Celebrating Murphy: A 13-Year-Old Cat’s Milestone Birthday

Murphy, who is my parents’ cat, is 13 years old today!  He’s the last of the birthdays this month – you can tell that the universe likes to hook me up with Leo cats – Charlie, Rags, Caymus, Trigg and Murphy – all Leos.

I call Murphy, “Beau.”  And will need to do so in order to write this post.

Beau and Caymus came into our lives because of Beau.  As Rags was aging, so was I.  I was trying to get out of my parents’ house – but my mom wouldn’t let me take Rags.  So getting Caymus and Murphy was two-fold – to get Rags to myself and to get younger kitties in the house.  It took some talking into, but my mom agreed to let me look for a kitten.  And so I did – I looked for a seal mitted with a blaze kitten.  I found 3.  I start communicating with the breeders – and Caymus and Murphy’s suggested that we get two kittens because of Rags’ age.  So Murphy was selected and then my mom was only game for a seal mitted male – so that’s how Caymus came to be.

I really hate stereotyping cats at all – as I have learned the problems with it having this website.  BUT!  I’ll make one here – Murphy is a blaze cat.  By “blaze cat”, I mean – the stereotype my family has come to associate with blaze cats – outgoing, dog-like, demanding and more.

Beau and I can communicate solely with our eyes.  He gets me, and I get him.  He also knows that I love him, but that I prefer Caymus.  I don’t think he minds as he knows he is my mom’s cat – sometimes he gets a little jealous – but in general, he is rather tolerant of my obsessions with Caymus.

If I go to my parents’ house in the evening – I come through the garage and when I open the human door from the garage into the house – Beau is usually right there, sitting on a bench.  Before Parker came along – I could open the door and just do one whisper, “Beau.”  And he would start meowing at me.  He is SUCH a talker like Charlie – and that’s why there are a few videos of him on YouTube of him meowing – it’s very easy to get him to talk to you.

Murphy is more demanding than Charlie – he requires much more stimulation than Charlie – I blame the difference on my mom’s energy.  My mom moves around constantly – me, not so much.

Beau is a skinny guy – his body is more like a cheetah than a lion’s.

I love Murphy’s head, ears, etc. shape – he has the ideal Ragdoll head-shape, etc. that I like – the old school Ragdoll look to me.  I have no idea if it’s accurate or not – but that’s how I see him.

Beau is a pet quality Ragdoll cat because of one little brown mark on the back of one of his legs.

Beau has never been scared of dogs and has them in their place within 5.2 seconds – like Rags did.  He accepted Parker (his 4th German Shepherd dog) very quickly and taught him who was in charge right away too.

Beau is the alpha cat between he and Caymus – so when I brought home Charlie and Trigg, I thought it would be hardest to introduce Murphy – but it was Caymus that was a bigger problem. Murphy was also better than Caymus when meeting Ash and Addie.

I do think if Murphy and Trigg spent any time together – like 2 weeks or more that they would snuggle and play all the time – they definitely like one another.  Charlie and Murphy always butt heads when we are together.

I had always wanted a seal mitted with a blaze ever since I met my first Ragdoll cat, Halston, who was seal mitted with a blaze.  I loved, loved, loved Murphy’s blaze for the longest time – and still do – but now our family has 6 Ragdolls with blazes and 5 without.  So it’s not as uncommon as it once was.  I can’t imagine Beau without his blaze – it’s so him.

Happy Birthday to Beau!  I hope you’re around for many, many more!