Hemi here. I don’t know when this little oinker will learn here not to leave his computer logged on – HA! I thought I would Hemi Hi-Jack the oinkers blog and tell you a great story. That’s me in the picture above. Mom and dad adopted me and my brother Tybee in June of 2004, right before they got married. Awesome huh? Instant family of four.
My full name is Hemingway – but everyone calls me Hemi. I’m a polydactyl cat – I have more than the normal toes on my paws. I come from the Hemingway cats in Key West. Cool huh? Trust me, you can ask that pig – I *know* how to use this big paw of mine. I swipe that pig on the butt every chance I get. Shrugs shoulders. It’s what I do – LOL. You don’t think this paw of mine would hurt? You want to see it, don’t you. Okay – here you go for your entertainment. It’s big huh? I told you so.
When mom/dad adopted us, we were three weeks old. Can you see the pattern here? They adopted that pig at three weeks too. The only difference is that he could actually eat food and still does by the bucketfuls – HA! Us on the other paw, we had to be bottled fed. Mom actually took us to her worky place so that she could feed us during the day. It was really awesome.
All of these manly men, bulked and ripped would come into her office to help with our feedings. It was really neat. I took to the bottle really quick. Heck, I could just about hold my baby bottle. Tybee was the opposite. He had to be persuaded and fed his bottle. He was a trooper though.
This is Tybee to the left. He was mom’s little dresser. He let mommy do anything to him. He was actually Santa Tybee in this picture – cute huh? That Christmas, mommy had bought daddy his graduation ring from college. She had tied it around his neck and he pounced in dad’s lap with his costume and the ring. It was cool. I think dad almost cried.
I told you we were three weeks when we were adopted. We were so small that both of us could fit into a coffee cup together. We were so small that mom/dad didn’t want us running around the Hotel Thompson by ourselves. So at night, she put us in a kennel in their bedroom. In the morning, she would open the kennel door and we would both run down the halls towards the kitchen for breakfast. Every day like clockwork, I would throw Tybee into the wall. He fell for it every time – HA! Dude that cat could take a push. He was the greatest.
Dad would pick us up at mom’s worky place and take care of us in the afternoons until she got home. He would feed us and then work on his master studies. He was a hoot. I gotta say my dad is so creative. He created what we refer to here as the Thunder Dome.
He would invert a laundry basket and put us under it so we could play around without getting loss. Over the weeks, me and Ty learned how to push it around so we could explore but yet still be trapped in Thunder Dome. We finally figured it out but it was a lot of fun. <<It was very similar to this picture to the right. Cool idea huh?>>
There was one time that stands out so vividly in my mind with those parents of mine. We were all watching television together and mom had let us run in the front room. They were keeping an eye on us. Mom went to the bathroom and dad was suppose to be watching us – LOL – you know all about dad’s and watching children huh? This can’t turn out good.
Well, mom came back in the room and dad was in the kitchen. She sat down and started to look around. She saw Tybee but not me. She asked daddy and he said the best words ever, “Uh oh.” They started the hunt and find mission looking under sofa’s, behind sofa’s, in the bedrooms, throughout the house and in the hallways – no Hemi. Where did I go? Mom and dad were mystified. And then the internal mother kicked into mom. She jumped up and ran to the kitchen. She opened the refrigerator and there I was hanging on a shelf. I looked at her and was like, “Wazup mom?” Yep, I think (A) mom almost lost it right there and then in thinking she was a bad mommy – I say thank goodness she started with us kitties and not a real child – HA and (B) I think I might have lost one of my kitty lives that day.
Every since the day in the fridge, my ears and paws stay cold. Mom and dad started calling me their Fear Factor kitty. I guess that kind of clicks with me.
And I know you are probably asking about Tybee. Tybee went over the Rainbow Bridge in late 2009. He got really sick and we learned that he had feline leukemia. It really broke all of our hearts here. I went through a lot of testing during the time and I was fine. But after his death, I have to admit I got depressed. It just wasn’t the same without my bro. Mom and dad decided that I needed a friend. So in 2010, they adopted Mouse Girl. Well, that’s a whole entirely different story we shall save for another day – LOL. Hope you enjoyed the story my friends!
Journalist Rocky the Squirrel here –
Piglove 