I have always loved animals and have had quite a few pets in my lifetime.

I love sharing the silly antics and love hearing about other pets.

So, if you want. Share and I will share past and present.

I have three cats. Why three? I have no good reason. Best part is that these three are very zen. No big tiffs.

I will start with just one cat to start.

First cat is Mango, my big orange cat. I got him from a no-kill shelter at an empty the shelter event. I wanted a big cat, I mean Maine Coon size without all that long hair.

Could not find a kitten I wanted but just as we were about to give up, we saw an orange adult in the open area, sleeping on a cat tree. Only $5. We got him.

He was supposedly only four months old but he was full grown, at least we thought the ten pound cat was an adult rather than a baby.

We took him to the vet who was sure he was at least one year rather than a mere sixteen weeks. Then she looked at his teeth, all baby teeth.

She said, "Oh my. This is going to be a BIG cat."

He grew to be twenty pounds, all muscle. Where does he sleep? Anywhere he wants, he is the alpha male cat.

He is a man cat. Any male who comes to visit is attracted to Mango's size. Friendly cat who stretches up on his hind legs and reaches as his way of hugging.

YIKES!!!

I love animals too. But I have a baby blue iguana. About 6 or 8 months old. Just a guess though. Could be much older or younger. Unfortunately you don't get a birth certificate when you buy them. I've had iguanas many times and know a lot about them. They can do funny things. Like hide on you for weeks or months.

Cat #2 is a black/white named Luna.

We got her at the same empty the shelter event. I did not want her. DH kept taking her out of her cage and looking at me with childlike big eyes.

She has the softest fur of any cat, more stuffed animal soft than real. She is small for a cat. Or maybe because Mango is so large, she only appears to be small. Her tail is stunted and the joints are deformed and resemble a "Z" like Harry Potter.

She is queen of the master bed. She walks the edges and flops onto her belly hoping for a vigorous belly rub.

She fetches, mostly when I am seated on the toilet. She brings her favorite ball to my feet and sits, staring at me hoping for a toss. She races off to bring it back. She will do this about ten times before neglecting to bring it back.

Right now I have one cat although I would like more. DH says just one. I don't know why but all of our cats have all have chosen DH as their human. Our present cat, Melody, a medium to long hair Tortie, sleeps on my bed but other than that she is pretty well she is with DH. He does her belly rub, behind the ear rub, she talks to him, not me. All he has to do is give a certain meow and there she is. I wish she more playful, she doesn't like to fetch, chase strings or anything. She has her imaginary games that only she knows what she is doing. She will go racing through the house, up an down the stairs, down the halls then finally stop and get a belly rub and then off again. She runs fast enough that when she turns a corner she looses her sense of direction balance or something because with the hardwood floor she rarely gets to her destination without coming to a screeching halt against something. At bedtime, or what she considers bedtime she is extremely vocal for me to go get her bed ready which means me get in it. She also is a rescue cat.

We had Adora, a tuxedo, rescue cat before Melody. She was as a kitten very adorable. She loved to play with anything. I don't know what happened as she got older but she became pretty mean. She continues to be nice to us only but not to anyone else in the family. When we had our holidays here I would have to set her food and supplies in the office and lock the door. Melody has the run of the house all the time.

Tomorrow I will try to remember to tell you about Buddy, our shelty.

I feel bad about something. A few years ago a neighbor had a stray. She had asked me if I wanted it. It was so ugly I said no. Now that I think about it that could have been the best cat in the world.

The third of my trio is a seal point Siamese aptly named Gabby by DH because of her distinctive bellowing talkative meow.

She is not the Siamese cat pictured sleeping on my shoulder.

She lives to play. But she rarely engages in self amusement. She wants the interaction of having her humans wiggle the toy. She will run in front of me and promptly sit in front of any toy on the ground and then meow softly to catch my attention and hope I will play with her.

Introductions done!

Nightly cat snack ritual.

Mango does not like cat treats. He has a sensitive stomach and eats only cat food with an occasional raw egg when DH is in the kitchen.

But every night while the girls are enjoying the snack frenzy, he is placidly eating his dry food.

But Gabby and Luna love their bedtime ritual. Gabby scouts the floor waiting to see a dry treat bounce on the carpet.

Luna waits patiently next to DH and when her treats are tossed into the air, she attempts to catch them in her mouth. If she misses, she tries to capture it in her paws and then gobble.

I am hoping to record it and put it on YouTube.

Luna has a favorite new toy.

It was originally a favorite of Mango's, a hairy ball. A cotton ball with some sort of tinsel that he liked to toss in the air and bat. Eventually all the tinsel hair fell out leaving s small cotton fluff ball about the size of a grape.

Every evening as DH turns down the bed for sleep, Luna walks along the bed 's perimeter, meowing in excitement for the game of toss to begin. DH tosses the ball high in the air and Luna leaps to her hind legs to bring it down.

She also will bat it around and...lose it under our bed or the dresser.

So part of the bedtime ritual is her looking dumbly as DH searches for the missing play toy.

The ball has been missing for a couple days, no searching resulted in discovering where it had gone. DH being a compassionate man, got one of the existing hairy balls, cut the tinsel and presto! A new toy for Luna!

Cut to one of my early morning bathroom trips. As I am getting back into bed, there on DH's throw blanket is the new blue cotton ball and next it it, the ragged old pink ball is next to it!

Both are now on the ground after a dawn play moment. Yes, she wakes us up by her running at the end of the bed, by her bringing it back upon the bed when it flies off.

For those who would not want to let the cat play during the sleeping hours, I personally don't mind. Happy cats = a happy me.

I love hearing my cats playing. Galloping up and down the hall like I herd of elephants. That means they're healthy and happy. And that makes me happy. Sleep is overrated!