Our first cat was found by Joy's sister Mary at Uncle Joe's barn near their parent's farm near Frankfort, Indiana in 1964. George, a female, was named by Mary, "she just looked like a George". She was probably dumped by someone, not a good thing to do, but it worked out okay for her. We had George until we moved to Maui, Hawaii in 1967. Joy's other sister Alice was kind enough to take her. Alice kept her for many years until she had a stroke, according to the vet, and died in her sleep the next night.
The next cat was Claude. A large orange tom about 2 years old. We got him from Mack Mann in 1970, a coworker when I worked for Dudley Observatory in Albany, NY. Claude was with us when we lived in Voorheesville, NY, a suburb of Albany, till he died of cancer in September of 1981.
Next came Earl and Erica. We got them as 7 week old kittens in February 1982, from John Conley who we didn't know at the time, but came to know later when I joined the New Salem Volunteer Fire Department. Earl was known for his lack of luck. He had many misfortunes. He died young of cancer in April of 1986. We got Fred and Freda in May of 1986 from a coworker. They were true barncats. It took quite a while to tame them but they came around and became very nice pets. Erica died of kidney failure in October of 1996 at the ripe old age of 14. Freda died January 22, 2001 just before we moved to Winona Lake. Fred came with us to Indiana and lived happily here until he developed kidney failure and died on November 13, 2003 at age 17 and a half.
Al was our last cat. We got him from Chris, a starter at Little Bighorn Golf Club where I was a member. Al was living in a barn with some cows and a bunch of cats. Chris had been feeding them for quite some time so he was more or less tame when we got him in june of 2004. Al died of a tumor and old age January 31, 2023.
George
Erica
Earl
Claude
Fred
Freda
