by Jacqueline Price

Created on: August 07, 2008

While no expert on the matter, I am one of the world's biggest cat lovers and have had a few cats as pets over the last fifty years. From my experience the male cats have tended to be friendlier than the females, but there have been exceptions to the rule.

My first cats consisted of a brother and sister who had been born in our coal bunker in our back garden in England. Fluffy, the male, was laid back and affectionate while Silky, the female, was slightly more aloof. Unfortunately, long summer vacations abroad forced us to give the cats away.

My next cat was a female Calico cat named Micia who adopted me when I was about eight years old. I passed her once a week on the way to my dreaded piano lessons and would always stop to stroke her and talk to her. She started to follow me home and after a few weeks decided she was happier with me than her original owners. After a few phonecalls back and forth between my mother and Micia's owners, it was decided that Micia could stay with us. I was overjoyed and immediately stopped piano lessons. Micia became my best friend and confidante and would sit on my chest while I lay down and told her all my troubles. For the next seven years we enjoyed a warm and close relationship. I was devasted when she became ill and passed away - we had not realized how old she was when she adopted us.

After moving to Canada seven years later I was thrilled to discover three kittens born under our deck. After finding good homes for two, my husband finally relented and let me keep the final kitten - a black female we called Woodstock. However, Woodstock was never as friendly or affectionate as Micia, possibly due to both her parents being feral cats. My husband used to describe her as neurotic. She did like to be petted - but only on the head and upper part of her body. Touch her tummy and you would receive the sharp end of her claws. But once you knew her personality and teperament and respected her likes and dislikes, she could be quite affectionate - at least with me. She lived with us until she turned almost twenty and my two sons survived without too many scratches, hisses or bites!

After my experience with Woodstock I thought I would try adopting a male cat. I currently have two male tabby cats - a twelve-year-old named Tiger and a four-year-old named Pepper. Even though we adopted Tiger as a seven-week-old kitten, he is definitely not a lap cat and absolutely hates to be picked up. If he had his way, and if the city did not have a cat

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