My furfamily, Jasper

Jasper is the shyest of the three gray puuds.

In the beginning you wouldn’t find the three of them separated. Always together, playing, sleeping in a big gray fur pile. They quickly made friends with everyone.

Uncle Boo and Uncle Oscar were commonly seen cuddling with one or all of them.

Jasper used to sleep on our bed with his brother and sister, but Maggie being the love of his life, he soon chose to stay in the living room with her as she wouldn’t come to bed with us.

He was Ian’s baby, for the first 6 years of his life he wouldn’t sit on my lap, wouldn’t let me hold him, he was only Ian’s kitty.

Here’s a kicker, that little stinker, who wouldn’t let me pick him up or cuddle him… one day my mother was here and she comes walking around the corner with Jasper in her arms!

I don’ t know why, for so long he was afraid of me. Finally, one afternoon, Ian wasn’t home and I was sitting in my recliner watching TV and Jasper must have wanted a cuddle because he came and lay on my lap, from then on he's been my boy too.

I think it has to do with kitty language. They say the slow blink means “I love you” in kitty, so I started slow blinking at him. He’d always done it to me, really, I suspect that’s when he decided I was ok. Now, I'm no sooner in my recliner chair and he's on my lap. He’ll cuddle me, sit on my lap, let me hold him, rub his belly.

When we put a tall child gate in the hallway to make a “crate” for Pongo and Purdy, Jasper was the first to learn to jump it. After we lost our sweet Maggie and sweet Boo, Jasper began to jump the gate in the night and sleep with me. He won't stay past my discovery of him there, but I feel him come in to cuddle where Boo used to and he’ll stay for hours.

Jasper has a funny habit, he picks his toenails, the only cat I’ve had that does that. Ian does it too, I wonder if they’re linked somehow and Ian taught him to pick his toenails.

Jasper, like Maggie Mae, LOVES the fire. Nothing better than a pillow in front of a warm fire.