TT 16 My fuzzy co-workers

Well, this Thursday I thought I'd take a pseudo-visual tour of work by showing you many of the lovely furry faces I see every day. No, my co-workers don't need to shave (with one notable exception). I'm referring to the furry friends that live in the old barn where I work. You may think it strange that a book publisher works out of a barn converted to offices and is crawling with animals you would never find in an office setting. Yeah, well I do too. So here are thirteen of the cats and sheep where I work:

1…. Booger: I should probably start with the cat who thinks she owns the barn. Booger (and no, I'm not making that up) lets everyone know when she's hungry or tired or hungry. Her meow sounds like she's a chain smoker and is the most annoying noise I've ever heard come from an animal. I should have taken a video so everyone could understand what I'm talking about.

2…. Chubbs (aka Gray Coat, Gray Boy, Fatty): He has to be one of my favorite cats. (I only have three faves. What can I say? I'm a cat person, even though I'm allergic.) Anyway, he is the one cat that most of the people at work like. Every morning he has to come in for a cuddle, though I'm disappointed he didn't come see me this morning. He is also one of the fattest cats I've ever seen. I'm amazed he can still jump down from tables and chairs without breaking his legs. And yes, he is spoiled, as you can see by this photo.

3…. Cleona (aka Gerlinda, Erlinda): She's another of my favorites, though she has a very playful personality. She'll sit docilely on my lap for several minutes and then start attacking my arm for no reason. The other day when I was leaving work, she decided she wanted to come home with me, so she tried jumping in my car every time I tried to open the door. Well, she got bored with that after a minute and then decided to jump on top of my car. She then tried to jump inside from the top. She is a fun cat to have around, let me tell you.

4…. Rosie: Rosie is such a sweet little cat. She'll let anyone pet her and gets along well with the other cats, which is saying a lot. When I tell people we have a lot of cat fights at work, I don't mean the women. Her favorite new spot is on top of one co-worker's sweatshirt that she lays on the counter just for Rosie. The cat is so sweet tempered, she doesn't even mind it when I tease her. (As you can tell, she's my third favorite.)

5…. LK (or Little Kitty, aka Droolie): I haven't seen LK in a while, maybe because we kept trying to scare him away from us. Now we aren't really that mean. It has more to do with how LK drools. A lot. All over everything. One girl at work, before she realized just how much this cat drools, was holding him when all of a sudden she felt a huge wet spot on her shirt. Let's just say, I'm not terribly fond of that cat after getting drool all over my foot. Blech. Poor cat. No one wanted to be around him.

6…. Son of Booger (aka Sobe): This is one of Booger's sons. She had another one around here for a while, but he got ran over. No one will admit to it, though there are suspicions that the owner of the company may have done it. SoB has an annoying meow as well--something he inherited from his mom--though not nearly as annoying. He tends to keep to himself, so I don't know as much about him.

7…. Fancy Pants: Fancy Pants is one of the outside cats. She doesn't really like people all that much, but she's always hanging around outside. (We tend to pick up a lot of cats because there are bowls of food sitting outside the barn. Hey, if people offered me free food, I'd stick around too.)

8…. Short-haired black cat: I don't know if this cat has a name, but it's a cat that showed up outside one day. One person at work thinks she's pregnant, which is always a possibility. I can't imagine how many cats we'd have running around after that. (Note: We actually have all the cats spayed and neutered just so we don't have to deal with millions of cats running around. They'd probably take over the barn if we didn't.)

9…. Cat that looks like LK but doesn't drool: Another cat I see every day but don't know its name. It probably has one, but I haven't paid any attention. This cat is skittish around people as well.

10…. Spaz (aka Spaztic): Poor little Spaz was with us only for two weeks. She showed up one day, just a little kitten, who was hungry and feisty. She would growl if you got too close to her food, as she was as spazzy as her name implies. We left work on Friday and when we came back she was gone. We all hope she found a nice home, but I doubt that. She was definitely a good one for laughs, though, as you never knew what she would do next. She did have a hard time getting along with the other cats. Pretty much she'd just hiss at any cat--or person, for that matter--that she saw.

11…. Casper (aka White Cat, Crazy Kitty, Crack Kitty): We called this cat Crack Kitty because she acted like she was on crack. There was one time I startled her in the hallway and she took off running. She was going so fast, though, that when she tried to turn into someone's office, she slid the rest of the way down the hall. I thought it was very funny, but I felt bad for that cat because some of my co-workers thought she'd been abused before we got her. We don't know what happened to her, either, because she disappeared one day. I imagine she probably got hit by a car. Poor thing.

12…. Mabel: Now, there are other cats running around the barn, but I thought I'd switch gears and show you the other animals we have. At one time there used to be six sheep and even a horse and some cows, from what I hear. That was definitely long before my time there. Mabel isn't terribly friendly. She won't come if you hold out grass for her or do pretty much anything.

13…. Gilbert: The other sheep, Gilbert, doesn't really do much, either. They're sort of fun to look at, and every once in a while they take off running, but all they really do is sleep and eat. When I was interviewing for my job, they offered to give me the wool from the sheep when they sheared them. I turned them down because, although I do know how to spin wool into yarn, I don't like the whole washing-poop-and-dirt-and-grass-out-of-the-fleece part of the process. Wow, that's a long post. I'm sure none of you are that interested in all the animal antics that go on where I work, but hey, it makes me laugh.