Yesterday, my calendar told me that it was our cat Elliot’s “Adoptaday.” When I checked, I was very surprised to learn that we adopted him in 2004. Wow, we’ve had this cat for six years! That time has flown by, and happily so.

Elliot was born with a hole in his heart. He has no “lub-dub” sound from his chest, but only a “swish-swish-swish-swish” that you can hear with the naked ear and feel with your hand. (It’s a category six murmur.) When we adopted him, our vet warned us that he might only live a year or two before the onset of congestive heart failure. Yet here he is, six years later, perfectly healthy!

To celebrate, I shared some of my lunch with him. It was liverwurst. He was pleased.

Our other cat, Oliver, had his adoptaday on January 26th. He’s been with us since 2002, so he’s about nine years old now. (I’m going to have to get a new kitty soon! That’ll have to wait until I get Conrad his buddy.) Here’s a recent shot of Oliver:

While I’m posting pictures… we had a massive snowstorm that dumped about a foot of snow on Tuesday night. Here’s our house the next morning:

Happily, I was able to get some good shots of Conrad in the snow. My best dog pictures are always in high snow, but Conrad does have trouble standing still when there’s so much fun to be had from running around like a madman!

Oh, how I do love my beasts!