Saturday is Caturday! I dedicate this special day to the catto empire in the house. I always see stray cats roaming outside our house. Being an animal lover, I easily feel good when I see cute animals so I try to befriend them but most of these cats are scared of people. One summer of 2010 made a history. Little did I know that it will be the start of the catto empire in our house.

Mama Dear Appears

Stray cats keep coming but they're hard to approach until this calico cat appeared. I was delighted because she's a friendly one. I haven't given her any food but she's been friendly to me the first time we've met way back 2010. She's often pregnant so I named her Mama Dear. I got the name from one of the cartoons I have seen in tv commercials. Since I find her nice, I started to feed her each time I see her hangout outside our house. I often see her pregnant but I never saw a single baby survive. She will just come back alone after giving birth. A year later, she gave birth to the batch of babies and they're the only ones I saw who lived for a while. She gave birth to four babies and that's the last batch of babies she had. Among these four kittens, only one of them survived and so the production machine grew the empire.

Junior, the Ms. Congeniality

May 2011, mama dear gave birth to four babies and this one caught my attention because she's the most attractive among her babies. I also love how she inherited her fur from her mom. So I named her Junior. Some people I know wonder why I named her Junior when she's female. Being Mama Dear's mini me is the reason behind her name. She's the only junior of Mama Dear and everything in her is junior size, her body, her legs, and her voice. She used to be scared of people. She would just stay close to her mom. After "bribing" her with foods, she became friendly. Just in time before her mom passed away. A year later (late 2012), I never saw Mama Dear again. I realized that she's in her twilight years when she left us with Junior. Her mini me is indeed a remembrance she has left. My friendship with Junior made her stay in our house for good. She did not only get used with humans but also with other animals.

Come 2013, Marky came to our lives. This very friendly dog has matched Junior's friendliness. They get along very well. They hangout and sleep together. Marky even shares his food to her. Junior started to get along with other dogs as she gets used with them.

Cats are some of a rabbit's predators. But To my surprise, Junior is an exemption. One time, I was trying to take pictures of Caleb until Junior approached me then she went inside Caleb's cage in search of food. I was amazed on how she treated Caleb. Instead of attacking him, she just showed him motherly love. She groomed him like her own son then she sat near the door. Instead of getting scared, Caleb felt at ease with her. She's indeed the Ms. Congeniality cat.

Year 2013, Junior started to be a production machine I never expected her to be. She's been on a mass production for years but none of her babies survived. Seeing this, I learned that a cat's survival rate is very low. Come 2019, the catto empire started to grow.

Kuya Sexy, the Sexiest Cat Alive

Junior reached her 8th year last 2019. That was the first time her baby survives. This sexy cat is the first ever son that survived. I named him Kuya Sexy because "kuya" is the tagalog word for big bro and he's the eldest son and I noticed that sexy pose is his expertise without him knowing. He's my favorite when it comes to posing. He's doing things with sexy poses and it makes me laugh.

Abs Shows his Abs

Early last year, Junior gave birth to another batch of kitties. This guy is the only one who survived. I rarely see him sit. I noticed that he always lies on the ground, showing some abs, either full or partial. One time I posted his photo and one of my friends commented about him showing some abs. Thanks to those ideas I decided to name him Abs.

Junior's Trio on her 10th Year

This year, Junior turned 10 and the catto empire keeps growing as she gives birth to this latest batch of kitties. Not much of an effort thinking about their names because my nephews named two of them. I gave the name Maldita to the first kitten at the left side. It's based on the tagalog word "maldita" which means bratty or kinda snobbish girl. I gave her that name because she's a bit snob. She doesn't look at the camera each time I take pictures like the one in the photo above. My youngest nephew named the cat at the middle of the photo, Junior Jr. The reason is obvious. She's Junior's mini me. I personally like her most among this trio because she has the cutest face and she inherited her mom and grandma's fur. Lastly, my eldest nephew named the last cat at the right side of the photo, Azul because he used to have grayish blue eyes when he's a new born. I don't know why his eye color changed into a greenish one after 3 months. So far, they are the youngest kitties. Not sure if they're the last ones. I'm happy to see them grow as they melt our hearts with their cute and funny poses.

The Fun in Photo Editing

Being an artist, I recently ventured into digital art and one of which is the art of photo editing. Here are some of the photo editing I did with this catto family using PicsArt app and the different lenses that can be attached on the phone.

These six cats are currently living with us. They stayed with us since we feed them daily. I also noticed that there are no rats in our house since they multiplied. Our things are safe from being destroyed by rats. All thanks to this cat empire. I wish them well and I hope these six cats live a long life and continue Mama Dear's legacy. I love to see that as long as I live. Long live the catto empire!