How we humans came to be assistant innkeepers…
A tale of two kitties. Great expectations of fluff? I’ll figure out a good title some day. However, I’ve got to share a little bit about how our inn became so pet friendly without our even realizing it.
A brief detour. Our family has always had animals. Claudia used to raise short hair daschunds, and as children we always had a family cat (or two) and a dog of some sort. The reason I say this is to paint the picture of “*dramatic sigh* my parents have always been dog people”. I’ve always been an equal opportunity pet lover, but my heart belongs to cats. Anyways, now that I’ve established the landscape a little, on with the story!
We have always had cats. As long as I can remember, there was always a furry feline supervisor paying dutiful attention to my sleeping habits, my feeding habits, criticizing my wardrobe so silently but still heard loud and clear. In fact as I type this, Houdini has parked himself between me and the computer. Pebcak error? Problem exists between chair and keyboard, kitty style. 
When we moved into the inn in 1996, we brought our family cats with us. Guests never knew that we had cats in our private living quarters. Well OK, every once and a while I’d hear a guest say “I love traveling” or “This is a beautiful house and we enjoy visiting” followed by “but we miss our cats”. To see their eyes light up as I would say “I can loan you a kitty for a while if you like” and up would come Shady or Q-tip to visit the guest for a while. We had a Chartreux for 7 years that if he had managed to escape the quarters would run up to guests and chirp at them and circle their legs, almost to say “welcome!” and then saunter off back to his chair.
Pictured Above: Q-tip
Pictured Below: Shady
Q-tip, our little black medium hair guy with a white spot on his chest,
and the white tip of his tail (hence the name), passed away 3 years ago. He was a constant companion, a guardian, a mighty chaser of all things bug related, and a laundry inspection specialist. He would often pop out of a fresh basket (now destined to return to the laundry for a new washing) and give it his chirp of approval. His carefree attitude and affable personality was a loss not only for us, but our guests as well.
Both boys are missed, and occupy a forever part of our hearts.
. Yes, we have a cat that prefers her solitude except when she doesn’t. Sugar in fact is quite the mess. Defiant in that way that only a cat can be, supremely confident in their own superiority via being a cat.
Sugar is still just as feisty as ever, and has taken on Matronly duties with the boys, and Kali, whom we will meet in the next blog.
We absolutely loved getting to meet Hudini (large, orange tabby). He greeted us outside of our door and came in as if to welcome us. Let us give him some petting and was just as friendly and cute as could be. This was delightful because where we live, we can’t keep our cats so we get excited any time we can spend time with one! I can’t wait for more stories.