Welcome to this secret cat album, my loyal fan! This is your reward for reading all the way through my bio. I firmly believe more websites need secret cat photo albums. In this album, you’ll see pics of:
My blind boy, Bepps (Christian name, Beñat — Basque for “brave”), was born around January 2010. I adopted him from TreeHouse Cat Shelter when he was about a year old, with two big, milky-blue eyes that couldn’t see. He eventually needed both of them removed over the years. He’s a total Mama’s Boy and the “Alpha Cat” of the bunch. It’s always been fascinating to watch him navigating his surroundings. I’ve had many people say, “Are you sure he’s blind?” and I have to answer, “He literally has no eyes in his head.” :) But he navigates his surroundings and senses people’s presence so easily, you forget he has no eyes anymore. Bepps’ favorite toy is strings of all kinds.
My tuxedo boy, Gimlet, whom I call “Gimmie,” probably born sometime in 2012, was adopted in 2013. He is my puppy: he follows me EVERYWHERE I go, and he is honestly the sweetest cat you’ll ever meet. He washes both Bepps and Jelly, and I’m pretty sure Jelly thinks Gimlet is his mom. Gimmie will cry sometimes if he finds himself left alone in a room, and I have to call out, “It’s okay, honey, I’m right here.” Lots of my pictures of him are him snuggling with one of my other cats. Gimlet’s favorite toy is shadows on the wall.
My marmalade boy, Jelly, full name Magellan (he was the first little explorer kitten to venture from the nest), born August 2016, was part of a family of 5 kittens born to a stray I fostered in the summer of 2016. For 12 weeks while they were with their mom, I would come home to three adult cats and five tiny kittens bounding all around my home. It was glorious. Jelly is the most vocal of my cats (some might say “whiny”…), and he drools when he is super happy and making biscuits. He likes to hide under covers, and his favorite toy is lasers.
My grad school cat, Pingua (from the word “pinguis,” Latin for “chubby”), born around 2003 and crossed the Rainbow Bridge in February 2023. Pingua was my beautiful calico girl, super sassy and sweet, and would find places to explore and hide that no other cat would. She loved being outside, which is why she lived with my parents, where she could safely roam the neighborhood. She lived to be about 20 years old, like a little kitten almost to the end, and especially loved cuddling up with my dad when he went to bed.
My little old foster cat, The Shrimpie — real name Absolom, but whom I called “The Shrimpie” because he looked like a cute little cooked shrimp when he’d curl up — was with me for a year and crossed the Rainbow Bridge in August 2021. He was quite old, but had this little kitten face and huge eyes that made him look like a cartoon. The last year of his life was spent in my comfortable, loving home, with his three brothers who would defer to him and even wash him sometimes. Shrimpie’s favorite “toy” was catnip. It reminded him of his youth.
