Sweet Sixteen
Today is "the kittens" sixteenth birthday.
Cissy was the runt of the litter--the smallest of the kittens and the last one to weaned. She goes into the vet next week for a dental cleaning but she is in good health. Often when I come home from work late in the evening, she is the one cat waiting in the cat run to greet me.
Frieda is an intense, compact cat. She was the largest of the kittens when they were born, but now she and her sister are of similar size. Although she is a feline senior citizen, Frieda is still the undisputed queen of the shop, making even big, rambucious Twitch back down with just her withering stare.
I don't have a recent picture of their mother, Demi, but she is probably in better shape at eighteen than either of her daughters.
Here's the "madonna-and-kittens" pose I took back in October of 1991 of Demi and the babes. Frieda is--of course--the red kitten. The black-and-white kittens were the boys--Frosty and Dirt-Nose (he had a smudge of black color on his nose.) Frosty found a home with some friends near Clam Gulch, where he had a long life and was much-loved. Dirt-Nose went to live in Nanwalek, where he undoubtedly had an interesting but short life. I would wager that there are several black-and-white cats in that village who trace their lineage back to him. The calico at the end of the row went to a family in Homer. I would have loved to keep her--she was a long-haired calico that I had always wanted--but being such, she was the easiest to find a home for. So I passed her along to a loving home and found my calico three years later in Dinky.
They looked so much alike, it is hard to be certain, but I am pretty sure the orange-and-white kitten in the center of the picture is Cissy and not her sister Lucy Sue. We lost Lucy a couple of years ago to a malignancy. She was a wonderful, affectionate giant of a cat. Her smaller sister, Little Sister "Cissy" is more out-going and talkative, but keeps Lucy's image alive in our memories.
Cissy was the runt of the litter--the smallest of the kittens and the last one to weaned. She goes into the vet next week for a dental cleaning but she is in good health. Often when I come home from work late in the evening, she is the one cat waiting in the cat run to greet me.
Frieda is an intense, compact cat. She was the largest of the kittens when they were born, but now she and her sister are of similar size. Although she is a feline senior citizen, Frieda is still the undisputed queen of the shop, making even big, rambucious Twitch back down with just her withering stare.
I don't have a recent picture of their mother, Demi, but she is probably in better shape at eighteen than either of her daughters.
Here's the "madonna-and-kittens" pose I took back in October of 1991 of Demi and the babes. Frieda is--of course--the red kitten. The black-and-white kittens were the boys--Frosty and Dirt-Nose (he had a smudge of black color on his nose.) Frosty found a home with some friends near Clam Gulch, where he had a long life and was much-loved. Dirt-Nose went to live in Nanwalek, where he undoubtedly had an interesting but short life. I would wager that there are several black-and-white cats in that village who trace their lineage back to him. The calico at the end of the row went to a family in Homer. I would have loved to keep her--she was a long-haired calico that I had always wanted--but being such, she was the easiest to find a home for. So I passed her along to a loving home and found my calico three years later in Dinky.
They looked so much alike, it is hard to be certain, but I am pretty sure the orange-and-white kitten in the center of the picture is Cissy and not her sister Lucy Sue. We lost Lucy a couple of years ago to a malignancy. She was a wonderful, affectionate giant of a cat. Her smaller sister, Little Sister "Cissy" is more out-going and talkative, but keeps Lucy's image alive in our memories.
Comments