These
are the babies at about four weeks old. They were still mostly eating and
sleeping. Tiger was the runt of the litter, so the other two would suck
on the back of his ears for comfort. His ears were bald until I weaned the
kittens.
Tiger,
the cuddle slut
A
funny cat naming story.
My sister's friend said she would take the white kitten, who I had said was a female. She asked me what a good name for a white cat would be, and I suggested "Titania" which means white. But my nieces called her Queenie because she always had such a royal attitude.
My sister's friend forgot the name I suggested, so she named the kitten Queen of Sheba, who of course was black. When the kitten was about six weeks, she was taken to the vet, and we found out Queen of Sheba is a boy. Somewhere in Manchester, England, there is a royal male cat who will only answer to the name "Queenie."
We
had just seen Beauty and the Beast, so the girl kitten was named Beauty.
She was a sweet little baby who loved to cuddle. When she was one year
old, she didn't come in for breakfast one morning, something she never
did. I went out to look for her, and I found her dead. Someone had hit
her with a car. We burried her in my sisters garden under a kumquat tree.
Tiger wandered around the house for weeks crying for her.
My younger niece was very upset by Beauty's death until one night she had a dream that Beauty had been reincarnated as a little girl. Wherever Beauty's spirit is now, I hope she is happy.
As
the kittens got older, they started exploring more. Tiger decided to help
me paint. He would climb the curtain to get on the table where I worked,
and then he would contribute paw prints to my wet oil paintings. I kind
of liked the affect, but I was concerned about him getting paint on his
paws since some colors contain poisons. Later, my brother sent me a book
called "Why Cat's Paint", and I've always wondered if I didn't
stunt a budding artistic talent by shooing Tiger away from my paints.
Tiger
& Beauty seeping together as adults.