So I inquired, first asking how Sara and Eli acquired the cats.
“I like to joke that Alleister came with the house,” Sara said with a smile. “When we bought our house in South Park, the day we moved in Alleister was on the front porch, wanting inside. Before I had even gotten to the new house, Eli sent me a picture of our empty living room with this adorable kitty in it.”
“This was November, and over the next few months he would leave and come back and the neighbor told me he was the neighborhood cat and he’s been in everyone’s house. Around Christmas that year, it was a really cold week and Alleister had stayed inside for almost the entire week, and on New Year’s morning, I woke up and let the dogs out of the cages to go outside. Well, they realized the puppy gates were accidentally left open and they got hold of Alleister before any of us knew what was happening.
“I was able to take him to our vet when they opened and they did x‑rays, gave him some meds and determined he was shaken up and had some bruising and such, but would be OK. From that day on, he was ours.”
Grayson came to them the next November. As Sara explained, “Eli is a probate attorney and had been asked to take emergency guardianship over an older lady who could no longer care for herself or her cat. The day he was able to move the lady into an appropriate facility, he came home with a very unhappy animal in an Adidas bag. It took several weeks for me to even get a glimpse of this animal. He hid under the guest room bed upstairs for weeks.
“Finally, around Christmas, my brothers were coming into town and were going to stay upstairs and they had two dogs with them. So to keep this cat safe, we took the bed apart and put him in a huge dog cage with a litter box and his water and food. That was when I realized he was just a big fluffy gray kitty with glowing green eyes.
“It took another month or two before he and Alleister got comfortable enough to remove the cage. At some point after this, when it was apparent he was not going anywhere, he was named Grayson. Up until then, he was just gray kitty.”
I couldn’t imagine keeping the cats safe around all those dogs, so I asked how they did it.
“Baby gates!” Sara enthusiastically replied. “We have two, one at the bottom of the steps and one at the top. The hope is, if one is accidentally left open, the other one won’t be. Neither of the cats particularly cares for dogs, or really each other! But we coexist with structure and being alert.”
Sara finished up the cat discussion by saying, “Alleister and Grayson are like teenaged brothers. They ignore each other at all costs unless they are having their one blow‑out brawl each day. Fur flies, they scream and then they just walk away and go back to ignoring the other.”
Reminds me of Pip and Teddy, my family’s cat and dog, who rumble once a week, usually over the cat trying to steal the dog’s food. Teddy may not want it but he sure isn’t going to let Pip eat it, either.
Karin Spicer is a member of The Dog Writers Association of America. She lives in Greene County with her family and two furry pets who inspire her. She can be reached at spicerkarin@gmail.com.
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