Over the years, ever since I could remember, we had three cats, a calico female by the name of Ginger and two black domestic shorthaired males by the names of Midnight and Merlin. It is the influence of those cats that primarily caused me to be a cat enthusiast ever since I could remember. As with every other "cat owned" person, I had my own special memories of each cat.

         From the summer of 1971 to the fall of 1988, we had a  cat, Ginger, who was  born in Ontario in 1971 to a silver tabby cat known as Topy or Topaze who presumably "strayed" into our lives. She was a calico cat with an odd sounding meow that sounded more like "wa - aow." Ginger's favourite cat toy seemed to be wadded up pieces of paper and occasionally when she was younger, she would sit on my bed. She would also occasionally "come in my room" me awake or just "wa- aow" me awake in the mornings. I also had a penchant for petting her in the area of her white "bib." My other memories of Ginger included how we used to surreptitiously feed her under the table and how in her later years Ginger would like to sit on that pink blanket that either Marilyn or Paul once owned.

        We had a  cat by the name of Midnight, our resident "purr monster" who was born in May or June 1985. We either adopted Midnight or he happened to "adopt" us when he was an approximately 3 month old kitten, when we were visiting our grandparents on our dad's side in Lethbridge, Alberta in September 1985. He used to like walking on my face and purring when he was a kitten and younger cat. He also used to like demanding "purr sessions" and when he purred intensely, he would like to "gulp air" when he purred. I liked to go so far as to even buy Christmas presents for him as well from 1995 to 1999, though he apparently liked playing with pens by either rubbing against them when you tried to write or by knocking them down when you stand them up. Midnight's favorite "un - cat - like cat treat" happened to be bread and processed meat, just as Ginger happened to like milk and eggs and our current cat, Merlin, happened to like processed cheese, processed meat and tuna juice. One particularly memorable "hissing" incident involving Midnight, that I could remember was when he "hissed" at a lost dog that my brother had found. Midnight would wake me up by "clawing under the door" and I would have to get into my bed before he did or I would have to keep petting him until he decided to leave my bed and I also would do that when he lay on my bed in the mornings.

            There was a time when Midnight got into a cat fight and he had to wear an Elizabethan collar for a week and though he hated to wear it, he wore it for at least a week until the vet finally took it off. I would hold Midnight as we took him to the vet's and he would also meow all the way to and from the vet's. I also remembered how Midnight liked to lick my hair, ear, nose, cheek, fingers, hands and arm. I named our next cat Midnight since his fur was as black as Midnight.

When Midnight crossed the "Rainbow Bridge" 15 years later, in September 2000, little did I know that I would also lose, in a different sense, a connection with our grandparents on our dad's side.

         Since 2003 we have had our current cat, Merlin, who we adopted from the Calgary Humane Society when he was approximately 5 or 6 months old. When we first adopted him, Merlin had to wear an Elizabethan collar on account of a sore he had on his leg and once the sore had healed up, a week before Christmas, Merlin decided he had had enough of the Elizabethan collar and simply "escaped" from the collar by slipping his head out of the collar.  Merlin seems to be "dog - like" in the sense that he likes going out for walks on a leash, though he is definitely very "cat - like" in the sense that he may likely "hiss" at any dog or even cat who "interlopes" on his territory. Merlin is also a cat who usually purrs on his own terms and if you pet him when he was less inclined to purr, he may have a way of thinking your hand is a mouse. Merlin usually liked licking my hands and fingers.    I also named him Merlin since I felt that cats, especially black cats, had a certain "magic" aspect to them.

        Merlin still could be quite the "play monster" who still plays like a kitten when the inclination strikes him and like Midnight, he also liked catnip filled toys and he also likes interactive wand toys as well. Another favorite indoor activity of Merlin's is looking out the window and he also likes eating grass and hunting bugs while he is outside. Merlin had caught the occasional bee, and he remarkably enough didn't get stung. Merlin's other favorite cat toys are toy mice, especially a gray toy mouse that he likes to carry in his mouth to act as though he had actually caught a mouse. Merlin also had a knack for carrying the gray toy mouse in his mouth while simultaneously meowing to let everyone know that he caught a mouse.

Although Ginger, Midnight and Merlin weren't show cats, and if they were, they would have been suited for the "Household Pet" division at any cat show, I viewed them all as "cool cats" nonetheless.

By Valerie Nemeth