Ordeal of October: Prologue

When I feel that first nip in the air, a sense of dread comes over me.  A sense of doom.  Yes, I hate the ice and snow and cold, but more than that it portends an annual event guaranteed to cause sleepless nights, tossing and turning, scheming and plotting.

It's time for Nuit and her kittens to go to the vet for annual shots and exams.

When Nuit brought her amazing exploding kittens to my doorstep, their four week old legs still tottering a bit, I didn't realize what I took for a phase would turn into a way of life for most of them. 

Flora especially.

Flora Belle Snicklefritz is that most dangerous of characters, a cat who is agile, strong, smart, and, above all, suspicious.

I once saw a painting by a Chinese artist which I was quite taken with and considering splurging for. It was a grey mother cat and her kittens under a willow tree.  The mother had slitted eyes and laid back ears, and other people said it looked like a demon cat.  I knew they were sort of right, because to me it looked very much like Flora.

In her defense, she isn't a demon.

She's just a cat who knows what she wants and, equally, knows what she does NOT want, and has no inhibitions or compunctions about making it so.

But I will admit that she does have a certain glint in her eyes....

Yes, those are real claws you see. And she knows how to use them.

Stay tuned for the Ordeal of October.