Alright, I’m gonna be brave and finally reveal exactly how many cats we have.  Here’s hoping this is the last “Bella Pop Nighttime” post this week!!  Are you ready?

So one day my dad comes up to me and asks, “do you have any of that special baby kitty food?”  Ah yes, remember this is coming from the man who never let me have animals in the house as a kid. As it turned out there was a mama cat in the woods with three little babies and he thought they should be fed special food.  My dad.  For goodness sake, wanted me to buy special baby kitty food.  And so the story goes, we put out food and water and talked to these cats.  If you tried to get close, poof, kitties gone.

But eventually, we knew that we would have to trap these cats and get them fixed.  On account that we didn’t want to start a baby kitty fest in the woods.  And so eventually we trapped the cats, one by one and mama cat too.  The babies stayed in the “bathroom” after their vet visit but mama cat totally freaked out and we let her go.  And that’s how we ended up with so many cats:  because at some point everyone fell in love with those baby kitties.  Oh and FYI, I had a heck of a time getting pictures of Callie and Marla because yeah, they don’t dig it.  That big fancy camera freaks them out!

6.  Callie

• Nicknames:  Coco, Callico, ColecoVision, Calcutta, Coho, the one who must be fed, the little begger, Cal, Colonial
• Favorite activities:  skiittzing out, getting lost, begging for food, staring at you for more food, loving on Brandon, sleeping on the job @ Bella Pop, farting when nervous
• Usual locations:  at bedtime… right between Brandy and Brandon, under the couch, behind the couch, inside the couch, under the chair, in the window, her “cubicle” @ the Bella Pop office
• FYI:  Callie cat is our timid, super freaked out kitty who’s fur happens to feel like velvet.  She has the tiniest meow and a practically inaudible purr.  And yet she’s super sweet and absolutely head over heels in love with Brandon.  He is, without a doubt, *her* human.  Twice Callie went missing because of skittzing out, and it was amazing we found (and acquired her) both times.  This cat needs a GPS collar, ya’know, just in case.

7.  Marla

• Nicknames:  Mertz, Myrtle the Turtle, Mertzie Kitty, MerMer, Moigles, Mertztropolis,  Big Juicy
• Favorite activities:  lounging, sleeping, sitting on her Pop’s chair, walking around meowing loudly in an empty house, carrying around Nippy (mouse toy) and dropping him in the water, hiding in the Harry Potter room, cuddling with Callie, hissing when scared
• Usual locations:  the window, the foot of the recliner, the Harry Potter room aka the closet under the stairs, the food bowl
• FYI:  When we first spotted Marla, my dad pointed to this orange kitten and said, “that yellow kitty sure is pretty” seriously, I don’t kid!  But really, Marla (who we named after Marla Singer from Fight Club) indeed is a pretty kitty.  She’s extra fluffy as most orange tabbies are and appreciates a tasty snack from time to time.  The weirdest thing is when she walks around a (seemingly) empty house with her Nippy toy in her mouth, meowing woefully.  Because apparently she doesn’t like to be alone.

8.  Grayson

• Nicknames:  GrayGray, Sir Grayson, Gray Baby, Dennis the Menance, Gray Gator, Mini Jules
• Favorite activities:  running amuck with Quinton, chasing bugs, harassing birds, tormenting Lilla Cat, acting like a baby, meowing when spoken to
• Usual locations:  outside, the back room at night, inside on occasion when separated from Lilla
• FYI:  GrayGray is quite the baby (or so they say.)  He likes to meow as if saying “yes” when you talk to him.  There’s always a mouse to be caught or a dirt pile to roll in.  But he’s most notorious for wanting to play too much.  In fact, he never knew when to stop and chased Lilla out of the litter box on numerous occasions.  This caused issues… so for the most part Gray Baby spends his days outside.

9. Brownie

• Nicknames:  Mama Cat
• Favorite activities:  hiding in the woods, stayin’ alive, eating food put out by nice people
• Usual locations:  the edge of the woods, the feeder in the yard and just recently, the front porch
• FYI:  At first, I wondered if we should count Mama Cat, who my dad decided to name Brownie a while back.  But considering that we worry about her when we haven’t seen her in a few days, that we feed her and give her water, or would take her to the vet if she was badly hurt (and we could catch her) I guess you could say we claim this cat.  Not that anyone has ever touched her, but she likes to sit and listen when Brandon sits outside to play guitar.  She comes up to our voices when are playing outside with the other animals, but keeping a distance.  And now she’s come up to the porch and actually sleeps.  Piper is smitten with her because she *almost* looks just like Portia.  And to Piper, it’s the love of his life, who lets him sit close.  And of course, this is the one and ONLY photo of Brownie.  Snapped just seconds before she realized I was taking her picture.  Because after that, she bolted.

So ladies and gentlemen,  that’s the answer to the cat mystery:  9 cats (and trust me, that’s more than enough!)  1 pretty much wild, 2 exclusive outside kitties, 3 mostly outside, 2 inside kitties and 1 spoiled rotten evil kitty (that would be mine.)  Oh, and a Laaab-raaaa-doooor in a pear tree…   ;)