Monday, October 30, 2017

Minxy!

Minxy will soon arrive here, her forever home:

At one-week old.

At one-month old.

Need-to-know information....I paid my first visit to the kitten we're planning to adopt.

She is the biggest female in the litter and obviously the alpha. In fact, she hissed at me and arched her back! None of the other kittens did so.  In fact, they did the opposite and crawled all over me.  She sat back and observed — and finally warmed up to me.  On her terms.

Reminder: the definition of minx, of course.   Mr. AOW and I welcome the challenge of sharing space with another alpha cat. 

Our beloved Cameo was an alpha cat from day one until her last moment.

Monday, October 9, 2017

Goodbye, Mysti (June 20, 1999-October 9, 2017)

Mysti in her prime

Mr. AOW and I will miss our beloved Mysti, whose mother disappeared when the litter was one day old. All the kittens in the litter were found by an animal rescue group and had to be bottle fed.

But Mysti's rough start didn't end there.  A few days after she arrived here as a young kitten in September 1997, she had a terrible case of coccidiosis, which stunted her growh and left her with digestive difficulties.  Several veterinarians didn't expect her to live past the age of ten.  Mysti had other plans and fooled us all!

Until aging interfered, Mysti, a dilute tortie, was our mighty huntress. She was probably proudest of one particular accomplishment: catching and killing a juvenile black rat snake in our basement back in November 2011.  Of course, she brought her catch upstairs to display what she had snagged.

Mysti had been coping with chronic renal failure for over two years and, although frail, was holding her own until the last few days, when she started refusing food.  She even refused tuna!  It wasn't the kidney disease that sealed Mysti's fate, however — it was oral cancer, the same affliction that stole our beloved Cameo from us on Easter Sunday 2017, less than six months ago.

Mr. AOW and I consulted the veterinarian today and decided to do the kind thing — the last thing that we could do for Mysti.

Mysti as a senior citizen (March 17, 2016)

Mysti on my teacup pillowcase, January 27, 2016

Two photos from 1997, when Mysti was a kitten...

Click directly on the photos to enlarge them: