Remembering Herman

 Karen Jo: This is Herman's birthday and I try to do a post like this at least once a year, so new posters who come across this blog will know what's going on here.  A new reader might wonder: "Who's Herman and why is this blog still named after him if he's gone over the Rainbow Bridge?" The main reason that this blog is still named Herman's Hideaway and always will be is that I can't bear to change it.  It is also a tribute to Herman, the founder of my present houseful of kitties.  Without him, this wouldn't be the home of FeLV+ kitties.  This is an early photo of Herman, taken shortly after he arrived.

Let me start at the beginning.  I have always loved cats, but could never have one because my mother was extremely allergic to them.  After my mother died, I decided to get the house the way I wanted it and get rid of the cat unfriendly stuff and get a cat.  It didn't work out that way.  I saw a poster with that face on it saying that Herman really needed a home, but he was FIV+ and FeLV+ so he had to be an inside only only cat.  I went home and looked up the diseases and decided that I could live with the limitations and called to say I was interested in adopting him.  First I had to pass an interview and meet Herman to see if he liked me.  He did.  His foster mother said that he had reacted more positively to me than he had to any one else who had come to see him.  A few days later, Herman moved in and stole my heart completely.

 This is a much later picture of Herman taken after he had put on his weight.  He got really sick a few months after he moved in and lost a lot of weight and almost died.  After he recovered he put on quite a bit of weight and ended up at 14 pounds, as you see him here.  His ideal weight was 12 pounds.  He was a big cat.  He is  in full floof here.  He used to get the most awful matts and had to get a summer haircut every year.  Once I had adopted Herman, I could only adopt other FeLV+ cats.  Herman let me know that he wanted some feline company so he wouldn't get so lonely while I was working, so I brought home Emma one day.  That didn't work out.  Herman liked her, but she was a tiny little thing and never got over being terrified of him.  This made him unhappy and he started bullying her by backing her up against the bathtub and just staring at her.  She would scream and I would go break it up.  He also wanted her to know that he didn't appreciate her trying to take his place in the bed at bedtime.  Emma ran off to the Rainbow Bridge after only 8 months of living with us.  Then something wonderful happened.  Spyro moved in.

 Spyro:  I didn't want anything to do with the safe room when Mom brought me home.  I demanded that she open the door and I ran into the living room to meet Herman.  We sniffed each other over and were buddies from then on.  He was my rasslin' buddy and my nap buddy and my everything else buddy.  Here we are rasslin' in the living room.  I am very grateful to Herman, because without him, Mom would never have adopted me.  A few months after I arrived, Oja moved in.

Oja:  It took me a month to get the nerve to come out of the safe room and get to know Herman and Spyro.  I had already met them, as they would sneak into my room almost every day, but I would hiss at them and Mom would eject them.  Once I got over being scared of Herman, we became cuddle buddies.  I would groom him until he was sopping wet and he would groom me, too.  This is the last good picture Mom took of Herman.  I am very grateful to Herman, also, because without him, Mom wouldn't have adopted me, either.  Herman is the reason that Karen Jo's house is the home of the FeLV+ kitties.