These are my cats, Jake (the big grey one) and Elwood ( the white and grey one). Yes, they're named after the Blues Brothers.

I got Jake and Elwood around April of 1996. They were residents of the Palo Alto Animal Shelter. They'd been staying in the same cage, and I figured that if they could at least semi-get along, having two cats would be better than having only one, so I brought them home.

Jake is a very people-cat. He's more feisty than Elwood, and friendlier to visitors. He loves catnip, and likes to chase paper balls around the house. He likes to sleep on mom (me). He likes to eat newspaper. For a while, he was terrified of my mom's Big Bear, but he's gotten over that now. Jake likes to 'Flomp' wherever he can. Here's another picture of him. We gave up on keeping Jake out of the living room. It wasn't worth the effort. I can't tell you how useful 16inch leather welding gloves are when dealing with a cat that likes to play the way Jake does. It's nice to be able to let Jakey play as hard as he wants to, without losing oh, a BIG chunk of skin!

Elwood is the 'High Strung GQ model'. He's a pretty cat, with long fur. I think he's part mainecoon, but he only weighs about 9 pounds, soaking wet. His favorite game is 'The alarm went off, it's time for me to get fed *head butt*'. He hates riding in the car. We can't even figure out if he eats. No, that's not exactly true. He eats, and then throws up. So I don't know how he gets any nourishment. He likes to sit in the windows most of the time. He's also pretty much decided that Earl is *his* human, and well, it's just not fair when you have to fight your own cat for lap space. Anyone who remembers Elwood for the first several years after I got him - the panicky 'humans suck, I will HIDE' would be amazed at him now. He let Morgan pick him up and carry him around. He comes out into the living room sometimes when people who don't live in the house are around. He still tends to stick to the bedroom usually, but if people go in there, he's more likely to jump up on the footboard and demand to be petted than to hide. I guess it makes sense now that he's got more than just me to pay attention to him when he wants it. Not being ignored does a lot for a pet.
ang's quote: The Elwood is cute. Love the Elwood. I have far too many cat pictures here.