Now We Are Two

One of the advantages of getting a cat from a breeder is that you know their exact birthdays.  Today is Davout’s birthday…he’s two years old.  He’s quite the gentleman now.

He came here in December 2013 with his half-sister Rhea from San Diego via a transfer in LA and then another long drive to his new home.  At that point, he’d never met Rhea before the trip and he was a bit lost from all the activity.

He’s a very amiable cat and not the bold explorer type and it takes him time to get used to things.

He soon came out of his shell and explored the room – Anna’s room now – mostly following little Rhea around.  Rhea was several months younger than he and a lot smaller, but he never bullied her.

I always liked this because great big Julie used to drink from the back side of the water bowls too.

It is hard to think of a present for Davout because he is so gentle and retiring that he lets everyone eat first and play with toys first.  The only thing I’ve found that he won’t let Rhea take away is these little pouches of broths with meat from Fancy Feast.

He did let her finish his third one for him, so she got a bit of a treat too.

Davout soon became very close to Rhea, and his size let him win any battles he cared to, while his nature let Rhea win nearly all of the games she wanted to.  This gives some hint of the size difference, although he’s really about twice her weight here.

The two of them could play with each other and only bother the older cats a little bit.

This is typical Davout…instead of barging in the front he circled around the other way to get in on the action.

Both the kittens went through a stage where their kitten coat didn’t keep up with their growth and they looked almost like shorthairs before they grew a more mature coat. Here’s Davout’s version, along with the dashed-colored whiskers he used to have.

Rhea went into that stage a little later, while Davout is getting his full coat back.  This is from the first Da Bird session, and he was almost pushy about it for a while.  Now he lets Rhea play first.

He still has the crazy whiskers.  Happy Birthday to the Marshal Davout!