"Salem"
(There are many pictures on this page, it may take a moment to load them all.)
Salem came to be a member of the Carras family through some strange circumstances. While walking to the front entrance of our local Target store, we happened upon a couple of kids standing near a grocery cart with a cardboard box inside. The little girl was asking people as they walked by if anyone wanted a free kitten. Being the sucker that I am for animals, especially cats, I went over to look in the box. As I was petting them, one particularly cute little black kitten latched his claws into my shirt (and some of my skin) and would not let go. Of course, we had to take him home with us. Tammie took a little bit of convincing, as she is allergic to cats, but she caved in pretty quickly.
The most ironic thing is that we were at Target to pick up Tammie's allergy medicine.
Salem is now about 2 months old in these pictures and is just about the cutest thing you have ever seen. He is also quite a little stinker. He likes to play with anything that is not secured, especially shoelaces or electrical wires and cables.
We chose the name "Salem" because of the black cat on the TV show, "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch". It seemed as fitting a name as any; just as the TV Salem seems to always get himself into trouble by being nosy and perhaps a little too daring, so too does our Salem.
Salem has grown up quite a bit since this page was first created.
He went from being a somewhat sickly little 7 week old, 2 1/4 pound palm-full of clingy kitten to a trim, muscular 9 month old ball of energy! He has definitely become a part of our family, even winning over Tammie, the supposedly allergic one.
Here is a look at him now.
Of course, I can not leave out his older brother, Tiger. I rescued Tiger from a litter of barn cats in October 1999. Unfortunately, because I lived in an apartment that didn't allow cats, Tiger had to go to live with my Parents. Well, my Father, (of all people), became pretty attached to him, as did my Mother's Border Collie. So, Tiger had to stay there.
Don't be fooled by the innocent look of the kitty in the basket, he is definitely a stinker!
Surprisingly, these 2 mischevious cats do get along very nicely. While we were in Hawaii, my Parents offered to host Salem at their house. They not only played nicely together, they terrorized poor Kate the Border Collie together as well.
Stay tuned for more pictures of these cantankerous cats, including some with Kate the Border Collie!
