John E

Mr. Li resembles my younger son's Siamese mix, a robust 14-year-old 18-pounder with piercing blue eyes who stands guard at our driveway and loves to hang out in the garage with me and the boys when we work on cars or bikes. When a neighbor's beautiful Russian blue cat had a litter, my son and two of his pals adopted the three kittens. At that time, Will's cat was almost pure white, with a hint of a Siamese point on his nose. We call him the "Polaroid kitty," because over the years his fur has gradually darkened, particularly on the ears, face mask, and paws. Being a mix, he has all the best qualities of a Siamese and a domestic short hair.

Our other cat is an equally large (much fluffier and not as muscular) 7-year-old super-affectionate pure black female domestic longhair who loves to be a lap cat. My wife and my elder son trapped and rescued a litter of three feral kittens, raised them to be great pets, gave two to a neighbor, and kept Melanie (as in melanistic).

We are pleased that these two get along so well, which is not always the case with cats, as you know.

One word of advice/caution -- several years ago we lost 14-year-old Noir (yup -- we have this thing for black cats), the best cat we ever had, to Vaccine Associated Sarcoma. This tiny 7-pound rodent killing machine and "alpha female" who ruled over the two 18-pounders was also my home office companion, who loved to "help" me type on my computer. Veterinarians and Big Pharma claim VAS is extremely rare, but trust me, it is far more common than they want us to realize. I am a member of the VAS support group -- you can read about the number of early deaths and amputations caused by reaction to vaccines, particularly rabies. I am not anti-vaccine, but there is ample evidence that the antibodies remain active much longer than we are told, resulting in an excessively high frequency of booster shots, with the associated increased risk of VAS.
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Feline_VAS_Support/