Wellington

     Wellington is currently our oldest cat.  He will be 5 years old this February 14. 2006.  We had lost our two elderly Siamese kitties the year before we adopted Wellington.  Sometimes, I call him the “grumpy old man”.  He’s very sweet, but the look on his face whenever there is a new litter of kittens, says, “Not more kids, again!”  Of course, after smelling them all and checking them out, Wellie becomes just another one of their many teachers.  He also has the nickname of “Cow-Kitty”, because of his obvious cow spots!  We rescued him from our local shelter after finding out he had been just “hanging out” in the cold October weather with no home.  Poor little guy.  He and Avalanche are the only kitties that are allowed in the backyard when we are outside.  Wellie just loves to sit near the pond and watch the fish.  He never tries to get them, but he seems mesmerized by their swimming.  Basically, when he comes outside with us, he “patrols” the fence line, looking for bugs, mice, squirrels or whatever might happen by.

 

 

 

Lacie

     Bejuled Battenberg Lace of Avanti, aka “Lacie”, is the oldest female kitty at Avanti.  She was our first Bengal queen and gave us 3 beautiful litters.  She was a wonderful Mama Kitty to her kittens, or any other kittens that we gave to her to raise. She eagerly fostered a few kittens whose Mothers were unable to produce enough milk.  Lacie is a BST (brown spotted tabby) Bengal, with very wild looking features.  She has what is called a “ticked coat”.  It’s not the shiny, glittery fur, but a bit courser and single spotted.  Her coat is more like the true ALC (Asian Leopard Cat).  Just look at her big eyes!!  Lacie was retired as a queen last year, but will always stay here with us as our forever pet.  She has to, she loves Wellington too much to leave him.  She chirps at him and to Wellie’s dismay, follows him all over the house.  It’s funny to watch them together.  Lacie waits for Wellie to settle in for a nap and then she starts meticulously grooming him.  I think he secretly enjoys it, because I see him making “biscuits”.

 

 

Rudy

     Then there is Rudy, our orange spotted tabby.  He and his three other siblings were dropped off in a shoebox, outside of a closed pet store, at the tender age of almost 2 weeks.  When they were rescued, they were actually ON the cold stainless steel table, and waiting to be put to sleep. The tech was taking a break, lucky for them!  This particular shelter they were brought to euthanizes kittens this young that don’t have a Mother to care for them.  Unfortunately, many shelters have this policy.  Well, the happy ending to this story is that my friend Julie took two of the babies and I took the other two.  Julie had a queen that could nurse two of kittens.  I bottle fed my two.  Despite being abandoned at such a young age, they grew like little weeds.  All of them found loving forever homes, but I just HAD to keep Rudy. After all, if you look closely, he has SPOTS.  To this day he thinks he’s a Bengal.  We actually call him Uncle Rudy, because he truly loves any and all babies.  He even lets them nurse on him!  I guess he doesn’t know he’s a neutered male.  Rudy is a BIG kitty, weighing in around 18 pounds. When you stop to pet him, he always stands up on his back legs to meet your hand.  On our website you will see many pictures of past litters and Rudy is right there, helping to take care of the kittens.  Luckily, none of the queens mined his help. 

 

 

     Rudy is our greeter, here at Avanti.  He loves everybody and all cats.