We have five cats now, as many of you know. Each has his or her own personality. By turns, they are shy, brave, bullying, affectionate and talkative. They don’t often get together as a group unless they are almost out of food. But each one has purred, meowed, pounced or snuggled their way into our hearts and we can’t imagine life without them.
Annabelle is getting older. She used to jump up on anything with ease, but now she eyes the counter and takes a few practice jumps before she leaps. She is still my cat, though she doesn’t watch TV with me quite as often as she used to. She seems to prefer sitting on the laundry hamper in the hallway, but she will sleep beside me when it is time to go to bed.
  
Allie lives almost exclusively under the dining room table now. Sometimes she will switch her choice of chairs to sit on, but if you are looking for her, that’s where she’ll be. If I am very quiet, she will come sit beside me when a movie is on, but should one of the other cats come around, Allie generally runs away. Still, she remains a sweet girl and will rub against our hands if we pet her head.
 
Paddy is still the most vocal of our cats. Kenny says she must be part Siamese the way she sometimes warbles. Paddy is Kenny’s cat, literally shadowing him as he moves from room to room. She tends to be greedy sometimes, taking food that isn’t in her bowl, but she gets along with the other cats, so I guess they don’t mind. Paddy is our most graceful cat. She can move from table to couch to bookshelf without knocking anything over. But if you make her mad, Paddy will growl at you. It’s so funny that we laugh at her and she is good natured enough to sweeten up not long after her fits begin.
 
Jonah is our grey cat. He is the living room cat. If a doll is in his way, he pushes it aside until he is comfortable in his chair. Jonah also likes laying on boxes. Sometimes he will lie with his front paws hanging over the box. It doesn’t look comfortable, but he doesn’t seem to mind. Jonah is the cat who sits between us on the couch. When he feels as if he is not getting enough attention, he will head butt our hands until we pet him. He can also stand up on his hind legs to beg for people food, which he usually is not allowed to have.
 
For such a big cat, Seth sure is shy. He spends most of his time upstairs. Seth likes to get on the bed and make a nest in which to nap. He lays his head on my shoulder at night while I am reading and seems to read along with me. Sometimes, when he is comfortable enough with himself to come downstairs, Seth will sit on the back of the couch and look out the window. Paddy is smaller, much smaller, than he, but she likes to bully poor Seth. He puts up with it until he has to swat her own the nose with a warning roar. Seth is pretty quiet and well behaved, but he doesn’t like being in his cage. He howled the whole time we took him to the vet and was very relieved to be home.
  