Here's the back story on our kitties:
I originally got Sam (black & white tom) who turned up on my mum's neighbours' doorstep 15 years ago as a kitten.
Sam & Jack (my mum's newly adopted ginger and white tom kitten) became buddies playing, sleeping and washing each other. When I moved out of my parents' house after university, I gained Jack too as mum said they would pine without each other.
Then five years ago I gained Codex (white and black female) when she was a tiny kitten still with blue eyes and caught in a rat bait trap at work.
When Codex went missing, I said that if I ever got another cat, it would be an all black one so I wouldn't have white fur everywhere. Not long after Codex came home, a young black cat with big yellow eyes turned out on my mum's neighbours' doorstep. Six months later after lots of trying to find his owner with no joy, we figured he didn't have a home or an owner who gave a damn about him and after I moved in with Stuart, we adopted Jacob. The last thing said by the neighbours being "We'll see you in another fifteen years for the next cat." ;-)
This made three cats as my beautiful Jack had sadly died prior to this.
Stuart had semi-jokingly said that I could only have Jacob if he could have a Maine Coon. So I made it my task to find a suitable one. However, true Maine Coons are very fluffy (I'm not keen on long haired cats - too much brushing required) and *very* expensive (£350 to £500 for a kitten).
I found a Maine Coon/British Short Haired cross kitten for £50. I'd fallen in love with one of the kittens in the photograph, but when we went along, they had a gorgeous little brown tabby girl left unclaimed. She was nervous in my hands and kept hiding behind things. The little boy from the picture had been reserved for a guy that was coming an hour or so later along with another girl kitten. He was bouncing around and into everything and was into everything. The boy ticked several boxes for us (boy, part maine coon, silver tabby, not afraid of anything. The beautiful girl just wasn't ticking any apart from cute and part maine coon. We left there reserved to the fact that she wasn't the cat we wanted and the boy wasn't to be ours. An hour or so later we received a call to tell us that the guy had taken the two girls instead and we could have the boy if we wanted him. He came home with me two weeks later and is a beautiful kitten by the name of Munchkin.
I decided when we were getting Munchkin that it would be good to get another kitten at the same time so that they could grow up together. I spotted a ginger tom at a local cat rescue centre and we went to have a look. We had to have a vet check and the kitten we were looking at turned out to be a bit older than I'd wanted for Munchkin's playmate, but I happened to spot a pen with four gorgeous kittens that were not up for rehoming. We discovered it was because they had sickness and diarrhoea. Seven weeks later after numerous phone calls, vets and the cattery being closed for three weeks due to a ringworm and s&d outbreak, Chutney finally came home with us.
Cat friends have been worried that I'm introducing too many cats to each other and it'll cause issues, but I've never had any problems with cats getting along. There was a while with Sam being mean to Jacob until we were able to get Jacob neutered and the testosterone out of his system, and a bit where Jacob was being dominant to Munchkin when they were first playing but generally speaking they've all got along. You have to give cats time to find their level and work out their pecking order.
Sam can now be a grumpy old cat and he generally gets left alone by the younger cats. Codex can play if she wants to with the younger ones and the younger three all play together.
My only issue now is that Chutney is getting to the six month stage (end of January), he's got some marbles on him and is starting to chase Codex around a bit. We'll be booking him in as soon as he's old enough, but he's not quite there yet.
So that's the five. I'd love more, but Stuart is determined five is enough so we have one spot left for an emergency homing.
Photos to be added when I can transfer them from my phone.
