I'm heading out of town for a long weekend visiting a friend in Michigan, so here's a nice cute post to tide you over until I return. Below are pictures of the two cats I owned a few years ago. They were brothers, given to myself and my best friend (we were roommates at the time) by her mother and grandmother. For Tori's benefit, they are both orange and white long-haired cats.

This is Willie. I had a really hard time naming him, nothing came to me for several hours. As I watched him investigate everything, running around like a wild animal, I finally settled on Wild Willie. His proper name was Wilfred, but we also called him Baby, because he liked to be held in your arms, propped up on the shoulder just like a baby. And he would sit at your feet and cry until you picked him up. You can't tell in this picture, and I wasn't able to find a good one of him that showed it, but he had blue eyes. I always thought that was very unusual. He also had a small white spot of hair in the middle of his back. That was one major distinguishing factor between him and his brother. He also wore a collar with a bell, so he was easy to locate.

This is Willie's brother, Stewart, named by my friend after her favorite actor, Jimmy Stewart. We had lots of fun with his name...Stew Poo, Stewie Pooey, Stew-fart. He had a completely opposite personality from his brother. He didn't like to be held, preferred to be off on his own, curled up underneath a bed or in a bathroom sink. He had the most beautiful golden eyes I've ever seen, very big and round. When he was a kitten, he was just a ball of fur. Willie at least had some "cat" shape to him, but Stewart was all fur. That was what my friend wanted, a fat cat, and that's what she got. He tipped the scales at 18 pounds as an adult, compared to just 12 pounds for Willie. Although everyone swore the two cats were identical, Stewart was not only larger, but he was a slightly darker orange. And he didn't have the white spot on his back, like Willie did.

I'll never forget, one Christmas, with the cats. We had a bunch of candles out, they were lit, and we were watching television. One eye was always kept on the cats when they were in the room, but generally they kept away from the candles. Stewart came walking in the room, right up to the coffee table, where a bunch of candles were lit, walked right next to it, and flipped his tail over so it draped on the table and proceeded to swipe it right over one of the candles. Of course, we freaked! His tail was on FIRE! As I stupidly ran into the kitchen to get a wet towel, my roommate took her hand and just lightly grabbed the end of the tail that was burning, and snuffed it out. It never even reached his actual tail, it was only the hair that had burned. Needless to say, we never put lit candles on that table ever again!

I do miss my cats, but sometimes it's nice to be able to plan a weekend away, or a vacation in California without worrying about who will come and clean the litter box or feed them, or just keep them company.

I hope you enjoyed learning about my cats, and I will talk to you all Monday night when I return. Have a great weekend!