Cats, Cats and More Cats

12:00AM / Wednesday, May 29, 2002Print Story | Email Story

I am not ashamed to admit that I am a cat of humble origins. My mother was rescued by a nice couple from some idiot on the Nantucket ferry who was taking her over to the Island to live wild and free with her impending kittens. Itâ€™s remarkable the number of dunderheads out there who think that cats will revert to their ancestral behavior if they are only allowed to live â€œnaturally.â€ Not only do most cats not survive after being dumped in the woods, hardly any of us would actually choose to live that way. After all, we domesticated humans some thousands of years ago for a reason. That reason was to provide us with food (and plenty of it), shelter (preferably warm and quiet) and companionship (when we ask for it). Frankly, Iâ€™d like to see the average human being survive being thrown out in the woods with no more preparation than the average housecat. And without a television crew standing by to make sure no one actually dies. However, if you did dump a bunch of cats on an island with nothing to eat but rats, you wouldnâ€™t hear them whining and complaining about it. As I was explaining, this nice couple provided my mother with a home where she produced my four siblings and me. I gather he was not at all amused by the presence of five energetic kittens, although we were all adorable, as kittens are wont to be. (Photographic evidence indicates that I was by far the most attractive.) There was another cat in the house, a large male named Arbitrage. Frankly, no longer being a kitten myself, I donâ€™t blame him. Anyway, a notice went up on the bulletin board at work, and the next thing I knew I was whisked away to start my new life as the first, the primary, and the most highly regarded animal member of a family that at the time numbered just two adults and one small child. If only I had known ... For many years, I was regarded as a domestic long-hair, certainly a respectable thing to be. After all, there are millions of cats in this country (different web sites claim anywhere from 56 million to 73 million to over 100 million) and most of them are mixed breeds. It just wasnâ€™t anything SWSIMBADNFMOE (She Who Sleeps in My Bed and Does Not Feed Me Often Enough) and I ever thought about. Who cares about silly purebred cats with no reason to exist but their looks? After all, we knew I was gorgeous, with my long silky black and white fur, my plume-like tail, my adorable pink nose, and so on. Modesty prevents me from listing all of my fine points, though I do feel compelled to mention my extreme patience with the toddler whose chief method of interacting with me for some months involved lying down right on top of me wherever I happened to be resting. And I turned out to be extremely tolerant, if I do say so myself, of subsequent additions to the family â€” the second baby, the first dog, that other cat, the second dog, that third cat ... come to think of it, Iâ€™ve been extraordinarily understanding over the years. But I digress. Recently SWSIMBADNFMOE, who has always been just a plain old cat owner, met up with a different sort of person: a cat fancier. Now you might expect that a cat fancier is just a cat owner with fancier cats. You might be interested to know, however, that the term â€œfancierâ€ in this context means someone who â€œtakes a fancy toâ€ a certain kind of animal (hence there are mouse fanciers, pigeon fanciers, chicken fanciers, and so on. Iâ€™m pretty sure Iâ€™m not making that up, though I donâ€™t have the exact reference on hand. And I donâ€™t have time at the moment to research the origin of â€œtake a fancy to,â€ but I will tell my secretary to look into it.) In any case, this particular fancier has three Maine Coon Cats, large, fluffy, rather gorgeous creatures that are a true American breed. According to her, I myself am probably a Maine Coon Cat, just without the papers to prove it. Maine Coons come in all coat colors, not just the tabby that most people think of. They have heavily tufted ears and feet (as do I), an impressive ruff around their necks (as do I), and tend to mature slowly, so that the slender kitten of oneâ€™s youth becomes a substantial figure in middle age. I will admit that I am large-boned in stature, though I find the words â€œfatâ€ and â€œpudgyâ€ to be quite offensive, and if our vet keeps telling SWSIMBADNFMOE that I need to lose weight, we will take our custom elsewhere. For some reason, SWSIMBADNFMOE got it into her head that she should go to a cat show to learn more about pedigreed cats. For a dreadful moment, there was talk of taking me with her to be entered in the Household Pets division, but I soon squelched that. For one thing, I canâ€™t stand to be gawked at. Unless of course I feel like demanding attention. For another, I have a horror of cars, a point I am compelled to make with some frequency whenever Iâ€™m driven somewhere. Transporting me to Springfield and back without the benefit of major tranquilizers for one or both of us just wasnâ€™t an option. So off she went to this show without me, and back she came saying that I did look just like a black and white Maine Coon that she saw there. She also mentioned that she had always wanted an Abyssinian, which I thought was deeply disloyal of her. Even though I wasnâ€™t interested, she told me all about the beautiful â€œAbbyâ€ kittens sheâ€™d seen, as well as some kind called Bengals, which look like little leopards and another thing called a Sphinx, which is basically a skinny cat with big ears and no fur. For those of you who thought that there are basically two breeds of cats in the world, Siamese and Persians, guess what? There are 37 recognized breeds in this country, and according to some of my research, dozens of other breeds around the world. There are long, lean cats with pointed faces and short, round, fluffy cats. There are cats with curly fur, cats with wiry fur, cats with barely any fur at all. And the colors! Cats come in just about every color you can imagine except for turquoise and bright pink. Accepted colors include lilac, chocolate, blue, red, shaded silver, chinchilla golden, lavender smoke, mackerel tabby, cinnamon silver spotted, seal-tortie lynx point â€” well, the list is endless and I did not make any of those up. And for every kind of cat, there is a cadre of humans who vociferously insist that their type of cat is the best. If you ask me, thereâ€™s really no point to all this business â€” cats certainly donâ€™t care who their parents are and most of us canâ€™t read pedigrees. And in fact, fewer than 1 percent of the worldâ€™s cats are so-called purebreds. Many â€œbreedsâ€ are the result of genetic mutations, which raises questions, in my mind anyway, about the long-term mental and physical stability of some of these creatures. Here are some cats that you could have if you really wanted to spend hundreds of dollars instead of going to your local shelter and rescuing some fine feline from a life of loneliness and despair: a Chartreux (thick blue-grey coat with gold eyes), a Cornish Rex (gigantic ears and very elongated body with crimped fur), an Egyptian Mau (spotted like a wild cat), a LaPerm (looks like it got caught in the washing machine), a Ragdoll (sort of a fluffy Siamese), and a Tonkinese (looks like a regular Siamese to me, but the Tonkinese fanciers insist theyâ€™re different). One thing Iâ€™ve noticed in thinking about the peculiarities of breeding cats for different characteristics is that in spite of the many different breeds, all cats are basically the same shape. You have your extremes, from the very lean, pointed look of the Siamese (even their tails are pointed) to the hyper-thyroidic stare of the Persian with its flat face and pop eyes. In general, we all have pretty much the same kind of ears, though there is a breed called the Scottish Fold, with ears that are flat to its head, but I know a barn cat that had a really bad case of mites once and has ears like that too, so Iâ€™m not sure whatâ€™s so great about them. Of course, there are Manx cats that have no tails, and a weird new breed called Munchkins with stumpy legs like a Dachshund, but overall, an alien visitor who saw one cat would pretty much recognize the next one it ran into. And cats are roughly the same size, ranging from eight to 20 pounds. Why has no one ever bred miniature cats? Or really big ones, like the size of St. Bernards? I did see a picture once of a cat that reportedly weighed 87 pounds and measured 69 inches from nose to tail. It turned out to be a hoax. But it reinforced my theory that people have been unable to improve on the basic perfection of cats. It is worth mentioning that after hundreds of years of selective breeding, there are dozens of dog breed in every imaginable size, shape and coat type and they still havenâ€™t gotten it right. I once saw a New Yorker cartoon that summed it up perfectly: a woman is looking at a large, elegant dog in a pet store and saying to the shopkeeper, â€œDo you have this in a cat?â€ My feelings exactly. [If you are interested in learning more about cats (and who wouldnâ€™t be?) here are some interesting web sites: www.fanciers.com (a cat fancierâ€™s dream come true, with many links to other sites); www.cfainc.org (Cat Fanciersâ€™ Association â€“ â€œthe worldâ€™s largest registry of purebred catsâ€); www.everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-cats.com (well, thatâ€™s pretty self-explanatory).

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Friday Front Porch Feature: A Charming House Like New

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
06:57PM / Friday, December 19, 2025

The home prior to renovations.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Are you looking for a newly renovated home with great space? Then this might be the perfect fit for you!

Our Friday Front Porch is a weekly feature spotlighting attractive homes for sale in Berkshire County. This week, we are showcasing 100 Autumn Drive.

This three-bedroom, two-bathroom split level was built in 1965 and is 1,396 square feet on 0.32 acres.

The house was completely renovated recently. It includes a one-car garage, and comes with appliances including a dishwasher and stove/oven, and other major appliances.

The house is listed for $359,500.

We spoke with owners Michael Zeppieri and Chris Andrews, who did the renovations. Zeppieri is an agent with Alton and Westall Real Estate Agency.

What was your first impression when you walked into the home?

Zeppieri: I purchased this home to do a full renovation flip and saw tremendous potential in this mid-century split level home that had not been updated since it was built in the 1960s, in a great North Adams neighborhood.

Andrews: The house was a much different house when we first purchased it in 2022 (photo attached is from about 2010.) The interior was painted all in dark colors and we brightened it up with neutral colors. The transformation makes you feel like you are in a totally different house.

What were the recent renovations, any standout design features?

Zeppieri: The house has had a complete reconfiguration including new kitchen with high-end appliances, ceramic tiled baths, hardwood floors, new windows and roof ... just to name a few. All a buyer has to do is move in and enjoy.

Andrews: Yes, we renovated the entire house. New windows, new roof, all new custom black gutter system, new blacktop driveway, hardwood floors were installed through out the house. New kitchen and bathrooms as well as painting the exterior and interior of the house. New paver patio in the back yard.

What kind of buyer would this home be ideal for?

Zeppieri: The buyer for this home could be a first-time homebuyer or a retiree ... the location is close to attractions in North Adams ... and the property is located in Autumn Heights, which is a very small residential development with several long-term owners.

Andrews: This home is truly ideal for a variety of buyers. Whether a first-time homebuyer, a small family or even someone looking to downsize from a larger home.

What do you think makes this property stand out in the current market?

Zeppieri: The location, price and move-in condition of this home make it a true market leader in the North Adams Market.

Andrews: This house is completely renovated and in a desirable location of North Adams. The natural light in the home really makes the interior pop. And with all the upgrades the home stays quite cool in the summer months.

Do you know any unique stories about the home or its history?

Zeppieri: This home was built for the Gould family in 1969 and they lived there till 2010. It was always a family home during that time in which the Goulds had two children ... and Virgina Gould managed Mohawk Forest Apartments and was a very active resident of North Adams.

Andrews: Built in about 1965.

What do the current owners love about this home?

Zeppieri: As the current owner it was a fun project to transform this home and get it ready for its next adventure with a new family to enjoy for many years.

Andrews: No one has lived in the house since we purchased the home. The new owners would be the first to live in the house since the renovations have been completed.

What would you say to a buyer trying to imagine their life in this space?

Andrews: I would suggest seeing the house either on a sunny day or at twilight to really get a vision of how special the home feels.

You can find out more about this house on its listing here.

*Front Porch Feature brings you an exclusive to some of the houses listed on our real estate page every week. Here we take a bit of a deeper dive into a certain house for sale and ask questions so you don't have to.

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