My father's mother, Ocena Sutliff, lives in Paris, Arkansas in the same home she and my grandfather purchased while they were still in the earlier years of their marrage.  My father was the youngest of the three children and the only male so he actually did the largest part of his own growing in the same house my grandmother still resides.  She came from a very large family (eleven children) where she grew up in Ozark, Arkansas, and her father owned most of the land making up Franklin County, Arkansas, and good portions of the surrounding counties.  Her father also owned the first "electric company" for the Ozark area, and grandma often recounts fond memories of her and her brothers and sisters having to check the shelves of batteries daily to make sure the water levels in the actual batteries of this "power plant" were always full and not at risk of losing their charge.  Although while my grandmother was growing up and her family was more fortunate than most families in the area during the Great Depression frame of history, her father was stern and very adament on instilling the belief that hard work was the most essential part of the values he expected his family to adhere to.  Grandma often tells many stories of her own childhood and she has never been a stranger to keeping the practice of hard work in her life.  As a matter of fact, it has only been within the last few handful of years that she finally had to give up making her own garden and working this garden from early spring all the way up to the first frosts of winter every year.  Still, although age has caught up with her, preventing her from doing much work outside of her home, she continues to keep busy with quilting and plats she maintains insider her home.  She mastered the art of "southern cooking" long ago and one of her specialties is making yeast donuts entirely from the recipe she keeps in her own memories.  To this day, she holds on to the belief that everyone always has something that needs to be done, and she still instills this attitude with all members of the family.  Idle time is simply a concept she has no reference of. 

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And now, I would like to introduce you to our "furry kids"--and I don't say "kids" lightly because none of them are even remotely aware of the fact they aren't human by any sense of the word.  They are our joy in my and David's household and they are loved very powerfully.  Each has their own distinct and unique personality and there is never a day when at least one of them gives us a reason for a good laugh in the way they interract with us, with each other, or visitors to our home.

Leo is the youngest of the brood and as such, is the "baby" of the house who demands attention any time you don't see him curled up on a bed, on the couch, on a  window sill, in the floor, in the laundry basket...he has no limits as to where he will make his nap time dibbs on space.  Every room in the house is considered by him to be his personal domain and he only allows all the other cats to think they actually hold the lease to any particular room with the exception of the master bedroom.  In that room, he must always gain permission from the matriarch of the house whom you will mean last in this list.  On the other hand, he is the most easily frightened of the lot, so therefore he's rather shy around people who don't normally drop in more than at least once a week.  Oddly enough, he also has no qualms whatsoever about water and will frequently insist on at least testing the water if not outright bailing into the shower with you. His other hobbies include climbing the cat tree to the highest shelf then calling for attention to get a good back-scratch from whomever is closest to the home office at the time--but I warn you, you have to make sure you have a free hand holding him to the shelf he has balled himself upon because with his twisting, turning and rolling, he will completely lavish his back scratching and forget it's completely open air just an inch away and a good several feet down to the floor and he'll love his scratching right up to the point of rolling himself right off that cat shelf.  It is also his sole responsibility to completely inspect and be the first to use the litter pan upon the twice daily cleanings and issue his opinion if the job has been done to his satisfaction and he demonstrates his happiness by making a deposit in the new litter as a sign that it's now safe for anyone else to use it again.  Leo is a large cat but not a fat cat by any sense of the word.  To look at him, you see a cat that is somewhat bigger than average size, but very solid.  If he weren't the house wimp, he'd be very daunting to any stranger cat who may cross his path to be certain.  He also loves to snuggle and will firmly plant himself on you during the night when you are sleeping.  If your fortunate enough to have him deem you worthy of his need for a soft spot to nap upon, you'll certainly wake up feeling like someone put a boat anchor on you for sure.

Rembrandt "Pud" Puddy, more commonly known to the world as "Pud", is a rescue cat I discovered when I moved into the house we currently live.  The house itself was in terrible shape, both inside and out as the previous tenant had made it his personal duty to destroy anything he could punch a hole through, rip, pull apart or generally just wreak havoc upon.  The pure definition of what every landlord fears as the worst possible tenant.  When I made the agreement with the landlord that I would renovate the house free of labor charges in exchange for the landlord providing the necessary building materials for me to use and keep my rent payment at a very low price compared to the other homes for rent on this street, I went ahead and began moving in.  As this was during a period of time in my life prior to having met David and his and my beginning our own lives together with him moving into this house with me.  Pud is the first of two cats I brought in to the fold when David and I began seeing each other.  When the previous tenant of this house lived here, Pud had been forced into living in the only bedroom closet that still had a door that would shut and lock.  When I found him, he was still somewhat a kitten with plenty of growing left to him.  Although he is a long hair, he was pitifully skinny so for a good while, he was given the absolute best possible foods any cat should ever dream of but that also contained the most fat until he was well on his way to a full recovery from the neglect he had most likely been subjected to for several weeks before I found him.  As I was cleaning the house up and starting the renovation, I found actual papers on him and he is a registered Teal-Point Siamese who had also already been "fixed" and declawed as well--so he is defiantly an "in house" kitty and is strictly kept as such because he simply would have no other defense against another animal if I were to ever let him outside.  He is our pack-rat-cat--meaning if he can easily get to it and if it can be carried in his mouth, he's going to nip it and hide it in one of his five designated safe deposit boxes he has created for himself throughout the house.  Keys, wallets, pens, pencils, cell phones, you name it.  If left unattended, it's fair game for him.  He is also the most demanding of all the cats for attention from absolutely anyone who comes in the house (another reason we're so very cautious about letting him outside because Pud has no concept of "strangers") and is always most anxious to curl up on a lap and purr so loudly you find yourself reaching for the remote to crank up the volume on the television.  He obtained his name, Rembrandt, rather quickly because of his knack for always managing in some way or other to get at least one paw in the paint I was using while fixing up the house, and on more than one occasion, getting wall-paper glue all over him and everything else in the house.  You have truly never lived until you have to get that kind of glue off of a long hair cat!  His name slowly drifted down to shorter wording before ending up with "Pud" and actually, this suits him best.

Ocena (whom I named after my grandmother who I truly cherish and is one of the strongest, most endearing persons I have ever known) moved into the house with myself and Pud about a month after I had moved in.  She showed up one day on the window sill, sitting on the brick ledge in front of the living room windows and when I first saw her, she was on the other side of the window screen staring at Pud and he staring right back at her.  There were no issues whatsoever as often happens with cats when meeting each other for the first time and never once have I ever heard either Pud or Ocena hiss or growl at each other.  I refer to them as the old married couple now.  When Ocena came to this house many times over a series of several days before I finally gave in and admitted someone had actually "dumped" her and she had chosen this house as her first choice of new homes, I went ahead and brought her in.  Within minutes, I realized she was full in the throws of heat and as much as she wanted to be IN the house, when she came in, then she wanted back OUT and I was more than happy to oblige her by opening the door.  I knew full well that when she came back to our home, she would be bringing in small ones with her and would give birth here and of course, we weren't disappointed.  At the time, David and I were still only seeing each other, not living together, but he was a fixture at this house more and more all the time so one day while I was at work and about two months after Ocena had officially moved in, David was here to watch over her as she began giving birth.  She had four babes, three female and one male (Leo) and was one of the best mothers I had ever observed in all of my years of life and being around cats.  As attentive as she was to them, she was matched equally in mothering skills by Pud who took it upon himself as his duty to help in any way he could except in one area and one area alone--nursing was defiantly a problem for Pud to offer the kittens but that didn't stop them from trying on several occasions.  But Pud and Ocena would keep careful and dedicated vigilance over the kittens as they began growing and shared the responsibility of raising them equally and never with any sort of squabble at all.  We managed to find a good home for the three female kittens when they were ready to be on their own with a loving care giver which left us with the one boy out of the litter, Leo.  Ocena still mothers over Leo every day and often makes certain his ears stay clean.  She is also as much of a ham at demanding attention from everyone as Pud but with her, if you don't start petting or scratching when she wants you to, you learn what a look looks like that could most likely kill if she held that gaze on you more than a minute.  She is defiantly a little sweet heart, but she is also a calico cat and therefore, comes complete with attitude as well.

And last, but certainly never least, I introduce you to Rachel.  Being David's, she came into our home when David officially moved in and we began our own lives together.  Rachel took all of half an hour to advise Pud, Ocena and Leo that although they may very well have had the run of the house before she arrived, the rules were then and forever more rewritten.  She is the undeniable alpha cat in our brood and has absolutely no problems letting you know this fact if you ever feel the need to question it.  Although like Ocena only in the fact that she is a calico as well, she's older than the other three and she demands the respect of a true matriarch.  The master bedroom is her domain and she spends a great deal of her time there making sure the bed remains safe throughout the day.  She will allow the others to come in and take naps with her from time to time, but occasionally she finds it easier to maintain her position and remind the others of who is truly boss by occasionally swatting the others off the bed.  Rachel loves junk food and would make the perfect mascot for any fast food chain as she can hear the bag being rattled when you pick up the food at the drive through window from miles away and she will be at the front door waiting for you to come in so she can let you know she expects her fair share of the booty.  The other three cats are all very much lap-cats and lavish in being able to climb up on you and get love and attention.  Rachel, from time to time, loves this as well but not often at all.  Her snuggle time is always at night during our own sleep hours and she is firmly planted on David's pillow just next to his head.  From time to time when she leaves the bedroom to come into the rest of the house to check things over and make sure all is in order, she loves to fall onto the floor and roll over and wait for you to come to her to give her a good belly and back scratching as well.  In this house, to walk into another room if she is laying in the hallway floor waiting for scratching and if you ignore her, be prepared for a good swat of your ankle when you come back out of that room.  Rachel is also a "rescue" cat as when she was a kitten, David's mother actually watched in horror as a car sped on the road in front of her house and a small kitten was literally thrown from the window of that moving car.  David's mother rescued the kitten and soon afterward when David had returned to his mothers for a visit, he brought Rachel back to his own home to live with him.  When she is feeling particularly loving, from time to time she will curl up on my lap for a good visit while we watch television in the evenings.  But when it is bedtime for us, it is Rachel who sleeps on the pillow and whose purr lulls us to sleep.

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