Three weeks ago I blogged about my dog Skip’s quirks and endearing idiosyncrasies when I actually intended to mention all 10 of my animals…the good, the bad and the ugly. So much for brevity. I guess you can say it’s not one of my strong suits. So I’ll try again.

Let’s see…Oliver is my oldest pet. I don’t know exactly how old because he was found as an injured adult taking refuge in a dog house in someone’s backyard in early 2011. Marin Humane asked me to foster him. Thus I inherited my first failed foster.

Oliver sits beside me as I write this, his tail sweeping across my keyboard like a fluffy feather duster. He’s trying to get my attention. Oliver is nothing if not needy. The older this boy gets, the more enamored with me he becomes. He’s like Gorilla Glue; I can’t shake him. Now don’t get me wrong; I haven’t decided if this is an endearing idiosyncrasy or an annoying quirk.

My days are numbered before I end up in traction since I trip over my shadow, I mean Oliver, practically weekly. But I can say this about the boy: he has a jealous streak. That’s definitely one of his quirks. Apparently I’m his possession and if one of the other pets tries to sleep too close to me or he sees me petting one of them, he gives them, and me, the look.

Okay, now on to Fat Jack. He hasn’t always been fat. In fact he was what I’d call svelte (for him) when I trapped him about 9 years ago.

I can’t blame the guy. He was living in a colony of around 15 cats at a hotel in Valley Ford. The owner of the hotel fed the cats and we sterilized them. But it’s not easy feeding that many, so not everyone got their fair share.

When I brought Jack home, I discovered he was semi domestic. He settled in nicely so I decided to keep him. Failed foster #2. Jack thought he was in heaven discovering he didn’t have to compete for food. And that was the beginning of the end for him being svelte. He couldn’t help himself; he ate until he threw it up. And then he ate again.

With 7 cats, it’s a challenge for me to keep Jack from the others’ food; they’re grazers but gorging is Jack’s preferred eating method. Is this a quirk? I tried isolating him in the bathroom to eat separately from the others so he doesn’t steal their meals; I closed the door to the kitty kitchen (a spare bedroom), which upset the grazers; I gave him less food but spread it throughout the day; I try to get him to move more, but waddling is Jack’s speed limit.

Another of Jack’s quirks is that he loves cuddling with the other cats until it gets his juices flowing whereupon he attempts to mount one, ending in that cat not taking too kindly to it, so a swatting fest ensues.

To wake me up, Jack sits on my chest. I assume he finds this endearing. To me, not so much. (I call him Fat Jack for a reason.) That guy can lie in the sun for much of the day, soaking up the rays with not a care in the world. I’m envious of his laziness. He only moves faster than a snail at meal time when I yell, “Nummers! Come and get it!” You can bet he’s always first to the kitty kitchen. Jack actually watches TV and is my only feline who loves the cat hammock.

So there you have it. Three down, four to go. Next up: Savannah and Dash. Stay tuned…