Why Five Cats is the Purrfect Number for Me

I am so excited to welcome you to Five Cats and Counting! I feel official introductions are in order. My name is Jasmine, and I am a 24-year-old college student majoring in English with a focus on creative writing. Currently, I live in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with my wonderful fiance and our five cats. I am a passionate cat enthusiast and have plans to become a certified cat trainer by 2025. Starting a blog like this has been a dream of mine for many years, but until now I couldn’t seem to find my niche or self-confidence. While I have loved cats for as long as I can remember, I brushed off writing about them because I felt it would only further cement the “Crazy Cat Lady” moniker. However, I have decided to embrace that title because I am crazy about cats, and cats deserve people to be crazy about them! So, let me introduce you to my five cats, who inspired me to start this endeavor.

Luna: The First of Many

My parents had cats throughout my childhood, and when I moved out on my own at eighteen, I spent less than a month without a cat before finding myself at the local humane society. I was instantly drawn to a small black-and-white kitten who was only two months old. The shelter had named her Lady Gaga, and while that name does suit the star she thinks she is, I adopted her and named her Luna. The first few hours after I brought her home, she spent hiding and wanting nothing to do with me, and while this is very common for newly adopted cats, I was heartbroken. When she did finally emerge from hiding, however, she was ready for all of the pets and love. She spent that first night purring and rubbing all over me before finally falling asleep wrapped around my neck.

Ever since that first night, Luna has been my cuddly baby girl, and I am convinced she would be most content if I never left the house. She sleeps with me most nights still, though I have had to teach her to lie on my chest instead of my neck. She may think she is still a tiny kitten, but the truth is, she’s ten pounds of pressure suffocating me in my sleep. Out of all the cats, she is my most dramatic and she thinks she is the star of the show. You will notice my best photos are of Luna. That’s because she loves the camera and will pose for me when she sees me taking shots.

Mavis: The Unexpected

Shortly after adopting Luna, I got a message from a friend asking me if I could temporarily take in a cat for her friend. The cat was named Mavis, and she was a solid black cat who was about six months old, two months older than Luna. The friend could no longer keep her, and as I was one of the few of my friends with my own apartment at the time, I relented and agreed to take her temporarily. What I didn’t expect was how quickly Luna would bond with this new cat. Being so close in age, they quickly began playing together, and I would often come home to find them curled up together in bed. A month later, Mavis, who had yet to be spayed, had her first heat. I made the decision then that I would make her an appointment to be spayed and keep her. She was officially part of the family.

Freyr: The Middle Child

The two girls were just over a year old when, while at the pet store, I spotted the cutest blonde tabby. My whole childhood, having a blonde tabby had been a dream of mine, and I just couldn’t leave without this adorable kitten. The shelter had named him Buzz Lightyear, and he was two months old. Again, the name isn’t bad; he is definitely my spacey boy. It took me a couple of tries to settle on a name for him. At first, he was Skadi, the Norse god of winter, but this soon changed to Freyr. He developed an instant bond with Mavis, going as far as attempting to nurse her. I think it brought out her motherly instincts, and she spent her days cuddling with her tiny new kitten and bathing him. Even now that he is twelve pounds and bigger than Mavis, he still demands this same attention, though Mavis has a little less patience now that her child is grown up.

Nova: The Troublemaker

Life circumstances meant that it was quite a while until I got my next cat. The girls were both three years old at the time, and Freyr was two years old. My fiance and I had been dating for a little over a year and decided we wanted to adopt our first cat together. Up until we began dating, he had always been more of a dog person but had fallen in love with my three cats. We went to the local humane society and saw two adorable kittens. One had already been adopted, but the other, a beautiful tortoiseshell with markings that split her face in half, was still available. My fiance and I agreed that we would love to adopt her, and together we signed the paperwork to take home our new four-month-old kitten.

Nova brought in issues we weren't expecting or prepared to deal with. The shelter had told us she was shy and low-energy, but within two days, it became apparent that she was actually sick. She began coughing and sneezing constantly, and soon Freyr and Mavis were too. I will admit that at the time, I was quite ignorant of cat illness and had been lucky to adopt healthy cats that experienced no issues. Nova broke that trend, though. I began by taking her to the vet, followed by Freyr and Mavis. It turned out Nova had brought in an upper respiratory infection, which is very contagious to other cats. I purchased medicine for all three currently sick cats and hoped beyond hope that Luna would be safe in her now-quarantined room. Luck was not on my side, however, and she soon became sick as well. Thus began Luna’s most dramatic act yet, which culminated in a $1,500 emergency vet visit. The reason for this visit boils down to nausea from the sinus drainage, which led to drooling, which led to dehydration. You better believe we have never let her live that one down. On Nova’s part, once she recovered, she was no longer shy or low-energy. She is my chaotic child, into everything at all times, especially three in the morning.

Cinder: The Baby

For two years after getting Nova, my fiance and I constantly debated getting a fifth cat. We felt Nova needed a kitten closer in age to her as our older cats were more chilled out by this point, and Freyr needed a brother who he could roughhouse. The decision finally came earlier in the year. I had experienced a lot of loss over the last year and found myself longing for a kitten to nurture. While browsing online for available pets in the local humane society, I stumbled upon an adorable two-month-old black kitten. I instantly fell in love and had to go see him. Of course, I only loved him more once I met him in person, and we quickly decided to adopt him. The shelter had named him Cinder, and I felt the name was perfect and fit him well, so it stayed.

Upon arriving home with Cinder, I realized quickly that he was going to be our most outgoing cat yet. Within minutes of leaving his cage, he was exploring his quarantine room, and within an hour, he was trying to escape to see the rest of the house. He developed a deep bond with me very quickly, and that first night we slept cuddled up together while he tried to nurse on my ear and neck. Once freed from quarantine, he began trying to befriend the cats, and shockingly, the quickest one to accept him was Luna. Soon the others followed, though he is too hyper for the older cats at times. He has also recently begun going on car rides and loving every moment of it. My hope is that he will become my travel cat and we can go on many adventures together in the future.

Every one of my cats has such a unique personality, and this only scratches the surface of the many stories I could tell about them. I would love to share more about them with you in the future. I also want to share with you information on cat advocacy as well as recommendations on products you and your cat should try. I hope you enjoyed learning more about my five cats and me, and please check out the Share Your Cats page to submit photos of your own cats so I can meet them too! If you want more amazing cat content, you can follow me on any of our social media sites listed below. You can also check back here weekly for more articles or sign up for my newsletter to be notified as soon as they post. I hope your day is cat-tastic!

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