Ivy

I'm using this picture of Ivy again because it shows her in her favorite place.  She's sitting in her nip bed in front of the heater box.  The nip bed was supposed to be for all the cats, but the others have a hard time getting a turn.  When Ivy hears the clicking noise that means that the heater is coming on, she maked a beeline for the bed and curls up contentedly.  Ivy gets very disappointed when the weather warms up and the heater box stops coming on.  Ivy and Holly are both very mischievious cats, but Ivy is the one who gets into the most trouble.  That is because she is always getting caught.  Ivy chirps excitedly when she is up to something and this tips her Mom off that she better investigate what Ivy is up to.  Last Christmas, Ivy was the one who decided to climb the Christmas tree.  Holly and Tybalt were content with a little ornament whapping.  Ivy is the one who waits by the door to the basement to make a break for it when her Mom comes home from work.  The basement is also the garage, which makes it a dangerous place for kitties, so it is off-limits.  That doesn't keep Ivy from trying it every day, though.  All three cats are very fond of the dogs' food.  Tybalt likes the kibbles, mostly to bat around the floor, but he eats them sometimes.  He also leaves one on his Mom's pillow for her quite often.  Holly and Ivy like the dog version of Stinky Goodness and will "help" Loki and Dana eat their dinners.  Mom leaves the can in the sink for Ivy to fish out any leftovers. She dips her paw into the can and licks the gravy off her paw.

                                    Ivy's the one who gets into trouble.
                                    She's not more mischievious than her Tortie double.
                                              She just gets caught more
                                              In her pranks galore,
                                    'Specially when she dashes for the door on the double.

Tortoiseshell Cats

Holly

Ivy
Holly and Ivy asked me to write a limerick about Tortoiseshell Cats.  Tortoiseshell Cats are a color variation in the American Shorthair, or Domestic Shorthair.  Their basic coat color is black and they have patches of red, cream, brown and orange scattered over their bodies.  Dilute Tortoiseshell cats are also quite common.  Not all Torties will have all the colors, but at least black and two other colors are what makes a cat a Tortie.  There are lots of Torties in the Cat Blogosphere and they are all different.  One thing that I have noticed is that Torties have quite an attitude and they can be really tough.  You can find lots of references to Tortitude and Tough A** Torties.

                                     Tortoiseshell Cats have lots of attitude.
                                     Character they have in plentitude.
                                              They're tough and smart.
                                              They'll steal your heart
                                     With their cunning ways and Tortitude.

Ivy

I made a mistake about Ivy in yesterday's post.  She has been in the StrangeRanger house over a winter, so the limerick wasn't premature.  She has absolutely no desire to ever go 
outside again.  She wandered into the yard on May 3, 2006.  She was in very bad shape: starving, so badly bitten by fleas that she had anemia from it, fur all matted, sores on her sides.  She got an immediate trip to the vet and was boarded there for a time while the Ranger household tried to find her home.  She had been wearing a collar, but no tag, so she had belonged to someone at some time.  No one claimed her, though, and no one else wanted to adopt her, so she came home with the Rangers.  She and Maddie were kept apart for quite a while, as Maddie didn't like the idea of another cat in her house at all.  There were a few issues, but the two cats are getting along pretty well now.  Ivy is about 15 years old.  She is not a tear around the house type, but she has taken quite a fancy to the new dining room carpet.  She rolls around on it and rubs her face against it.  She looks like a cat with catnip, but there is no catnip involved.  Her favorite sleeping position is in a chair with her feet up.  She can stay like that for hours, sound asleep.

                                         Ivy likes to sleep with her feet in the air,
                                         Propped up on the back of her favorite chair.
                                                         She can sleep for hours
                                                         With her legs like towers
                                          And her feet sticking way up in the air.