Eight Years Ago Today...

Hello! My family had a special event that took place eight years ago today - a new addition to our family! And here's what she looks like today:

Oh, you thought I meant a person? Sorry, no. But above you see Beauty, who came to us as a six-week-old kitten eight years ago. She has developed into possibly one of the most spoiled cats in the county. Don't know how that happened. :)

Our daughter, then seven, made her First Communion eight years ago today. My brother, her godfather, had already suggested to me that a kitten would be a perfect First Communion gift. What he really meant, of course, was that our daughter's event gave him a perfect excuse to try to get rid of a kitten from the litter his cat had just had. But since I'd been promising a cat to our daughter, I told him to bring along a kitten - if any of them was a calico. (My parents had a calico cat at that time and our daughter liked that cat.)

Our daughter was thrilled with the kitten and immediately named her Beauty. Yet even though Beauty was supposed to be her kitten, somehow the tasks of making sure Beauty had food, water and a clean litterbox fell to me. So who really got a cat? Me, of course!

Perhaps because Beauty was so young when we got her, she developed a nursing substitute that she seems to think requires my presence. I have to lay down on the bed, preferably on my left side, then she'll plop down beside me, pull her tail to her mouth, and suck on that tail until she thinks she's had enough. She begins the routine by purring loudly and kneading her paws against me as well. While I'm sure that there are other cats who do this, the cat care books I've read have never mentioned this particular behavior. It's funny that I apparently have enough cat-like attributes in her mind that she likes to nurse her tail in this manner. She gets rather aggrieved if I don't go upstairs to the bedroom when she thinks a "nursing" session is in order! 

This nursing routine can be a pain at times, especially at night when I'm trying to get to sleep and she's noisily nursing her tail next to me. But in general she's a very well-behaved cat and is very loving. And we love her too!