My Boys

Here is a picture of my boys, the cats that share our house with my husband and I.

As you can see, they are brothers.  In fact, in the dark sometimes it is hard to tell them apart.  Wally is in the front, and he is pretty much my cat.  Max is behind and he has bonded with my husband.  Max is also the cat who has had degenerative kidney disease (since the age of 3) and we have been giving him subq fluids to combat that condition for 6 years - every other day - and will continue to do so for the rest of his life.  It is what keeps him alive.  

What is remarkable about this picture is the following:

• They are both sitting on the couch with me.  They seldom do that - mostly because our house is usually occupied with 1 to 3 dogs.  When the guest dogs are in residence, our cat-boys pretty much stick to the upstairs.  They do make occasional appearances on the first floor, but never so relaxed.
• They are sitting side-by-side - almost touching.  When we got this pair, we were looking for a bonded pair.  Our last set of cats had decided to dislike each other and it was an armed camp for several years.  Once burned, we did not want to live like that again.  We wanted the next set of cats to already get along.  We figured brothers who were already friends would work.  And it does, usually.  They play together, they don't fight with each other, but they don't sleep together or groom each other as truly bonded animals sometimes do.  No matter, sometime they "accidentally" find themselves sitting together ... making it worth the picture!!

I love these two gentle souls.  They are pretty adaptable having lived around dogs all their lives.  

It is nice spending time with them alone - without the competition of the 3 grand dogs who think they own the place!!  It is because of my desire to honor their rights to our bed and our bedroom, that when the dogs come to visit, I do not sleep in my bed.  I sleep on the pull out couch or in the guest room in the basement with the canines.   

Sometimes I miss my bed, but for these sweet feline faces, I am happy to sleep elsewhere so they can rest comfortably on the second floor when the canine invasion is raging!! 

After all, these boys are mine and this is their home, and the grand dogs are visitors and are borrowed!