After Yesterday's Dumb ....

 ... I opted for a palate cleanser of some of my favorite things through the years. 

Like my paternal grandmother, Agnes Dorothy Nolan, born in San Francisco just one month after the  Big Quake of 1906. She was tiny, barely five feet tall, but she was a pistol!

Carlos and me in Key West the week I flew to Miami to meet him. This was the third day of my trip and by then i knew this was where I belonged.

Mom and Dad on the deck of their house in Blue Canyon.

Tuxedo, showing off the goods to the Sun Gods.

Little MaxGoldberg used to sit in the window behind the shades, and then pop his head out; I love his little wink.

Consuelo. Is it me, or does she kinda match the sunroom love seat? Did we adopt her because she went with the furniture?

Ozzo, all done up a la the Obama Hope poster.

This is Lady, who lived to be twenty-one. I had dolled her up with gold stars for a Christmas card; she wasn't happy, but she let me do it to her.

Scruffy was the old man of the house, who had bad legs, a bad eye and lost an ear to cancer before he passed. He was tough but lovable.

Spunky was the bitch of the house, but she loved to be scooped up and held on her back while you rubbed her belly. I love her hypnotic eyes ...

Sweetie, whose name truly fit her, dolled up for that same Christmas card as Lady. Sweetie also lived into her 20s.

Tallulah Belle. The first cat we adopted in South Carolina. Her favorite nap spot was inside an empty pot. We didn't have her long, but she was something.

Thomas was a cat Carlos adopted in Miami, though to be fair, it was actually Thomas who adopted Carlos. He as a huge cat, of no discernible breed, who looked mean but wasn't at all; he was a pussy cat.

And this is Voncie, Lady's brother. He was smart as a whip, and crazy as a loon.

Sidenote: no, it isn't lost on  me that we have certain cat "types" ... Lady and Tuxedo. Max and Sweetie and Scruffy; Voncie and Tallulah; Spunky and Consuelo. I think if we ever found a cat that looked like Thomas, we'd grab him up to.