08.18.07
Welcome Miss Molly
Leisureguy drove 9 hours today: 4.5 hours up to the kitty breeder, and 4.5 hours back, with The Wife holding the 4-month old red tabby girl kitten, Molly (born 19 April 2007). Molly was terrified at the start of the trip—she had only been around the living room where she lived. She panted and drooled and showed considerable distress. But The Wife brought her out of the kitty carrier and held her and made her feel comfortable enough to sleep. By the time we got home (with part of the car falling off under the front), Molly was happy enough to begin purring. And now she’s ensconced in the bathroom for the night.
Here are two photos made with the camera phone on the way back down I-5:
Molly is a pedigreed Maine Coon cat, which The Wife discovered that she really likes—Sophie was largely Maine Coon, we finally realized. We went up to look at adopting a 3-year-old retired queen (litters too small: just 2 or 3 kittens), who turned out to be sort of bitey and also needing some fattening up and grooming. (Apparently cats that are breeding sort of lose weight in the process—or at least are smaller than neutered cats .) And as soon as The Wife saw the little red kitten, she whispered to me to inconspicuously whisk it out to the car. The breeder told us, though, that the kittens in the house were reserved for breeding.
As the breeder and I chatted, however, we discovered many points of agreement: cats should be indoor cats, so you can skip most of the immunizations (which, she says, are hard on the cat’s system); cats should have people names; you don’t get all upset if the cat scratches some furniture because the cat is much more interesting than the furniture. At the end of it, she said that she had abruptly decided that the red kitten could go home with us. She really wants her cats in good homes, and she’s able to let them go by knowing that in a good home they will receive much more individual attention than she can provide. It also helped that The Wife works at home and thus will be able to provide the cat lots of attention—and vice versa, of course.
So it was a fine trip, overall (though I’m exhausted). On the way home, we discussed lots of possible names, including the name the breeder had given the kitten. We wanted a plain and sturdy name, and as we looked at the abundance of red hair, we thought the name should be Irish. When Molly came up, it was a winner.
Miss Molly is getting used to her new surroundings. She’s in the bathroom, where she’ll spend her first night, in these photos:
In the first picture, that’s not The Wife’s thumb that Molly took away—that’s Molly’s back foot. And the strange thing with her tail is her other back foot. Her front foot is sort of lying on the tail. And she really does have both sides of her mustache—one is just hard to see.
More information to come, including about the special food the breeder recommended and the special food additive. In the meantime, welcome Miss Molly to the blog.
jolynna said,
18 August 2007 at 9:05 pm
Miss Molly is a doll. Such big beautiful eyes. She looks like she has lived with you forever in the picture of her on the bed.
I am partial to red tabbies. Ours are run of the mill, unregistered red tabbies, but they have the best personalities of any cats, I have ever owned.
Anonymous said,
19 August 2007 at 4:17 am
We’re partial to Maine Coons too, after adopting a gray tiger stripe who’s partially Maine Coon. He turned out to be the sweetest, goofiest cat we’ve ever known. And we agree with all your indoor cat sentiments.
Regards,
Peacefrog
Seamus said,
19 August 2007 at 7:04 am
Good Golly, Miss Molly! Once had a miniature dachshund of the same moniker. A fine name bodes well in a pet, I think…
LeisureGuy said,
19 August 2007 at 8:21 am
The breeder commented that, in his experience, at least the Maine Coons had personality types that seemed to correspond with color, and the red ones were quite laid back. Also, I was interested to learn that red girls are rare—red almost always means “boy.”
Sophie was indeed a goofy cat, and The Wife also loves the little “mrking” sounds that Maine Coons seem to make: quiet little short meows, as if they’re talking to themselves. One Sophie goofiness: she had extremely silky fur, and to get off a chair, for example while lying on her back, she’d squirm herself to the edge and then more and more over it until she slid down. She like to get down from places by sliding off, if possible.
Wendy said,
19 August 2007 at 10:23 am
I’m so glad you have Molly now. When we looked up Maine Coons on the ‘net, I recognized lots about Sophie in the breed. Molly is going to really enrich your lives, as cats tend to do. Cousin Katie says welcome! (Katie has the little chirping sound, too, so maybe she has some Maine Coon in her Heinz 57 background!)
love,
Wendy
2nd daughter said,
19 August 2007 at 3:38 pm
congrats on the new kitty — she is adorable and I can’t wait to meet her.
Terry said,
20 August 2007 at 6:27 am
Congratulations on Miss Molly! No cat can replace Sophie, of course, but she definitely looks like one who is capable of filling the empty hole. We can’t wait to meet her!