Back in 1995, chihuahua and The Alleycat bought a tiny brick building in historic Bardstown, Kentucky. The little building and its property were right in the heart of downtown. All the locals knew it as 'Raspberry Alley'.

The Alleycat loved this little building. She loved it because it was located on Raspberry Alley (she thought it was kismet) and because it is probably the oldest brick structure in Bardstown.

The tiny little building was built before 1795 as a coppersmith's shop (bet there were some stills made there, huh?) and was right across the street from the very first Nelson County Courthouse. It's on the National Register of Historic Places. (And at the time they bought it, it was also right beside the best parking in all of downtown Bardstown...;-)

The brick floors, fireplace, copperhooded-hearth, and tiny loft were all really very cozy. And The Shed right next-door made it a perrrrfect place for The Alleycat to spread out.

The Alleycat also loved the internet. She wanted to bring local internet service to Bardstown (paying long distance charges for a dialup internet connection, while using an old Hayes modem rrrrreally sucks...;-). She dreamed of pulling a T1 connection thru the little building's historic 12" thick brick walls, and running modem banks in the loft. Alas, catnip was tight, and she had to settle for a 56k. But the little ISP went live late in '95. It was then that Bardstown users connected to the internet for the first time without long distance phone charges, and the Cybrrcatz were born.

Sadly by 1997, Bellsouth jumped in and thinned the market for the little start-up. The Alleycat lost her ass. And to make matters worse, because she kept dragging home strays, chihuahua got pissed-off and headed west. His family's kennel in California needed leadership, and the catz wished him well. He'd always been a west-coast-kinda-dawg anyway, and he missed that southwest kibble. (The Taco Bell chihuahua passed away on July 22, 2009. The catz weren't sure...but they observed a moment of silence just in case.)

So, The Alleycat and the rest of the litter strutted back to the farm in Greenbrier. Greenbrier is a little burg a few miles south of Bardstown. The catz loved it there, after all...greenbrier is just another name for 'catbrier' right? (Barncat was especially delighted, he never rrrreally liked all the concrete at the alley anyway.)

At the farm, they could catnap on the deck in the sun, roam the woods for all sorts of interesting things, or sail their catboat in the pond. They spent countless hours playing cat-and-mouse, arguing politics, physics, and rrrreligion, and there were times when the cat calls got pretty loud.

But time changes all. The lack of catnip, and a fear of coyotes forced them to look toward the city. Opportunities called from Louisville, and it was time to move on. They caught a chance to stow-away in the hay rrrrack of a horse trailer headed north, and they were on their way. They've been in Louisville ever since.

Although their first place wasn't big enough to swing a cat in, they prowled around and finally settled in the southwest end of Jefferson County. Today, most of the litter just lays around the banks of the Ohio River, watching the boats and the sunset, waiting for someone to scratch them. A few images/like to prowl horse barns and tack rooms, smelling the horses and watching for the occasional unlucky mouse. A couple others like to lap Kentucky Bourbon from Glencairn glasses, and sniff the air for smells of BBQ.