After a week or two of feeding him and petting him outside, we decided to take him in.  For at least a week he howled at the door to get back out, which broke our hearts.  We keep our cats indoors, safe from the dangers of cars, insects, disease, and fights with other cats.  But soon he acclimated to our house and became more comfortable with his new surroundings.  Jun surprisingly took to him very well.  They had their little squabbles here and there, but generally got along.  When we took him to the vet for his initial check up we were told he was about a year old.  Unfortunately he is also FIV+, but we decided to keep him despite the vet's recommendations.  He doesn't scratch or bite the other cats, its just his sweet nature.

Our Ghosty-boo, before we took him in.

Ghost is the newest (and hopefully last - you can't save them all, I'm told...) addition to our family.  Like Balthazar, we found him hungry and collared, crouched outside on a neighbors patio, mewing in a way that told me he was lost and scared.  Waiting a few weeks to see if he belonged to anyone, we finally assume he was also abandoned.  We fed him daily, and eventually he felt comfortable enough with us to snuggle up and let us pet him.  When we finally decided to take him in he instantly claimed the house as his!  We kept him in the bedroom away from the other cats at first.  Here he jumped onto the bed and fell right asleep.  After a couple days I let him out to explore the rest of the top floor - the bathroom and my office.  A few days later we let him go downstairs and meet the other cats.  The introduction again went better than we expected.  Today, our little Ghosty has grown much bigger than we imagined he would!  We've been calling him new nicknames like little Beastie, Fruit Brute, and Boo Berry. He's an angel baby.