I've always had and cared for dogs and horses (for about 15 years). My family used to have cats, but we had to stop getting them because they would always get eaten by carnivores nearby (especially coyotes). Farm life in our area is rough on smaller pets. But we did rescue eight dogs over that timespan, four of which lived to be 16-18 or so before they eventually died. Two of those four were abused by previous owners and had permanent injuries.. but still lived a good long life and were extremely loyal to us, especially my mother. I wanted to continue that tradition with cats.
So when I moved to Boulder I made sure to get a pet friendly apartment. Then I went out to get two cute kitties from a shelter... because I felt that a dog would be unhappy in an apartment, especially since I work 8x5 and am the only human resident. For that reason I got two instead of just one.
The calico (or tortie/white mix) is 1yr, female, & her name is Lyra. The tiger tabby (or brown tabby/white mix) is 2yr, female, & her name is Star. I picked names from cosmic objects as per my fascination. And yes I love the colors.
Star had kittens and she was at the shelter for over two months, apparently. I dunno why no one else adopted her.. she's really friendly! Lyra was only there about 12 days. She's been harder to coax. I hope with time she'll come out of her shell and be like the cat I met before adopting.