I have posted at least once of my adopting or being adopted by a cat when we lived on a nursery where my dad worked. Said cat left me one day, presumably perished, but her sister. Mixie, remained, and you shall see her later in this post.
Mixie had a litter under the back stoop which you shall also see soon enough. She had many litters, and more than one in the same location. The first kitten of hers that I saw was Sandy, and I wanted him. All of the other kittens were given away, or I guess sold off, but Sandy remained with us for at least a decade.
He grew to be a very big cat. Most people remarked that he was the biggest cat they had ever seen. I suppose the Maine Coon breed that is now popular is even larger, but this is now and that was then, and Sandy was impressively large. (Note: Maine Coons didn't become a recognized breed for about 30 years afterward.)
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| That is the edge of a unique tower greenhouse that my dad oversaw along with 4 other normal greenhouses. |
The next and final photo shows me sitting on the stoop under which Mixie had several litters. I am pretty sure that it was Sandy that I was holding with Mixie sitting beside me. That would have been 15-year-old me in 1963 before Sandy grew up to be a very big boy.
I was not about to let Sandy go for a mere buck or two.
We had a lot of farm cats growing up with kittens everywhere but it became too much work to find homes for them all and distemper started ravaging the litters requiring expensive vaccinations. So my mom went on a "fixing" campaign to sterilize all the adults and that worked well after a bit of time. In fact, when I last went down to the farm, there were no more cats anymore.
ReplyDeleteThose big orange cats have the best personalities. Sandy looks like Maine Coone.
ReplyDeleteSandy is huge and reminds me of my daughter's cat Ziggy a little. In that photo you remind me of Jonathan!
ReplyDeleteAt a certain point when his hair briefly resembled mine a little more, we did look a bit similar. I kills me a little bit that I was younger then than Jonathan is now.
DeleteI grew up with cats and kittens too, some of my strongest and happiest childhood memories. Sandy was indeed a big cat. We had one inordinately big cat too, called Bigfoot.
ReplyDeleteWe never had cats at home until astray cat had kittens under my parents' back deck and they kept 2 of the kittens. The cats were good company for mum& dad.
ReplyDeleteSandy was beautiful and a very big, handsome boy.
ReplyDeleteIt is like one of those rare companions whose quiet loyalty and outsized presence made him impossible to part with, no matter the price.
ReplyDeleteAwwwww.....beautiful photos! Adorable cats!
ReplyDeleteLoved hearing about your first cat-love! What a super cat! Now I want to know more about a tower greenhouse
ReplyDeleteMe too!
DeleteSandy was a BIG kitty. I'm thinking a nearby bobcat came to visit his ma a few times, eh? Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteWe have Fred. He looks like a very large cat, but when he came in from a sudden rain storm, it was a surprise to see that under all that hair is a much smaller cat than I thought.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely cat!
ReplyDeleteA lifetime of cats, for the most descriptive cat lover I know. My family was cat-oriented also, my mother's family farm the venue. My grandmother used to complain about one opinionated barn cat who would bring her litter up to the summer kitchen and leave them while she hunted. My grandmother grumbled that she had to be the babysitter. Looks as if you might have had that role in your home.
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