Bee and Susan, THANK YOU for noting your posts were not for the faint at heart. I did not read them and don't want, BUT I REALLY appreciate your warnings.

Joe, a Jack Russell will take care of the rats for you! The one where my dau. worked, a riding stable, brought dead rats in on an almost daily basis. The other thing that works to keep snakes away is a horse. They don't like the ground being trod on etc. the way a horse does. We never saw one snake in all the time we lived on the WY prairie, with a horse, outside of town except for a tiny garter snake the cats found and brought into the house.

I believe that patience, patience, patience thing. It really has taken over ten years for Kipling to get to where I can pick him up and it really is only for a couple of seconds. I like my cats cuddly, too, but I've got Trsytan for that and Kipling is gorgeous and purrs really loudly when he gets up on the bed. THIS year he has actually waltzed right up on my chest a couple of times after I've lain down, but he doesn't stay. I can pet his forehead and stroke his back and rump, as well as gently pull his tail, IF he is snuggled down on the bed or when he sashays past a chair I am sitting in. He has never scratched as he tries to be a gentleman, but he lets us know he will NOT be forced into anything. He's like a ninja with ten shooting stars with his claws and legs braced stiff! we do love him, though and he loves us, in his own fashion.

I've put up some new photos of Kipling at My Opera Page. He's the Siamese. He is in a baby bassinet with Trsytan, the grey tabby and the late Charlee one of my "beige brothers" twins.

McGrath, Joshua is beautiful!