Stormy

"STORMY"

Aka: Brat Cat

Birth date: July 3, 1998 (Cancer)

So...can you figure out how he got his name? If the look on his face in this picture doesn't tell you, nothing will. Meet Stormy. His name comes from his notorious mood swings. Stormy decided to make himself part of our family in the early summer of 1999 when he was maybe a year old. I was walking Daisy & Pepsi along the road when I saw Stormy feasting on a discarded deer carcass in the ditch. Stormy decided to follow us all the way down the road and all the way back, being ignored virtually the entire time. I wasn't ready for any more cats but Herb had other ideas. He couldn't bear to not feed him. Cardinal Rule# 1: Don't feed a stray cat unless you are ready to have it around for life. :)

Stormy was originally an outdoor cat with us because the few trial introductions to the other cats weren't exactly what you'd describe as "successful". But eventually, the Stormymeister was killing too many of our beloved songbirds and we had to do something about that. So we decided to keep him in the garage. Of course, we realized that was no life for a cat and eventually built a nice "cat pen" that he could go to from the garage. Winter of 2002-2003 set in and the temperatures dropped mercilessly and although we had a good set-up for him -- a large pet carrier with a blanket to reflect his body heat, we felt bad that he was out there day in and day out. So again we tried introducing him to the others inside and amazingly, so far, it's worked out pretty well. When we can't keep an eye on him, he stays in the basement, but for the most part, he is out in the house. He does not get along with the other kitties still but we keep an eagle eye on him and he's been good. He loves people and dogs, however. He loves Ellie, but don't tell him I said that. I don't think he wants anyone to know he can be nice.