This is Holly, or Polly (more on that to come). She is a cat that has been part of our family for many years. Sometime in 2017 a cat moved in under our house with a liter of kittens, over time mom and most of the other kittens moved along. But this kitten stayed, my wife asked one of my daughters what to name her. My daughter replied Holly, but the wife heard Polly.
After about a year we decided it was time for Holly to move along, so we decided stopped feeding her, but she just had a littler of her own kitten! The decision was made to keep feeding her, but once the kittens were weaned they and mom were to go to the shelter so they could all find a home.
Shortly after Holly was taken to the shelter (animal control caught the kittens but could not catch mom, so we had to bring her in ourselves) she came home. We called the shelter hoping she had been adopted and escaped, we wanted to return her to her new home. But she had escaped from the shelter itself. Again we had to make a decision, we decided to keep her, but we knew she needed to be fixed. Off to the vet she went, she was fixed, and got all of her shots.
As time went on Holly decided she wanted to live inside our house, and not just under and around it. Our two male cats did not like this idea, and try as we might, Holly was just not welcomed inside of the house. I made the decision that she could come live at the shop. The pandemic was still in full swing, but the shop was kind of open at this point in time and I was there every day. Holly lived at the shop for probably 3 or 4 weeks before the first customer ever saw her. She knew all of the places to hide in the old shop (this was when we were still on California in the old building) and she could get from shelf to shelf without being seen.
As we were moving the shop from California to Fisher Holly was very upset, her new home was being torn apart. I moved her to the new shop during the second or third day of moving and this helped her a lot. As the shop was being built she found all the hiding places she needed to feel safe.
She has always been close with Furiosa, as they both shared the same yard all of their lives.
When I would come into the old shop I would often be greeted by Holly in the courtyard window, the same held true for the East window at the new shop. These days she does not spend as much time in the window however.
She has always loved these cardboard scratching blocks… Until we replaced them with new ones. Now she ignores them, and instead sharpens her claws on the War Game table.
Our emergency exit was installed in November, Holly and I spent the day in the truck during the construction.
She has always picked whatever she wanted to be her bed, much to the dogs dismay (and my own, as trying to do repairs around the shop is always interesting when there is suddenly a cat on your tools).
So, I got her her own place…
Which she, to this day, ignores in favor of the grey chairs… Or the wood table… Or the commons.
Anyone who frequents the shop knows that Holly loves pets, her favorite is under the chin (she will lie on her back but does not want you to touch her belly). If you stand by the D&D books or the Army Paint hobby supplies, she will jump up on the railing so you can pet her. She does not like to be held, she will scratch and bite to tell you to put her down.
I have brushes for her if anyone is ever in the mood to groom her, she loves it. She has learned the sound of certain vehicles and will often sit by the door and greet her favorite people as they come into the shop.
She is not overly fond of small children, and will hide from them.
