Introducing: Bluelight the Kitten.

The Newest Resident of RockRiver Hill 

 

           My family was a dog family while I was growing up. We had Gidget the Lahsa Apso, a white and brown fluffy lapdog. 

        She was sometimes sweet, and more often cranky. I suspect the crankiness had a lot to do with needing to defend herself from the (sometimes unwanted) powerful attention and loving overtures of myself and my two siblings.  

        My family didn't end up getting a cat until I was in college. I still remember Big Kahuna, the tiny grey kitten abandoned in my Grandma Ruth's backyard by his mother cat. 

        Kahuna was a loving kitten, but grew into a hefty tomcat who didn't particularly like people. Still, he added a lot to my parents' lives and I enjoyed the summers and college holidays I spent with him. The Big Kahuna passed away only a year or so ago.  

        As an adult, I've been blessed by the presence of four different cats: Bango, Taillight, Mystery Cat, and Moonlight. 

        Our cats are working cats. They are an important part of diminishing the rodent population and keeping our property safe from snakes.  The more cats we have, the fewer snakes we see. This could be due in part because they love to terrorize the snakes, or it could be because they leave less prey for the local snake population to feed on. 

        For these reasons, we try to train our cats to be indoor/outdoor cats, and it's important to adopt them as kittens so that they learn about the local predators (mainly coyotes) and how to avoid them. That's also why we try to adopt only dark or black cats- they seem to live longer because it is easier for them to hide. 

         These strategies, though they have worked for our cats in the past, did not help our last cat, Moonlight. She disappeared last fall. We waited for weeks and then months for her to return, and she simply never did. We can only assume the coyotes caught her. 

Farewell, Moonlight. :(

        It was not easy to replace Moonlight. My children and I loved her deeply. She was our pandemic cat- a bright spot in the middle of a painful year. 

        It also took a while to find a new kitten. While there are many full-grown or adolescent cats available for adoption on our local Pet Adoption Page, kittens are seasonal. There were a few available around Christmas, but those were quickly claimed by parents and grandparents who wanted a special Christmas Present for their children. We realized we would have to wait until the spring, when kittens are prolific.   

       Finally just this week- we adopted a kitten from a local family in our area. The children named her Princess Bluelight because she has bright blue eyes. Bluelight is cheerful, sweet, affectionate, and very social. She is tiny, but strong. The children are obsessed with her and so am I. Here's to Bluelight- may we have many years with her.