Didn't get to go to the Inauguration, but I've got kittens for compensation.

[mechtild]

~*~

Note: This is a cat post, with lots of pictures.

Back in the beginning of November, my daughter and I visited my mother where she lives in northern Virginia, in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. Both of us were big Obama supporters and had voted by absentee ballot back in MN, but being in the D.C. area during the election was thrilling. We

Comments

[primula_baggins]

My goodness, what exotic looking kitties! What kind are they?

Dear 'Uncle' Angelo, he's trying to tolerate them, isn't he? :D Kittens are so full of energy.

BTW, I have a blankie just like the one in the window! It's the softest and warmest thing. I love it.

[mechtild]

You have one of those blankies? Aren't they great? When I first began visiting my sister a lot, because we were living in northern CA about ten years ago, she had these blankets in stacks in the living room for people to use. We loved them, and actually used them, since it does get chilly in winter where she lives. So when we got our hous here in Duluth, I looked for some to buy so I could have a stack in my living room, too. At the time, I didn't think any would end up as favourite cat beds!

My goodness, what exotic looking kitties! What kind are they?They are Siamese cats. The darker places on their bodies are called their "points". The points darken as the cats age (Angelo's eight so he's as dark as he'll ever get. ). Angelo is a blue point. Charles is a chocolate point (medium-dark brown points). He'll darken up as he grows older, too. Our cat Raoul, who died in June, was a chocolate point, very big and handsome. Elsa is what is called a seal lynx point. The classic Siamese cat colour is called "seal point". As

[primula_baggins]

When I was a teenager, I wanted a Siamese, but they didn't look like these. They weren't as pointy looking. Maybe what I liked was something else? Remember the song:

We are Siamese if you please
We are Siamese if you don't please
We are from a residence of Siam
There is no finer cat than I am

Hehe.

They are beauties, though. I love their blue eyes. It's a nice little family you've got there.

[mechtild]

I know that song by heart

[primula_baggins]

Oh yes, the traditional Siamese looks like what I was thinking about. I was a teen back in the 60's. : )

I love their meows, too! They are so distinctive.

One time I was walking out on our local pier, and I remember a man who had a Siamese cat on his shoulder, and it was on a leash. I was impressed by that. I'm thinking the cat wasn't so impressed, but it didn't seem to bother it, either.

[mechtild]

I love their meows, too, and it is one of the main reasons I love Siamese cats: their vocal range and their "talkiness". Other people hate the breed for that very reason: "Someone make that cat Shut Up!!!!"

I have only rarely seen a cat on a leash, walking. We had a leash for our cat when I was a kid and we were moving across the country, the cat with us on the road trip. He already had a collar, since he was indoor-outdoor, but we made him wear a leash, too, whenever we stopped the car to get out. He never walked with it on, though. He wouldn't even stand up. He would just lie there and look pathetic, as if unable to get up. We had to carry him.

[maewyn_2]

The Siamese I had when I was a teenager (I dug up this old black & white picture of us!) was the "traditional" variety. She was a beautiful seal point. She's been gone almost 27 years and I still miss her.

[mechtild]

Yours looks just like ours! What a doll--and look at your shiny long hair! How old were you in this picture, do you think?

We had seal points, too, one after another. The only blue point I'd met was a friend's. Theirs was very sweet and very fat, with part of his tail gone from a mishap in his childhood. Our cats were all loves, except the last Siamese my mom kept. A nice little kitten, he nevertheless grew up to be nervous and antisocial, prone to scratching and biting anyone who approached him. He never meowed. He was o.k. if he made the choice to come and sit in your lap, but you would do well not to try and touch him. He only really liked to be with my mother, who was with him all day long and didn't ask anything of him he couldn't give. But he'd bite even her if afraid or just startled. She loved him, in spite of his temperament, perhaps all the more because no one else pleased him. She knew she was all he had.

[maewyn_2]

I was all of 17 (and on reflection, probably looked like I was about 12!). I bought Cinda from a family friend's niece, who was a breeder. I paid $10.00, which was a lot of money for me then. I probably earned about $18.00 a week at the time. She was sold at that price on the proviso that I not breed from her, as she had a kink at the base of her tail.

It's funny how different some cat's personalities differ so much. Cinda was very tolerant. However, when we brought Bradley home from hospital, she couldn't quite figure out what that funny noise was coming out of that little bundle! She had a most puzzled look on her face that day! As he got older, it wasn't unusual to see Bradley laying with his head on Cinda's stomach! She died when he was two years old.