Christmas 2012

(With thanks to Stogie, who created the above graphic)

Top Cat

This portrait of Cameo was taken on September 16, 2012. Click directly on the image to enlarge it:

Cameo was the youngest cat in the household until Amber arrived on September 13, 2012. Nonetheless, Cameo, true to her Siamese heritage, has been our alpha cat since her arrival in 2001!

Halloween Greetings From AOW's Cat Family

(With much gratitude to Stogie of Saberpoint for the graphic below)

Back row, from left to right: Cameo, alpha cat of the household and surrogate mother to the new arrival in the basket; and Mysti, still pouting a bit about the new arrival.

In the front: Amber, the sweetest of all torties, born on March 13, 2012, and still in her kittenhood.  She  tears around the house night and day as if possessed.

Best Friends

(Click directly on the photos to enlarge them)

Cameo, true to her Siamese heritage, is certainly the alpha cat in this household. Nevertheless, after several days of hissing and establishing the pecking order, Cameo has fully accepted Amber.


Cameo and Amber first began to bond by playing with the new toy. They stayed on opposite sides of the Turbo Scratcher:

A few days later, the two bonded.  I managed to take a few photos of the two best friends sleeping on the cushion behind the recliner before Cameo got sick on September 30:

Mysti, also a tortie, is very jealous of Amber. I doubt that the two of them will ever bond. In the photo below, Mysti is furious that an interloper lives here now:

Fortunately, there is not an ounce of aggression in Mysti's body!


Amber is very contented here in the AOW household and disregards Mysti's jealousy:

Amber Joins The Family

(I took the photos in this post from September 14-September 22)

Obviously, Amber is happy here:

Amber, showing off her spay scar the day after surgery:

What is Cameo thinking about?

Without any hissing or growling, Amber and Cameo interact with the latest toy, the Turbo Scratcher:

New Addition To The Family

Amber!
The pictures below were taken at Amber's foster home, where she was living in a luxury van in the cool shade of the mountains of West Virginia.

Goodbye, Dusti

Dusti, named Cinderella by the rescue group who found her in a litter of kittens in an alley in D.C., turned 15 years old on May 5. The photo, which I call "Dusti Greets the December sunrise," was taken when she was quite young.

Today, the vet found a tumor in Dusti's left kidney.  This mass (not present two weeks ago), in combination with my beloved Dusti's recent dramatic weight loss (over 2.5 pounds since March to the point of emaciation) and a decline in general health over this summer, are almost always indicative cancer.

She is the first pet that we've ever lost to cancer.

Rather than subject Dusti to torturous procedures and the inevitable metastasis that rapidly follows no matter what, Mr. AOW and I opted for euthanasia, which the home-care vet did here in our living room.

Dusti will be cremated today, and the ashes returned to us.

I will miss Dusti so much!  I will miss her trademark chirps and trademark tuck-and-rolls. Also, she was the only cat I ever had to talk with her tail.  And I do mean talk!  That tail of hers was so expressive.