On
a hot July evening in 1998, a friend was visiting me who did not have
any air conditioning at the time. She mentioned to me that her parents
had found a litter of kittens in their backyard. And of course, she
suggested I consider taking one. Well the timing of the Universe was
confusing at the time because my husband's father was about to pass
on and it was not an ideal time to make this decision.
I
went to visit the kittens. The were still out in the elements. This
was a rather stormy evening and they were taking refuge under the porch
hang. My friend had to coerce them out one by one. I was interested
in the female cat because I thought it might help my baby Taz have better
odds against the males in the house. My friend thought that they would
be turning tabby because you could see the striping in their coat.
I
decided to have my husband come and see the kittens which had now been
caught and brought in to the porch for safety away from the mean old
Racoon that was spied that evening. When we got there the little female
was very rambunctious and spent much of her time somersaulting over
her brother. The other kitten, another male, had already been picked
by my friend as hers. Well, it turns out that after seeing these two
siblings play we decided it would not be fair to split them up. So we
took home "rumpleteaser" and "mongojerry" for fun
with the other four cats in the house.
Our
house now consisted of 1st generation Claw Cats, Pluto and Taz and then
Second generation Claw cats, Dobie and Quigley and the two babies.
The
naming of the kittens took some thought. We wanted to continue with
the naming after deities. The female was named after the Egyptian Frog
Goddess, Hekat (we pronounce it for her ability to recognize it as "Hee
Cat")who is attributed to being the precursor to the Greek Goddess
Hecate. The little boy was anointed with the lustrous Celtic deity,
Lugh.
The
kittens were tested right away when both of them had horsefly larvae
imbedded in their skin. Godmother Maria and I had to make a few trips
to the Vets to have them taken care of. I spent a few sleepless nights
to make sure their fever didn't spike. Poor little Hekat when we got
her to the vet, right there the larvae starting coming out of her eye.
The
alliance of the females failed. Taz is still the odd cat out. But I
make up for it by absolutely spoiling her. Hekat is probably the smartest
cat I have had since Athena. She verifies the fact the female of the
species has all the brain cells and the males are left with only one
between them.
The
cutest thing about the kittens is that they have returned Quigley to
his kittenhood which I suspect he never was able to have. He plays with
them all the time and is really protective of him. If brother Lugh jumps
on Hekat and Hekat screams Father Quigley comes to her rescue. Lugh,
btw, is about twice the size of Hekat. For siblings you would not guess
they came from the same litter. The stripes never did show up. You can
see them faintly on a sunny day but both cats are pure black with ROUND
gold green eyes. The epidomy of the Halloween cat.
Well
without further ado, here are the babies photos. The others are also
included.
|
