One Year with the Kittens

One year ago today, I drove quite far across town to pick up Rhea and Davout from their breeder.  The meeting place was her daughter’s apartment in an area where there wasn’t any visitor parking.  I had to park several blocks away and walk there and back.  It was quite cool and blustery and the streets were loud.  It was a while before I could put them down in the car and take some pictures.

From the start Davout was a lot more shy.  He sat in the back of the carrier sideways taking up maybe a quarter of the space.  They had both been driven up from San Diego that day, a trip of some hours, and Rhea had peed in the other carrier.  I think we kept some paper towels in there from a fast bath before the trip.  And there was an hour or more of driving to go to get home.

They were both pretty good in the car.  I would have preferred some more ruckus from Davout, he seemed so closed into himself.  Rhea was quiet herself although she was loud when she did pipe up for such a little thing.

They were put into the same isolation room that Anna is in now.  It was a lot larger for them, though.  Rhea found this little cave but soon popped out to explore the room.  Davout crept into a nearby cubby and hardly moved for most of the first half day.

Davout is a shy thing normally, and here he was thrown with this cat he had never met into a crazy new place.  Yes, even though they are half brother and sister, they had not met before that day, as Rhea was still in with her littermates exclusively.  Even so, by the next day he was acting normally and introducing himself to his sister, hisses or no hisses.

But he had enough courage to make friends with Rhea, and later the two boys outside.

He was so tiny, but Rhea was tinier!  But Davout never tried to bully her and soon they were thick as thieves.

Rhea still had that ‘pointed tail’ that kittens have.

Davout was the leader in going downstairs and mixing with the big boys.  He treated them with respect, but never let them frighten him.  And to their credit, they didn’t bully him.

Even Rhea doesn’t bully him, although she tries sometimes.  And soon they were confident in playing all over the house.

Sometimes it hardly seems they’ve changed at all, other times it is amazing how they’ve grown up.

And no matter how old they get they will still be my kittens.