A couple of days ago I pulled out some archived CDs–well, “archived” means they’ve been in a drawer for years–and discovered digital photos going back to late 1998. For an hour or more, I wandered through the cats of our past. An experience both happy and sad, to tell the truth.

So on this Feline Friday, I’m sharing the cats of early 2001.

First is Ms. Lizzie. She’s Harriet’s sister, the other half of this black & white pair of neighborhood kittens we adopted in 2000. During her relatively short time with us, Lizzie was my buddy. She’s the one who would sit on my desk as I blogged in the mornings. And she and Harry were a pair, always into things. Unfortunately, she started wandering, farther and farther from home, longer periods away. We tried locking her in a spare room for a “time out,” but she broke the louvers and jumped to freedom. And then, one day, she didn’t come home. We searched the neighborhood over and over. No luck. No Lizzie. I love these photos of her, but it still hurts.

The same with Mr. Lindsey, although his disappearance in 2003 lacked the seeming inevitability of Lizzie’s progressive escape. One day Lindsey walked up the driveway and never returned. That was a mystery that’s still unresolved. The same can be said for my feelings about it.

Oh, it goes on. Ms. Miki was the matriarch of our second wave of cats, the first of our calico generation. Then there’s Mr. Leo, rescued on Fathers Day, later felled unexpectedly by a kitty stroke.

In any case, this Feline Friday is dedicated to all those cats of the past. And, of course, the whole gang of today.

–>View all of today’s Friday Felines!