Three Black Cats - Our Lives and Adventures

We're Raven, Shadow and Mia. We're three black cats living in Tampa, Florida. We have lived all over the country, but we like the weather in the South the best. We are all rescue cats. We each came to live with our adoptive Mom in different ways. Read all about us and check out how cute we are.

Oh and what's up with that dog picture at the top of the page? We didn't have anything to do with that.

My name is Raven. I was born in Orlando, Florida in 1996. I climbed a tree and could not get down because I was so high up and I was still a kitten. Some people found me up in the tree crying and got me down. They took me in and put up flyers to try to find my owner, but I didn't have one - I was homeless. My Mom saw one of the flyers on a light post in the neighborhood where she lived and called the number. The guy she talked to told her that no one had claimed me and she was welcome to take me in if she wanted. When Mom saw me it was love at first sight. She was wearing a black dress and when she put me up on her shoulder, the man said, "you match!" Mom and I have been inseparable ever since (well, except for that time she made me and my older sister Felix live with our grandparents while she went to live in some foreign country for several months - that was traumatizing.)

I've always been Mom's favorite, and I'm very spoiled. I'm all black, but I have some white on my chest and white toes on one paw. I'm getting older and I spend most of my time taking naps. I especially like to lay under the blanket. Mom worries about me, which means I get a lot of attention. I don't really have a nickname, but Mom usually calls me Raven boy or baby boy.

Baby boy Raven passed over the Rainbow Bridge on Thanksgiving, 2011 due to an untreatable illness. He has been hugely missed since he passed. Rest in peace baby boy!

I'm Shadow. I was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 2001. I was living in a cage at my doctor's office when my Mom found me and saved me. She was at the cat doctor with Felix, who was terminally ill. I was so tiny and cute Mom couldn't resist me, and she thought a back-up kitten would help get over the loss of Felix since the vet was convinced Felix wasn't going to live. This was around Christmastime, and someone had taped a picture of me to a stocking on my cage calling me "Noel." After Mom took me in, she started calling me Shadow. When I came home to my new house, I spent most of my time hiding in the 4 inch-wide crack between the kitchen cabinet and the stove. I only sneaked out when Mom wasn't around for some food. She thought I was lost until she spotted me after a couple days of hiding, scurrying back to my hiding place like a little guinea pig.

I still like to scurry because I have short legs and I'm still really small. Mom thinks I'm a dwarf cat because I never grew to be full size. I don't get along too well with Mia because I am jealous of her and don't like her getting attention. I tend to like to keep to myself when I'm not laying in Mom's lap. My favorite thing to do is nap (of course) and my nickname is Shadowcat. Oh. And I have an oral fixation - I like to lick furniture, walls, doors, blankets...Mom thinks I'm weird.

I was a homeless kitten when Mom took me in.

I was born in late 2005 in Atlanta, Georgia. My birth Mom and siblings lived under the house where my new Mom lived. She started feeding all of us. She wanted to take all of us in, but she already had 3 cats and didn't want to adopt anymore. When she got ready to move, she was worried about leaving all of us behind in case we wouldn't get fed. She tried to catch all of us to take us with her to her new neighborhood. She caught me, one of my siblings, and some random gray cat who was also hanging around.

She didn't have enough carriers for all of us, so she just stuck us in the car, planning to let us out when we got to the new house. She opened the door and the gray cat and my sister ran off immediately, but I was hiding up inside the dashboard and wasn't coming out. I had a master plan. I was going to get a home one way or another. Mom thought I got out because I kept quiet. The next day when she went to leave for work, there I was chillling on the backseat, very casual. When she tried to catch me, I crawled back up inside the dashboard where she couldn't reach me. She was late for work and she drove there and left the windows cracked because it was a Spring day and it was cool outside. I lived in Mom's car for three days because I was afraid to come out.

Mom was frantic, wondering how she was going to get me out of her car, or if I would end up dead in there. She left food on the seat hoping I would come out, but nothing worked. She left the windows down when she was at home, thinking I might get out on my own, but I stayed in the car. I just knew I would get her to take me in after all of this trouble.

After the third day, I decided I needed to get out and I was laying in the neighbor's lawn when Mom spotted me and tried to catch me. I was nervous and didn't want to be held, so I ran off. The next day I went up on Mom's front porch to eat the food she put out, and she caught me when I was distracted and took me inside. At first I wouldn't let her hold me, but she was patient and eventually I let her hold me for a bit. After a couple of days at the new house, I climbed up in bed with Mom and that's where I've been sleeping ever since.

I've been happily living with Mom for four years now. I don't like to be held, but I like to lay near Mom wherever she is. My nickname is Angel Pie.

We had an older sister who liked to take care of all of us and treat us like her kittens. She was with Mom since before Raven was born. Felix disappeared one day in 2008 in Cumberland, Indiana, where we used to live. Mom never figured out how she got out or what happened to her. She doesn't like to talk about it too much. After Felix disappeared, Mom got all of us collars and tags to wear. We weren't too thrilled about it, but we don't want to get lost too and not be able to find our way home, so we learned to get used to them.