~~MY VERY BIGGEST BABY~~

Beauregard was around 10 months old when this photo was made. He weighed around 1200 then. He grew to be a big boy of 2100 pounds. Levon, another adoptee, was sitting on the other side of Beau. Beau always lived with the belief that Colleen and I were his mothers. We got him at 4 months and he bonded to us immediately. Colleen took her sleeping bag to the stall and slept in with him for his first few nights with us. 

Beauregard was 14 months old when he was   bred  to   Braford  moma cows and he  turned out  some of the finest calves in the county.  

Beau  would see me in the pasture and trot to me so he could rub his head against me so I would scratch between his horns. I could pick up one of his front feet and he would lie down so I could get on him. He would walk around the pasture with Levon trotting along with us.

By the time he got to be 2000 lbs and wanted a head scratch  I had to get behind a fence or he would accidentally knock me down.

SIR OLIVER 1976-1988

my ex and I went on a trip to San Francisco and left the children with their babysitter. The night we got back we could hear a cat meowing outside our window. The next morning we asked the kids if they knew about the stray cat. There was much giggling and poking one another as they told us that he had shown up and they might have fed him a time or two.

  I told them to take him door to door and see if they could find his family. Every day they would come back and say "no luck today".

  Years later they told me that they were actually taking him to the creek and staying all day...instead of going door to door.

  Sir Oliver was a beloved member of our family for 11 years. My friend Julie always kissed him on the nose when she came to visit. He tolerated it but "I don't have to like it".

TIGER EYES, THE QUEEN OF OUR HEARTS

I  was on a trip in 1979 through southwest Oklahoma and I stopped at a house to ask for directions to a small town. While standing at the front door a teensy kitten came walking out of the barn towards me. I picked her up and the lady said "you can have her". She was Connie's cat but she ended up stealing everyone's heart with her loving ways. My ex always said that Tiger Eyes was the only cat we had that acknowledged that he lived with us. At one time we 11 cats. We had a huge barn and some lived in it. We usually had 4 or 5 in the house. Everyone could take a cat to bed at night.

Tiger Eyes was one of the most beloved members of our household for  several  years.She was named for a Judy Blume book that the children loved.  She went outside one day and we never saw her again. We missed her so much and still talk about  her today.

JOSE MURDOCH, MY GUARDCAT

I was at a club one night in Taos to see J.J. Cale. He is a musician that I photographed occasionally for some of his work. He introduced his drummer as "Jose Murdoch". That man had on the most ill-fitting toupee that I had ever seen in my life. John, Colleen and I were fascinated with him. He was an excellent drummer and I said if I ever got another cat, I was going to name him Jose Murdoch

When we moved to the ranch our cats had horrible encounters with feral cats that had lived in the barn and the other outbuildings. One black one, in particular, was really nasty and beat Sir Oliver and Cornelius Brothers up several times. I would chase him when I saw him.

But one day the laundry room door was open and he walked in. He had a crooked ear (from fighting) and the fiercest green eyes you could ever see. He stood there staring at me and I squatted down and said "you've only wanted a friend, haven't you?". He came to my leg and started rubbing and purring. He became my "guardcat". He would attack the flowers by the path when he walked in front of me. He was a riot. We loved him so much. He lived 10 years with us.

FAYE'S LOVE, TEDDY JACK

  Written by Tony Arata. 

    This song is about  the beautiful memories that I have of all the pets that have  graced my life during the past 67 years. I wouldn't change a thing about them except having to let them go on without me.

 We certainly shared many dances. Watching a mockingbird dive bomb "CorneliusBros" every time he tried to walk to the barn.Listening to his Siamese yowl everytime things didn't go his way...mainly when the food didn't get to him in a timely manner.   

HUMPHREY BEAUREGARD YOGHURT LIPS

 Beauregard, I miss you very much.

AMSU AND SMUTTY, RESTING

Amsu had lived in a shelter for two years when he came to me. A friend adopted him but he didn't like her so he moved in with me. Amsu was one of the most interesting cats I've owned. He did things more like dogs than cats.

If I went into town, I knew he would be waiting for me across the road from our house. He would sit and wait until he heard my truck and then walk out into the road with his tail up.

We lived "alone" for many years. The "Fab Four" was there but Amsu was the only cat. He ate whatever I ate. I'll never forget the day he wanted cantaloupe and I shared with him. He chomped down on it. Any fruit and any vegetable..he loved them.

He was in one of his beds one night and a wildcat came up on the porch above him. I wished he could have told me how he felt when the BIG cat was up there. He didn't seem fazed the next morning.I was desperate to see him and he came out from under the deck, yawning and stretching! 

Amsu moved 5 times with me. He was never scared and he didn't yowl and carry on. He once went 18 hours in the pickup with me. I was pulling a huge stock trailer and he sat up like he was reading the map.

Amsu died when he was 21 from oral cancer.  

NEWMAN MARCUS, THE MAN!

Loverboy, Newman Marcus!!

That cat had so many lives that I don't have enough space to tell about them. I don't know how many times he got himself into horrible trouble and pulled out every time.

I would  feed him in the mornings and as soon as my youngest daughter came in the kitchen, he would tell her that he had not been fed.  

Newman had an endearing mannerism that my daughter and I loved. He would "meow" soundlessly. He would look us in the eye and then "meow". He would move his mouth but no sound came out. He KNEW that we couldn't resist that trick. 

When we moved to the ranch I had to get up one night and help him catch a mouse! It was going to go on for hours if I didn't help him. I threw him and the mouse outside. The next morning the tail was lying there.....