About

ThreeCatYard is about my cats and their yard.  I’m a poor gardener and hopefully a better cat owner, but we seem to be doing all right.

About Oldcat

I am a software engineer living in Southern California, and thus far too boring to discuss in any detail.

Gustavus  Adolphus (1997-2014)

Gustavus Adolphus is my oldest cat, being born in spring 1997. So as this is written he’s fourteen. He was rescued from the county shelter.  He’s slowing down a little these days but was never hugely athletic. He’s a cautious cat by nature and reacts by running off and hiding.  He likes going outside in the yard  for short stints but doesn’t explore much.

As the senior cat he gets some deference from the other cats but does not boss them around much. He does expect to get first nibble at any food plate and gets it, but he always leaves enough for the others after his taste.

His name comes from the warrior king of Sweden who saved Protestantism in Germany early in the Thirty Years War.  I thought his ruff and formal wear fit well with the ruff collars in fashion in the 1600s.

Update

Gus passed away on April 16, 2014, right around his seventeenth birthday.

Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar is my second cat, born in mid 2002.  That makes him nine years old at this moment.  He’s a long haired classic tabby, but his fir lies flat instead of puffing out like a Persian or Maine Coon.  He was adopted from a litter born to a co-worker’s cat.

Julius is an explorer and hunter by nature. Even as a tiny kitten he would fetch small paper wads and return them for what seemed like hours. Now that he’s big enough to go out, he disdains the paper and most toys for the real thing.  He regularly fetches small animals back home to me, usually alive.  I let the catches go, usually unscarred physically if not emotionally.

Julius is a friendly cat, despite the fierce picture above. Actually he’s yawning.

Calpurnia (? – 2013)

Calpurnia is my newest cat, and the first that I did not raise from kittenhood.  I got her from a city shelter in February 2010,  where she had been left by her previous owner.  She’s a doll faced Persian, also called Himalayan because she displays the colorpoint pattern like the Siamese.  She also has white spotting to add a dash of contrast to the points.

She’s probably about 7 years old now.  She fit in to her new life pretty well. as she is not pushy but no pushover. These days she has started to keep me informed of critical problems around the house – if the water fountains are making noise or if food bowls are out of kibble.  As fits her Persian nature, she doesn’t do it by loud demands but by leading me to the problem area if I happen to be going that way.

Update 

Calpurnia passed away from a sudden illness on November 10, 2013.

Rhea Silvia and Marshal Davout 

After Calpurnia died, we all needed a lift.  I wanted cats that would remind me of Calla without being an exact copy and I came across a breeder of Napoleon cats.  These are a mix of Persians and Munchkin cats, with short legs.  But for genetic health, half of the kittens bred as Munchkin won’t have the gene for short legs.  They will have the other characteristics of the Napoleon – namely a good mixture of Doll Faced Persian looks with a bit of normal cat shape.  The bodies are not as stocky as a true Persian, and the hair not as bulky but elegantly long.

I saw Rhea, who seemed to combine elements of Calpurnia (Persian face and bicolor white), and another lady cat I had for 20 years named Cassiopeia (a dilute tortie), and a charm that was all her own.  She had been born on October 2, 2013 and could soon be adopted.

Her baby name was Rhea Silvia, after the mother of Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome.  I kept it.

To keep her company in a crowd of grumpy old men and cats, I also adopted her half brother.  He was a bit older, having been born July 5, 2013.   He is a chocolate point cat, again, echoing some features of Calpurnia.  He thus has the blue eyes and dark ears, tail, feet and nose of a pointed cat like Calla, without the bi-color white markings that made her unique.

He’s named after one of Napoleon’s Marshals – high ranking generals – Marshal Nicholas Davout.

The adoption and introduction of the two kittens went very well and it did not take long for the other two cats to accept and enjoy the company of the mostly well-behaved little pair. Gus especially enjoyed seeing them grow up in his last months.

And now we are three again.

About the Yard

My yard is what a friend called a ‘California Acre’.  In parts of it I can touch both the house and the back wall of the lot with the tips of my fingers.  The front is a little larger, since the adjacent pool area has been claimed by the cats if nobody is using it as an exploration area.

It’s not large, but it’s ours.