Sadly, our beloved cat Rodney died in November, 2001, at age 15 1/2. He had cancer (lymphoma) for over a year, and truly did seem to have nine lives in continuing to respond to treatment after multiple recurrences.

Rodney was a remarkable mixture of curmudgeonly oldster, playful kitten, and affectionate love-cat. He would hiss and fuss if you picked him up or tried to get him to do something he didn't want to do, but would also hop on your lap or curl up next to you in bed and purr contentedly. And almost to the end, even as a fifteen-year-old cancer-ridden cat, he used to spend an hour or more every day chasing his little felt mice around on the living room floor.

Rodney has his own web page, here.

In spite of the loss of Rodney, we still have two great cats. Cat number one is Graywacke (pronounced "gray-wacky", named after a kind of rock). He's about the most amiable cat you can imagine, at least to us, his owners. Although he's shy around strangers, he lets us do pretty much anything we want with him, including slinging him around the house in a rug, rolling him up inside a carpet, or stuffing him into a drawer: as far as he's concerned these are all great adventures, and he loves adventures!

Cat number three is a relatively new addition. His name is Nimitz, and we found him on the Nimitz Trail in Tilden Park on July 4, 2001. We checked at vets and shelters to see if anyone had reported him lost (nope), but the place where we found him is notorious as a place people "dump" unwanted cats, so it seems likely that someone abandoned him. He was in pretty bad shape when we found him, skinny and sick, but he's much better now...certainly he isn't skinny anymore!

He's turned into a real cuddle-cat, always wanting to sit on our laps or drape himself across us. He likes to lie on my chest and groom my chest hair, which is...well, I guess it's OK, but his tongue is as raspy as sandpaper.

He and Graywacke sometimes chase each other around.