If you follow me on Twitter, you’ve probably noticed that I share photos of my cats getting all up in my crafty business.  Regardless of whether they are resting on top of my ironing board, draping themselves over my quilting fabrics, or standing right in front of my computer monitor while I’m trying to type up a tutorial for Craftcore, these cute kitties are impossible to ignore.  I would love to formally introduce you to my my clowder: I’m bursting at the seams (har-har) with cats, with 5 total in my furry family.

I get asked from time to time to share a little about such-and-such a cat, so I put together this little guide to the Craftcore cats. The ages of the cats are accurate as of the time of this posting (June 2017).

Paprika

Paprika is a grey domestic short hair cat with a splash of a rust-coloured fur around her belly. We adopted Paprika from a family who said that she didn’t get along with their other cats.  I totally get it, because Paprika really does seem to be a bipolar cat, personality wise.  She is hot-and-cold:  she can turn from the sweetest purr-monster to a hissing frightening blur in the blink of an eye.  She often hates my husband (except for when she doesn’t), she hates Rey and Parmesan, but she loves me (most of the time).  She  tolerates the other cats.  Unfortunately after she got fixed her weight ballooned and she has become an obese cat.  It’s hard to put her on a diet with so many other kitties in the house.

She was born on April Fools Day 6 years ago.  She claims the sun room as her favourite area in the house, soaking in the rays.  She loves when I use the computer to work on this blog, so much so that she holds the computer monitor hostage and demands ear rubs as ransom.  It’s a miracle anything gets done!

Yoda (Yoyo)

Yoda is a 5-year-old Himalayan cat, and mama of Rey and Kylo.  She is the quietest cat in our home, barely making a meow.  She doesn’t cuddle much, preferring to sport a grumpy expression and watch everything from afar.  Yoda loves boxes, and if I have one of my small plastic tubs of fabric open, she will be first to jump inside.  If she fits, she sits.

She loves to sleep on her back with her fluffy belly exposed.  She is also obsessed with feet, shoes, and socks – the smellier the better.  As an example:

My husband’s foot, fresh from his boots, getting harassed by Yoda.

Yoda is named after Yoda from Star wars despite being a lady.  When she was a kitten her squishy face and giant ears really looked like Yoda.  Alternatively we call her Yoyo.  Or Flufferbutt, for obvious reasons.

Parmesan

A friend of mine let me know that she had found a box with a mama-cat and a pair of kittens in the middle of the road. Yes, the middle! What a cruel person to not only abandon them, but in an extremely dangerous way).  She was looking to rehome them, and I fell in love with the little orange kitten.  I had actually wanted a cat named Parmesan for a while, so it seemed meant to be that I take one of those kittens in.  He is approximately 2 years old.  We believe he is a domestic short hair and Main Coon mix.

Parmesan is a curious kitty, always hovering when I’m working on a quilting project.  If I am working on a sewing project that involves a tissue paper pattern, I have to kick him out because he can’t resist the crinkle.

Yoda and Parmesan went on to have two litters of kittens, two kittens of which still live with us, the others were adopted out to friends and acquaintances.

Kylo and Rey

These two are the kittens of Yoda and Parmesan and just turned 1 year old this past April.  Both of them turned out much larger than their parents.  Rey looks so much like Mama Yoyo.  Kylo at first glance appears solid black, but he has a brown and grey undercoat.  They are both named after Star Wars characters.  Originally we thought Rey was a girl, but by the time we figured out he was a boy his name had stuck.

Rey: This little kitten is a trouble maker! He is always ready to start a play fight (or in the case of Paprika, a real fight) and he likes to attack human feet hanging off couches.  As a kitten, he loved to sleep in under the arm of my Singer 66 sewing machine.  As a grown up cat, he loves to sleep at my feet in bed.

Kylo: He was born as a runt, weighing only 70 grams at birth.  He didn’t gain weight for a few days and had a pus-filled boil on his belly.  We took him to the vet and he got the boil lanced, and thankfully he started to gain weight normally, and within a few days he had matched up with Rey’s weight.  You’d never guess he had an issue at birth because this cat is strong and tough!  He loves to wedge himself between my husband and I when we sit on the couch.

I used to think that Yoda was the fluffiest cat ever, but Kylo is seriously a fluff-monster.  So much fur!

I like to share my cats’ shenanigans on Twitter, so if you don’t follow me there already, go check me out!  You can find me on Twitter as @craftcoreDIY.

In Memory – Rest in Peace

This post is a little sensitive.  I started writing up the little bios of my kitties, without knowing that our eldest cat, Diamond, would no longer be with us a few days later.  Her kidneys unfortunately shut down suddenly, causing her potassium levels to go through the roof.  Her blood tests showed levels that were off the charts and our vet advised us that there was nothing that could be done.  In less than 24 hours she lost the ability to use her back legs and she had no desire to eat anymore.  We had to do the humane thing and end her suffering. I had never experienced the death of a pet before and there was a darkness over our household for a few days.  

Diamond (passed away May 25, 2017)

She was the oldest cat in our home at age 17; she would have been 18 in August of 2017.  She was a gorgeous calico with grey, white and beige – nearly a pinkish beige – fur.  She had been living with my husband since he just was 12 years old. My husband was her favourite human, but over the years I managed to get her to tolerate me more and more.  She used to hate sitting with me, but if I put a quilt on my lap, she would stay sitting on me for hours. Eventually no quilt was required and she happily monopolized my lap for hours, often at the expense of me getting anything done at all.  She slept on my pillow every single night, favouring me over my husband because I don’t move as much and I’m more willing to share my space.  Who could resist her charm?  She was pretty much in reach all day long, following my husband and I around as we completed our daily activities.   She was a chatty little thing; if you meowed at her, she was sure to meow back.

She may have been the oldest and the lightest cat in the house, with no front claws (unlike all the others who have all their claws intact), but she didn’t take any guff from anyone.  She knew how to swat with full force to protect her turf.  I like to think that Diamond trained all of our other cats in her ways, teaching them the boundaries of our home and showing the others that human-kitty cuddles were the best.  The house feels much emptier without Diamond’s presence.  We miss her so much but we’ll always remember the time we had with her.

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