Four years ago today, the Boogs were born. More or less, anyway. When they showed up at the house, it was Labor Day weekend and they were roughly eight weeks old, so we picked a date that was easy to remember.
The most notable thing about them is the color change they underwent, which you’ll see clearly in a moment when you compare this image, taken while they were still semi-feral and had not yet been in the house, with the recent photos below. But it’s also been interesting to watch their personalities develop, including the faintly obsessive behavior of both.
Little Girl (otherwise known as Zoe) is the tiger-striped one, at the back in this photo, the last to be tamed down – of the four that originally showed up abandoned at the house, she took much longer than the others. But largely because I was the one that forced her to sit still and endure some pleasant attention, she became “my” cat. She’s cool with everyone, but she has several behaviors only displayed around me, including the idea that if I crash for an afternoon nap, I must make a tent of the bedsheets so she can stretch out alongside. If The Girlfriend and I are both napping and we make space in between, this is not acceptable. She has also decided that, when I’m working at the computer late at night, there are specific times for attention. Not to mention the insufferable offense of being locked out of the bathroom when I’m in there…
Kaylee is the randomly-colored one though she appears pure white in the first photo, and while a Siamese-mix like Little Girl, the exact ancestry is muddled but surely eclectic. She became The Girlfriend’s cat, and as the time draws near, she sits impatiently at the window watching for The Girlfriend to come home, becoming a little spastic and racing around excitedly when it occurs, trying to trip people. This is an extension of the ‘keepaway’ game she played when she first came into the house, purposefully darting past people when they reached down to give her attention, then returning to dart past again, a game she still occasionally plays. She is also notoriously bad about eye contact, and will look fractionally off to one side instead of directly – on occasion she meets my gaze fully but looks away again immediately.
Here they are just a few days ago, in an image purposefully taken for the post – you can see the string that coerced them into posing, since they don’t really take direction well. Little Girl is the one reclining. Clearly, their colors wandered a bit from that as kittens. Kaylee, by the way, is obsessive about string, especially if it’s dangled from the upstairs balcony, and if she has been overstimulated with it (The Girlfriend’s Younger Sprog is usually the culprit,) will need a few days to come down before she’ll stop sitting alongside the string and crying forlornly for anyone to animate it.
This pic is from March, not showing off their colors as well but you can at least see their blue eyes – they’re very pleased with the screened porch of the new house. And the top perch is definitely Little Girl’s – it’s as tall as I am and so she can gaze down at me, engaging in swatting matches and occasionally bopping me on top of the head when she gets excited.
Some time back I discovered, by accident, that they both respond surprisingly well to whistling – I can only guess that the pitch that I achieve resembles their mother’s call. When getting the indoor photo above, the flash was giving me both confirmation and recharge beeps, to which Little Girl kept answering, eventually walking over to see why it was calling her.
They’re not pleased with loud bangs, however, so as all of you out there celebrate their birthday (and I’m surprised at the following that this blog apparently has,) let’s skip the fireworks over it this year, okay?