Feline race

I am nearing the finish line.

Here's how:

In the past 4.5 years have had (all aging, all sickly as aging things are):

1 black-and-white (tuxedo — though more white than black) cat;

1 orange striped (Morris-style; yes, fat) cat;

1 grey cat with white socks and white front blaze;

1 current cat who is tortiseshell colored.

Therefore, the maximum number of cats I shall further have in this lifetime is four, as follows:

1 all-white cat;

1 all-black cat (mimicking first-cat-ever; KiKi, a stray we fed baloney to when I was a kid, and whom the next-door neighbor, the kind and never-married Dorothy took in; he visited from time to time; the Dorothy on the other side was married … Gus died … their houses feature too often in my dreams); back on point:

1 Siamese-colored cat (who will never, ever be as good as Tiffy, my First Best Cat Ever, who came to me as a gift and a kitten); and

1 calico cat (again; best one ever seemed to be mom's Katie, petite and sweet … sadly killed right on the curb by a car … the yard was a half-acre. I don't know; it was horrid).

There were other cats, proof that others' cats are never the same as your own. Props and occasional lap-flops / calf-sharks, there is a difference in relationship spectrum.

I do not allow for fur variations; long-haired cats are silly human experiments and too much unwonted trouble. I will make a wild-card exception for hairless cat (maybe three of those).

So, in about 5 years, if current trends continue (and I don't start taking on kitties who are not at least 12 years of age), I shall be cat-free by the time I am 44 or so.

Just in time — wheew! — not to be a crazy Cat Lady but with perhaps a few decades left during which to perfect my crazy Bird Lady thing. That is, if my two infected birds ever get diagnosed and cured.