I'm a day late (had to work late yesterday), but it's not too late to wish my darling sweet baby girl Scarlett happy birthday.
We actually know almost exactly when she was born. On August 30th, 2001 at approximately 10AM, our dog Ellie Mae started to pace around the house frantically, running from window to window and looking outside. Knowing something was up, we opened up the door and followed her outside. Under the window outside our living room, a feral cat had just given birth to 3 little kittens (later to be named Scarlett, Twinkle Toes and Maggie). We called Ellie Mae off (she really only wanted to show us that there were new kittens outside), and went inside to figure out how to build a shelter for them. When we went back outside, the mom had already moved them to a garden behind the house. Back inside again to replot, she moved them a third time to a spot right off the front porch. So we grabbed some lumber and built a shelter over the top of them. Had we tried to move them, the mom would have moved them again so we gave into the mom.
We went out to handle them daily and Scarlett immediately took a liking to my DH. Every time he went out the door to see them, she would immediately wiggle her way towards him. I remember the day that she got big enough to stand on her hind legs and pull herself up the step to get on the front porch (she was not yet 2 weeks old) to get closer to DH. She idolized him from the moment she opened up her eyes. I have never witnessed such an immediate bond to a person from a kitten.
When they were 20 days old, we came out one morning to find the mom gone and blood on the front porch. Something came hunting, and when mom came out of the shelter to defend her kittens, she was killed. I went immediately to the vet for orphaned kitten supplies and got them into the house. Scarlett would not eat for me, as she only had eyes for her daddy. Twinkle Toes (all black with white toes) loved me and spent a good amount of time climbing up to my shoulder, where he would sit and purr. Maggie (diluted torbie) didn't care who fed her, as she only wanted to eat. By the time they were 6 weeks old, Maggie was twice the size of Scarlett and half again as large as Twinkle Toes. As adults, Scarlett is not even 7 pounds, Maggie stopped growing and is the size of Scarlett, and Twinkle Toes, still a shoulder rider, blossomed at 18 pounds. Maggie and Twinkle Toes were adopted by coworkers and we still hear from them once in a while.
It took Scarlett close to 5 years to realize that daddy wasn't the only human in her life. She now cuddles with me as often as her daddy. At night when I head to bed, I'll hear her enter the room, give a big chirp, leap up on the bed and fly across it to land next to my chest. If I don't immediately lift up the edge of the covers to allow her to climb inside and snuggle against my chest, she'll scratch at me to get my attention. Heaven forbid if I don't hold her close to me and give scritches every night at bedtime. If another cat happens to be in bed near me, they will get up and move out of her way. I've seen her thwack any cat that gets in her way.
What is hilarious about Scarlett, is that even though Stumpy has been our alpha cat for over 14 years, Scarlett really runs the house. I have had a lot of large male cats over the years. If Scarlett chooses to play with them (and it is always her choice to allow other cats to interact with her), she'll let out loud screams before she leaps onto their heads, flips them on their backs, and bunny kicks them until they give up. Scarlett has never lost a wrestling match, even with cats close to 3 times her size.
Scarlett also announces herself when she enters a room. Sometimes its a chirp, other times its a mowl, and she has made some noises that I've never heard come out of a cat. We are always laughing at the sounds she makes. One time friends of ours were visiting, and when they were leaving, they made a joke that they were going to put Scarlett into their suitcase and smuggle her out of the house. They picked her up and started to move her toward a suitcase. She let out a literal scream, wrestled to get away from them, and ran off. Up to that point, she had been snuggling and playing with them thru their entire visit. 8 years later, we still all laugh about the sound that Scarlett made that day.
Then there was the time when we thought she was seriously ill. All of a sudden one night, every time we tried to touch her she would cry out in pain, move around like she was in agony and kept moving away from us. So we rushed her to the ER where they did a complete exam, ran xrays, bloodwork, etc. They found nothing and of course by the time we got there, whatever was making her cranky had passed. We guessed that she had a tummy ache, and the drama queen completely fooled us.
Scarlett is the cutest cat that has ever graced our lives. I tell people that if they want to know what cute looks like, look in the dictionary and under the word "cute" will be Scarlett's picture. I'll argue with anyone on this point.
Without further ado, here are some pictures of her over the years. I really need to get out the camera one of these days and take current ones of all our babies, so sorry if some of these are repeats from the past.
She loves testing my Auntie Em toys:
She also loves catnip:
In a rare moment (top left) where she defers to Stumpy. I post this to show how small she is compared to the other cats:
She spends an enormous amount of her time snuggled in her daddy's arms:
Or inside his sweatshirt - she actually gets excited when cooler weather starts and he pulls out his sweatshirts:
As a baby with her brother Twinkletoes:
The day she discovered pork:
Once again, in her daddy's arms:
We love this girl!!
We actually know almost exactly when she was born. On August 30th, 2001 at approximately 10AM, our dog Ellie Mae started to pace around the house frantically, running from window to window and looking outside. Knowing something was up, we opened up the door and followed her outside. Under the window outside our living room, a feral cat had just given birth to 3 little kittens (later to be named Scarlett, Twinkle Toes and Maggie). We called Ellie Mae off (she really only wanted to show us that there were new kittens outside), and went inside to figure out how to build a shelter for them. When we went back outside, the mom had already moved them to a garden behind the house. Back inside again to replot, she moved them a third time to a spot right off the front porch. So we grabbed some lumber and built a shelter over the top of them. Had we tried to move them, the mom would have moved them again so we gave into the mom.
We went out to handle them daily and Scarlett immediately took a liking to my DH. Every time he went out the door to see them, she would immediately wiggle her way towards him. I remember the day that she got big enough to stand on her hind legs and pull herself up the step to get on the front porch (she was not yet 2 weeks old) to get closer to DH. She idolized him from the moment she opened up her eyes. I have never witnessed such an immediate bond to a person from a kitten.
When they were 20 days old, we came out one morning to find the mom gone and blood on the front porch. Something came hunting, and when mom came out of the shelter to defend her kittens, she was killed. I went immediately to the vet for orphaned kitten supplies and got them into the house. Scarlett would not eat for me, as she only had eyes for her daddy. Twinkle Toes (all black with white toes) loved me and spent a good amount of time climbing up to my shoulder, where he would sit and purr. Maggie (diluted torbie) didn't care who fed her, as she only wanted to eat. By the time they were 6 weeks old, Maggie was twice the size of Scarlett and half again as large as Twinkle Toes. As adults, Scarlett is not even 7 pounds, Maggie stopped growing and is the size of Scarlett, and Twinkle Toes, still a shoulder rider, blossomed at 18 pounds. Maggie and Twinkle Toes were adopted by coworkers and we still hear from them once in a while.
It took Scarlett close to 5 years to realize that daddy wasn't the only human in her life. She now cuddles with me as often as her daddy. At night when I head to bed, I'll hear her enter the room, give a big chirp, leap up on the bed and fly across it to land next to my chest. If I don't immediately lift up the edge of the covers to allow her to climb inside and snuggle against my chest, she'll scratch at me to get my attention. Heaven forbid if I don't hold her close to me and give scritches every night at bedtime. If another cat happens to be in bed near me, they will get up and move out of her way. I've seen her thwack any cat that gets in her way.
What is hilarious about Scarlett, is that even though Stumpy has been our alpha cat for over 14 years, Scarlett really runs the house. I have had a lot of large male cats over the years. If Scarlett chooses to play with them (and it is always her choice to allow other cats to interact with her), she'll let out loud screams before she leaps onto their heads, flips them on their backs, and bunny kicks them until they give up. Scarlett has never lost a wrestling match, even with cats close to 3 times her size.
Scarlett also announces herself when she enters a room. Sometimes its a chirp, other times its a mowl, and she has made some noises that I've never heard come out of a cat. We are always laughing at the sounds she makes. One time friends of ours were visiting, and when they were leaving, they made a joke that they were going to put Scarlett into their suitcase and smuggle her out of the house. They picked her up and started to move her toward a suitcase. She let out a literal scream, wrestled to get away from them, and ran off. Up to that point, she had been snuggling and playing with them thru their entire visit. 8 years later, we still all laugh about the sound that Scarlett made that day.
Then there was the time when we thought she was seriously ill. All of a sudden one night, every time we tried to touch her she would cry out in pain, move around like she was in agony and kept moving away from us. So we rushed her to the ER where they did a complete exam, ran xrays, bloodwork, etc. They found nothing and of course by the time we got there, whatever was making her cranky had passed. We guessed that she had a tummy ache, and the drama queen completely fooled us.
Scarlett is the cutest cat that has ever graced our lives. I tell people that if they want to know what cute looks like, look in the dictionary and under the word "cute" will be Scarlett's picture. I'll argue with anyone on this point.
Without further ado, here are some pictures of her over the years. I really need to get out the camera one of these days and take current ones of all our babies, so sorry if some of these are repeats from the past.
She loves testing my Auntie Em toys:
She also loves catnip:
In a rare moment (top left) where she defers to Stumpy. I post this to show how small she is compared to the other cats:
She spends an enormous amount of her time snuggled in her daddy's arms:
Or inside his sweatshirt - she actually gets excited when cooler weather starts and he pulls out his sweatshirts:
As a baby with her brother Twinkletoes:
The day she discovered pork:
Once again, in her daddy's arms:
We love this girl!!
