For years I've been telling people that they don't own a Somali, a Somali OWNS you !!! Everyone thought I was nuts, and that's ok, cause it was only a matter of time before the Somali would prove me right.
Somalis have a personality unto themselves, and no two are alike! This is a list of the 6 Somalis in my house, you be the judge on who rules the roost.
TheCool1 - named after my son's IRC nick. Ironically, it was my son who named this cat. Nonetheless, this cat is COOL, no one can dispute that fact. But, he's one cat you don't want to ignore, should he come to you for attention, or you'll be sorry. I know, he's gone through about 10 sets of headphones over the past two years! I sent him to live with a cat friend for a year. During this time he graduated from headphones to mice (no, not the furry little tikes, but computer mice). My friend ignored his wishes, and she paid for it when he severed her mouse while she tried to surf the net. Cool huh? Case solved.
Fawn girl- haven't named her yet, but she's my special baby. I hand raised her and her sister (Cindy) from the age of two weeks. I'm her personal property, and lets the world know it. She's not mean or anything, she just sits on me and blocks my view to anyone else. She reaches up her paws, covers my eyes and stretches. What this means, I haven't figured out yet. But it's pretty neat, and she ends up with my 100% undivided attention.
Ruddy Baby boy - son of the fawn girl and TheCool1. Spitting image of daddy, and also thinks he's hot stuff. But at just under 4 months he's still learning how to control others.
Blue Baby girl - daughter of the fawn girl and TheCool1. She has daddy's body (built like a tonka truck, the real ones). Her Grandmother (mother of the fawn girl and Cindy) had that body, was remarkable and shocking to those that held her. This baby girl owns the blue couch (hmmmm, is it a coincidence that the couch matches her in color?). She's beautiful, everything you could want in a show cat, and she know's it. She spends most of the day getting her beauty rest................and WOW it's paid off!! She's rock hard and almost 1 pound heavier then her brother! She's a loaner most of the time, playful when awake, and struts around like she's in a beauty contest when she catches you looking at her.
Cindy - sister to the fawn girl. My daughter named her, she thinks she owns all of the Somalis in the house, HA! Anyway, Cindy was always first to do things. First to climb, first to jump, etc..... leaving her sister behind by a month or so. She too has a great body. Cindy owns my husband...completely!! It's pitiful to see how a cat can wrap a grown man around her little paw better then I can around my little finger!
Then there is Baron, he's the only cat in the house that wasn't planned or born here. But a neat cat. He's a short haired Somali, 13 years old, and I rescued him last February from a shelter. Was actually able to trace him back to his breeders and let them know where he is now. When I got Baron he was scared (understandable, so many changes in a short period of time), shortly after coming home, and quickly hiding, he became sick. This didn't surprise me since he had been moved around so much in the past week. From what we did know, he had been an only cat and only pet to the couple that bought him from his breeders almost 13 years earlier. Now here he is, suddenly in a house with two other cats and 3 dogs (one of which is a Great Dane, but all stay outside). I don't think I was Baron's favorite person for the first month here. Every time I spotted him out of hiding (and sometimes I had to dig him out) I was popping pills, or dropping nose drops down his nose. But he decided that my husband was cool and would roll around on the kitchen floor every time my husband fixed anything to eat. But after all the medications were done, Baron decided that I loved him best and was responsible for making him feel a lot better. so he'd sit on my desk and allow me to pet him from time to time. But one could forget getting him to sit on ones lap! Now, eight months later, he sits on my lap when he feels like it, lets me brush him and bathe him when needed. Could it be he finally feels at home? I think so, and he's even starting to accept the others. He'll still hiss at them at times, but over all tolerates everyone. He's the overseer of the bunch, pretends to be asleep on my desk, but watches everything that's going on.
Meanwhile, on the other corner of my desk (next to the computer wires), is TheCool1. But I don't worry about those anymore. Now when he wants something, if walking across your chest, or sticking his nose in your ear doesn't work, he grabs you with his teeth!! But ever so gently :)
So, who rules the roost? I know they'd like for me to think I do, but I really don't have a clue !!
Help?