Otis and Denali

Let me introduce you to my family. I have 2 cats, Otis and Denali. I never thought I would be a cat person. I grew up with dogs. When I first moved to Denver my cousin Kari suggested I get a cat for good company. I never really thought about it. Then my friend Sarah moved in with me, and after about a month she got Zelmer. A cute white and gray cat. This was the first time I had ever lived with a cat. It was very fast that Zelmer grew on me. Then Sarah got Kit about 2 years later. Super cute kitten. It was only after having Kit that Sarah and I moved out in our own separate places. After being in my own 1 bedroom apartment by myself I immediately went to the Adams County Animal Shelter and got Sierra. Sierra was a beautiful gray kitten. And very very talkative. She meowed ALL the time. She was sick when I got her. She had a very watery/runny left eye. On her first vet visit I got antibiotics which cleared it up for a while. But it slowly came back. After having Sierra for about 5 months, I came home from work to pack for a trip to Florida. This was in April 2005. Sierra was being her usual talkative self. I had my closet door open, which she loved to run in and out of. While I was packing I look outside of my bedroom door, and I see Sierra fallen over, dead. It was horrible. To this day I don't know what happened. She was probably just 7 or 8 months old. Sierra was my first cat.

After coming back from Florida I went to the vet to select a new kitten. I knew I didn't want to be home without one. The few weeks without a cat in my home was very strange. I didn't like coming home to it being empty. The vet I go to gets their cats from Adams County Animal Shelter. When I arrived they had a selection of a bunch of black kittens. Otis rubbed up against me, and that was all I needed. That is when I got Otis. My all black male cat. Otis was super tiny when I got him. I think he was just 8 weeks old. Bringing him home and watching him play was so much fun. We bonded very fast. I have now had Otis almost 3 and half years. Otis is a scardey cat, in every sense of the word. He is scared of everything. You move to fast, make a noise he freaks out. My home is great for him, because it has a basement where he can hide. Otis isn't a social cat either. Whenever I have guests over he hardly ever comes out of hiding. A couple of years ago my cousin and her family came to visit for a whole week, it wasn't until the 4th days he finally came upstairs.

Two years ago I got Denali. She is my girl tuxedo cat. I went back and forth for a long time about getting a second cat. Mainly because I didn't want to be the crazy cat lady. Once I decided I would "look" I knew exactly what I wanted, and figured if it was meant to be it was meant to be. I knew I wanted a girl cat, mainly because I had a girl name already picked out. I also knew I wanted a tuxedo cat, because how cute would a black cat and tuxedo cat look together?! c'mon now. So I would randomly call the vet to see what kind of kittens they had in. After about a couple of months I called, and they had what I was looking for. I immediately went and got Denali. I was very nervous about bringing Denali home because of Otis. For the couple of months leading to Denali's arrival I would have conversations with Otis. "What do you think about being an older brother?!" etc... Otis is somewhat talkative, and meows back at me when I talk to him. Once Denali came into the house inside of her crate, and once Otis realized there was something inside of the crate he got pissed. Oh boy was he mad. So Denali had her own home in my room for about a week. One weekend day I let Denali out, and let Otis be more curious. I seriously thought they would kill each other, but by the end of the day Otis seemed ok. Of course now they are fine. I think Otis doesn't want people to know that he enjoys her. He actually gets pissed off and hisses at her when he is the one chasing her around. And Denali she just doesn't care. Denali is much much more social. She enjoy's it when people come over, and is a licker. She'll give you a full on bath if you let her. She is also the purrer. She purr's a lot. Otis not so much. And when he does it is very quiet. Denali also doesn't talk/meow all that much. She meows when I'm about to feed her-she acts like she is starving to death every night. I really enjoy Denali because she still looks like a kitten. Not too sure if she was the runt of the group, but she is super small for being a grown cat. I have had Denali almost 2 years now.

I'm going to be posting "Otis and Denali updates" on my blog. I got this idea from my cousin Nikki who does the same with her cat. Denali is a model. She loves to take pictures, so majority of the pictures will probably be of her, but that doesn't mean I love Otis any less. Otis is my cuddlier. He loves to cuddle with me. Which can sometimes drive me crazy. But they are the perfect duo.

What's in a name? I helped Sarah come up with Zelmer. We were watching a movie one day(couldn't tell you what movie) and we were watching the credits at the end. And one person had the last name "Zelmer" and I suggested it. It was long after that, when we realized that Rachel on "Friends" had a boss named "Mr. Zelner". I went to go get Sierra with Aaron. As we were bringing her back to my place driving in the car with Sierra meowing away. And we are both throwing out names. We pull up to a Sierra(the big truck), and Aaron says "how about Sierra?". I immediately liked it. Otis, I got a from a street name. One of the streets I used to pass from my apartment to the vet was "Otis". Then Denali. In the summer of 2003 I went to Alaska. It was a trip of me and 11 family members. It was an awesome trip. One of the stops was to the Denali National Forrest. When I thought about getting a second cat, I knew I wanted it to be a girl, so I could name her Denali.