Sunday, July 18, 2010

Meet Porter the cat

Porter


Before my husband, Mark, and I were married I had 2 dogs. One was named Sasha and I had taken her with me from Kansas when I moved to Florida. Not long after I arrived in Florida I wanted another dog, so I found Mako. Long story short, Sasha passed away and I had to send Mako to stay with my parents when Mark and I were married because we were moving to an apartment and could not afford the pet fees and all of the expenses from the wedding and our honeymoon and moving, etc., all at once. So, here I am, a girl who has always been around dogs ever since I can remember, and I was animal-less. We knew we could not keep up with a dog so we just forgot about the whole thing and went on with our life.



Fast forward



It was in 2007 when we purchased our first home. It was also the same year Mark started talking about changing jobs and part of that change would require an extended stay away from home for 6 months while he was training. At some point he suggested getting a cat. To me! The cat-hater. I thought it was a joke and didn't give it much thought. Well, I thought about it for a few weeks and had been discussing it with my co-workers (who all thought it was funny since I had previously shared my feelings about cats with them) when I began to accept the possibility. A cat would provide me company while Mark was gone and give me something to focus on during the 6 months he was away.



One day my co-worker approached me with a plea to come get this cat her daughter had left with her. She said that he was very sweet and cute but she already had a cat and wasn't planning on another one. I agreed to go meet him. I went to her home and I saw this long legged orange and white cat with the cutest face I had ever seen and a long tail and one white leg. It took about 5 minutes for me to fall in love with him. I made a plan to surprise Mark with the cat for an early birthday present for him.


Porter when we brought him home in 2007


Porter came home with us and didn't make a sound the whole car ride home. We let him out and he was shy but very curious. He soon found his favorite spots in the house- in front of the windows and up on the top of the kitchen cabinets. He is a scardey cat and hates loud noises and sudden movements. He has a very loud purr and loves to have his butt scratched. He is still one of the most beautiful cats I've ever seen. I love to project human characteristics into the things he does and I think that annoys him. He stares at me with squinty eyes when he is pretending to be mad at me. He follows me from room to room but in a way that makes it seem coincidental that I am there. He runs to greet me when I come home and I scoop him up and give him kisses before I feed him. This is one of the few times he allows me to hold him. He is the opposite of a "lap cat" and doesn't enjoy when I try to make him sit with me.



He has recently became a big brother and is very annoyed by this. He looks at me with these eyes that say, "Save ME!" when little Charlie is play-attacking him. He is very protective of his food and his 'spots' that he has claimed around the house. He has to go check out Charlie's food bowl to make sure there is nothing special that he is missing out on. I have noticed that he is much more affectionate with us now. He became very ill a week or so ago as a result of catching a virus from Charlie (who caught it from the shelter where we adopted him). We have been babying him and giving him his favorite canned food so I think this has won him over even more to us despite the fact we introduced a tiny monster into his home.



Porter is just a wonderful cat. I am so glad I took a chance on this cat because he has completely changed my mind about the whole feline species!

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