Introducing our 7 Cats – Queso and Crew
I have had cats my whole life. And somewhere along the way I figured out a pattern. I lose one and somehow end up with two more. I am not complaining. I am just saying that at this point the universe has made it very clear what my life is supposed to look like and I have fully accepted it.
Right now that life includes seven cats, mini cat doors cut into basically every door in the house so the crew can go wherever they want whenever they want, an eight foot fence in the backyard (with special cat fencing added after Queso decided regular fences were just a suggestion) and a family that is completely and totally outnumbered.
Every morning starts the same way. Around 6 a.m., the feeding campaign begins. Queso knocks things off the dresser. Blueberry gets up on the headboard and stares at me. It is very much a team effort, and they are very good at it. I haven’t slept past 6 am in about 17 years. I have accepted this as some sort of past life punishment.
This site exists because of these cats. Because life with them is funny and messy and full and worth sharing. So before we get into anything else, let me introduce you to the kitty cat crew.
QUESO The House Menace
| Favorite Toy | Catnip banana |
| Favorite Food | Will eat anything but seafood |
| Best Trait | Scary smart and he knows it |
| Most Annoying Trait | Full on jealousy when mom gives attention to literally anyone else |
Queso is the reason most people find this site and honestly the reason half of my gray hairs exist. He is three years old, born without a tail, and was found wandering the streets of Pensacola as a tiny baby before ending up at the Escambia County shelter. He came in with a brother and I still think about that brother sometimes and hope he got a good home.
When I walked in looking for a friend for Blueberry, Queso was doing somersaults in his cage to get my attention. Not sitting there looking cute like a normal cat. Somersaults. I spent the weekend “thinking about it,” but was there first thing Monday morning, and I haven’t been bored since.
Queso is famous online for his personality, and if you spend five minutes watching him, you will completely understand why. He is calculating. He is strategic. He knocks things off surfaces with full eye contact because he wants you to know it was intentional. He also regulates Hercules, manages the backyard situation, and has somehow appointed himself head of household security. We let him because, honestly, it is easier that way.
The jealousy, though. If you are sitting with me and Queso decides that it’s his time, you will know about it. He does not share his Mom well. We are working on it. He is not.
Read more about Queso.
BLUEBERRY The Independent Woman
| Favorite Toy | Skinneeez Squirrels |
| Favorite Food | Wet food, plus elevenses at 11pm every single night |
| Best Trait | Unbothered and completely self-sufficient |
| Most Annoying Trait | Will scream at a closed door like it committed a personal crime against her |
I got Blueberry after losing my soul cat Gryffn and I will be honest, it was not a carefully planned decision. I was grieving, and I needed a cat, and she was there, and she was a perfect ball of fluff. Best impulsive decision.
Blueberry is three years old, a Ragamuffin tabby, and she has her whole life completely figured out. She spends her days in dads office, wants absolutely nothing to do with drama, and has a Skinneeez Squirrel collection she takes very seriously. She also gets “elevenses” every night at 11pm. That is her personal snack. At 11pm. She shows up around 9pm nightly and follows you around staring until “its time”.
She prefers indoors, likes to watch the birds and squirrels from the windows, and will absolutely lose her mind if you close a door she wants open. Like, truly unhinged screaming at a closed door.
ATLAS The Gentle Giant
| Favorite Toy | Cat tunnel and always the smallest cat condo in the house |
| Favorite Food | All food, every food, any food |
| Best Trait | Very very sweet |
| Most Annoying Trait | Sitting on your actual chest at 22 pounds like that is fine |
I always wanted a Maine Coon. Always. When a friend’s daughter gave me the opportunity, I did not even hesitate, and Atlas came home with us. He is two years old, and he weighs twenty-two pounds, and he has absolutely no concept of personal space, and I love him completely.
Atlas’s whole personality is laziness. He wants to be sprawled out on a bed or on top of you. He will take over the dog bed or even sit on another cat. He is not an overthinker. And despite his very large size, he LOVES the tiniest cat condo that we have.
He likes just about any cat tunnel, eats everything without any opinions about it whatsoever, and has a spot in the backyard under the flowers where he goes to sit and look distinguished. We shave him pretty regularly because Maine Coon fur is genuinely a part-time job. He tolerates this with the quiet dignity of a very large man who knows he has no other options.
MYSTIQUE The Elegant Queen
| Favorite Toy | Rainbow String, which she carries around the house and drops in the food bowl |
| Favorite Food | Churu |
| Best Trait | Sweetest cat and causes no trouble |
| Most Annoying Trait | Scratching the food bowl when dinner does not pass her inspection |
Mystique is Atlas’s biological sister. My husband surprised me with her 3 weeks after Atlas came home. She is two years old and about eighteen pounds and she is the sweetest thing in this house by a mile. She has no idea she is big enough to run everything. She does not want to run everything. She just wants to love people and carry her string around and occasionally roll over for a belly rub.
She tends to hang out in my son’s room or my college daughter’s room, gets along with basically everyone, and has somehow managed to stay above all the household drama through sheer sweetness alone. She does have standards about her food, though. If dinner is not what she was hoping for she will scratch that bowl and look at you and scratch it again until you acknowledge that you have let her down or scoot her away.
COCOA PUFF The Original
| Favorite Toy | Laser pointer |
| Favorite Food | Crunchy food and cheddar cheese |
| Best Trait | She barely meows |
| Most Annoying Trait | Has never used a litter box in her life and has taught me everything I know about cleaning cat pee |
Cocoa Puff is 15 (we think), and she was here before almost all of them. We found her at the Mobile County shelter when she was just a baby. She had been given as a gift to someone who did not want her and surrendered her right away. I cannot imagine that – remember not to give pets as gifts, or they end up like her.
She has seen cats come and go, kids grow up, houses change, and through all of it she has just been exactly who she is. Sleeps all day, stares at you when you walk by, and is mostly just unintrusive. And fully committed to never once using a litter box no matter what we try. I have learned a lot about cleaning cat pee because of Cocoa Puff. I will share all I know about having a clean house and all the ways we take care of her bad habits here in future articles.
HERCULES The Reformed Bad Boy
| Favorite Toy | He does snuggles, not toys |
| Favorite Food | Whatever is available |
| Best Trait | He is very sweet to humans |
| Most Annoying Trait | He is very mean to the female cats |
Hercules is somewhere around 12-13 years old and came to quite chaotically. He was found under a shed at five weeks old, barely big enough to fit in your hand, being swung around in a basket by kids who did not know any better. We stepped in, took him and his siblings, and raised them ourselves. He grew up alongside his sister Scarlett, who we lost to cancer a few years ago.
Hercules with humans is an absolute angel. He is gentle and sweet and just wants to be near people he loves. The female cats in the house have historically had a slightly different experience with him (except for Blueberry, whom he loves), but Queso has taken it upon himself to regulate that entire situation. Hercules picks on Cocoa, and Queso picks on Hercules.
Herc spent years as our one indoor-outdoor cat, coming and going like he owned the neighborhood, but age has mellowed him out, and he is mostly indoor now. He will walk to the backyard and immediately want back in.
TOFU The Baby
| Favorite Toy | Every single toy he has ever seen |
| Favorite Food | Dry food |
| Best Trait | He’s the baby, all his traits are the best |
| Most Annoying Trait | Climbs under my chin every single night and sleeps on his back like a little gremlin and I cannot stop him |
Tofu is the newest member of the house and the baby. He is under a year old, a Persian, and looks like someone put a cat through a fluff filter and cranked it all the way up.
He came into a house of six cats with strong personalities and histories and opinions and he just walked in and was completely fine about it. Everyone likes Tofu. Even Hercules likes Tofu.
Every single night without fail he finds his way under my chin and falls asleep on his back like the world is a safe and perfect place. He is not wrong. He plays with every toy he encounters, eats his dry food with zero drama, and brings a kind of easy happy energy to this house.
Buy your cats my cats favs
So that is the crew. Seven cats, one house, cat doors in every room, a fortified backyard, and a family that has long since accepted that we are not in charge here.
