Two Cats - One Old, One New

This is Roman the cat. I still think of him as one of the kittens, but these days he weighs about a billion pounds and is gigantic. He still thinks of himself as a bitty kitty, though. This May he'll be four years old.

This is him curled up in his usual spot on the bed. He's such a relaxed puss that it's very easy for me to carry him around, use him as a barbell replacement to get my upper arm workout, and he'll just remain limp and relaxed.

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For a few months now a pretty striped cat has been turning up in the evenings, looking sweetly in the window at us on our back porch. We of course have been feeding him.

He might be living in the barn, where there is plenty of food put out each day for the barn cats. Or he might be alternating between different cat-friendly neighbors. Because he's sure not starved. He comes in each night for a little milk and to see what fresh stuff we have out.

His name has been "Pretty Puss" for a long time, but we're trying to change it to "Oliver," which is much more manly. And he is a manly cat. Complete with man-parts. So we're trying to get him friendly enough so we can take him to the vet for fixin'.