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Thursday, November 25, 2010

Thanksgiving Kitties

I've decided that Seattle is a pretty good place to vacation, because there are lots of vacation kitties to play with. Jeff and Sarah have two kitties, plus Lynne and Peter have their two. So I always get a decent dose of kitty time when I am there. I had never met Jeff's cats before, and to be honest, none of the pictures that I had seen made them look exceptionally cute. But in real life they totally are. Cali is a calico cat, who looks like a bucket of paint was splashed on her. She has dense, short fur, and is really lightweight and small. She is even lighter weight than she looks. I guess it's because Pepper is such a lean, mean, foot-biting machine, when I pickup a small cat, I expect it to be heavier per unit volume. Cali took a little while to warm up to us, but she eventually was quite friendly. That cat is the most vocal cat I have ever met (though Jeff claims Pepper is more vocal). And she makes the weirdest noises. It's like she is talking to you in a growly voice.

Her (adopted) brother is George, who I would call a "ginger cat". But only because that is how Crookshanks was described in Harry Potter :) He is like a little lion. He has sort of tufted fur and a fluffy tail, both of which I love. But the really intriguing thing about George is his multitude of toes. That's right, he's a polydactyl cat. He has two extra toes on each front paw, and one extra toe on each back paw. On his front paws, he basically has two extra thumbs, which are at an opposing angle to his paws. So he kind of walks with his feet turned out. Wikipedia has a very informative article on polydactyl cats. According to it, cats with this form of polydactyly often have improved dexterity. He also has the problem they mention with the claws overgrowing and poking his skin. Apparently his vet recommended de-clawing those extra claws; I told Jeff that George is a work of art and he should find a new vet :) Unfortunately George is pretty shy, so he hid under the futon during the day for most of our trip. But once the lights were out, he would come out and be friendly -- a lot like Oreo used to be, before she became a social butterfly. I even caught him chewing on my hair a la Pepper in the middle of the night one night!

2 comments:

Lynne said...

Scared and Phat are feeling rather left out, here . . .

Allison said...

Lynne, I didn't mean to leave your kitties out. In fact, after we left your house after returning gear, I was lamenting to Rob that I forgot to take their pictures for the blog. You should send me some pics and they will be featured in a future post :)