The cat drank my coffee

Ok, let's make something clear here - I am a dog person that happens to be owned by cats. I did not choose to have 3 furballs living with me, in my tiny apartment - it just happened. I tolerate having them underfoot, and they in turn deem me a necessary servant.
When I lived in a large house with my children, we had the normal zoo - aquariums, 2 parakeets ( Alfred and Hitchcock, because they were 'The Birds'), a dog ( over the years there were 2 of those Shannon, who passed away at 20, and then Titan whom I had to give up when we moved) and 2 cats. Originally there was only one cat, Kalamazoo, who had been a gift from my mother when I was a newly wed . Sixteen years later, and two kids, Fate dropped Simba, an orange and white tom into our lives. He could not have been more then 6 weeks old, that October when I fished him out of the river. As cruel as it is, some fools still drown unwanted litters. Of the 7 in the sack he was the lone survivor. As young as he was, I knew if I left him there, he would die. So, furball went home with me - to be adopted almost over night by ageing Kal and Shannon. I think my kids were in love on site. Time passed, Kal left us at 18, and someone gave my daughter Thor to replace the missing one. Ok, I plead guilty on a secondary cat. Simba was lost without Kal - he had become her eyes, and I think her sense of smell as well. I would watch him guide her to the food and water and push her head into the bowls- as if to say 'there it is-eat, drink.' Also Simba was clearly attatched more to my son then daughter. In Jan of 2002, shortly after my son died - about a week I think, two things happened - Thor died of lukemia, and Simba went missing. Where Simba went, I've no idea.
All we knew is he didn't answer when called. Perhaps he went searching for his boy , but after about 3 weeks we assumed the worst. For the first time in her life, my daughter was experiancing monumental loss. I was so devestated over my son, I can not actually recall this time period. It takes on the hazy quality of some half remembered dream, or a movie one saw long ago. Around this time, her father decided to get her a new kitten. I wasn't actually asked, but informed, "Mom, I'm getting a new cat. And I want to name him Meischa." Enter a black creature whom I swear is a heathen by nature, and part kangaroo judging by his jumping. There is nothing to wake you up in the morning as a cat landing on you from above.
The fish died off in the following months - primarily due that despite the cover - Meischa loved to fish. I had no urge to replace them. In March of 2003, we moved to a much smaller place.
It was a decission the bank, helped us to reach. 9/11 had left me without a job, and I simply drifted - I worked with a cleaning service for a time. But, I was off in limbo still, a broken hologram of the person I had been. I have no words to aptly describe the place I had gone to mentally. I keenly felt each and every loss my daughter and I had survived, and the day I reached the decission to throw in the towel and move, I felt that with the exception of my daughter, I was loosing everything that had ever meant anything to me. I sold off almost all our furnishings, and we moved across town to this tiny upper apartment. I had found Titan a new home, with another family. A heart breaking decission, but one I had to make. So it was our zoo had dwindled to the parakeets and Meischa. I went back to the house one last time. Checking to be sure, nothing had been forgotten. I stood in my son's room, tracing the murals of the woods I had painted with my finger - remembering... when an odd yeowling caught my ears. On investigation, I found Simba just outside our house, after missing for almost a year! I told myself this could not be, that it was just a similiar cat. But when I said, "Simba? If that's you you better get your furry butt up on this porch', he answered right a way - circling my ankles exactly once, as he always had, then jumping up and encircling my neck with his front paws. I won't lie, tears streamed down my face, as we drove to our new home. If you believe in signs, one could say, that this was an omen that, one never looses everything.
Meanwhile back at the apartment, the parakeets caught cold and also died. Or perhaps for parakeets they were old, or it could have been Meischa tormented them to death. I had their cage on top of the curio cabinet- and he had found he could jump that high - and didn't need a pogo stick either!
Ok, 2 cats are one too many in this place, so why on earth when I was asked to take a calico named Mia 'temporarily' did I agree? Was my brain on hiatis? The apartment complex she had lived went to a no pets policy. So she was only to be with us maybe 2 weeks while they found her a new home....and THEY did find a new home - without her. It's been nearly 3 years...pretty sure she's not going anywhere now.
Speaking of the furballs, who have already done their ritual 'Trip the Human' game, here they come tearing through my room now.. . I'm not sure if they're racing or playing furball tag. At 14 Simba gives up and curls up on my bed. Glancing back I see Meischa has his head in my mug lapping up my black coffee - as if he isn't hyper enough! I yell at him, as Mia sees the opening and decides to leap into my lap, jarring me into knocking over the coffee cup. So...I guess I best end here, and clean up this mess. Anyone want a cat???