SNOWFLAKE
This is Snowflake, I know that is a corny and common name for a cat, but we couldn't come up with anything original and she did look like a snowflake when she was a kitten. The picture isn't the best for seeing her colors, but, she is a soft gray and white tabby with splotches of brown and fawn. I found her last October out at the Pitstop where I work. All the girls working there were feeding her and another kitten, one night she showed up to eat, but the other kitten didn't. I was fearful that the other one got ran over on the highway, so I took this one home. She has been a real good cat, until about a month ago, when she came into her first heat.
If you ever have been around a female cat in heat, then you will know what I'm describing is the truth. She walked around with her belly rubbing on the floor and her rear-end stuck up in the air, moaning and howling. She got to where she was attacking my husband, clinging to his legs with her claws and rubbing all over him. At night she would moan so loud it would rivet throughout the house, it sounded like OOHHHHHH, OOOHHHHHH, OOOOHHHHHH.
We thought we were lucky in the fact that she only stayed in heat for 3 days. One week went by and she came into heat again, this time she attacked me. I couldn't get away from her, she would get in my lap and rub all over me howling and moaning, it was driving me crazy. I talked to our local vet Dr. Lange, and he said that she may need to be stimulated to go out of heat and that she should have been in heat for at least a week the first time. Well, I wasn't going to be the one to do the stimulating and I couldn't see my husband doing it. And Dr. Lange was real busy at the time, so I made a few phone calls to see if I could find a male cat that had been neutered, but not so long ago, that he wouldn't know what to do.
I found one, friends of ours, George and Jeri Martin have a beautiful cat named "El Zinger", he is a "Rag Doll" with beautiful blue eyes and he is BIG, he made Snowflake look like a mouse. He is about 3 years old and has only been neutered for 1 year. So we figured he would know what to do. I took Snowflake over to their house, we put them in a room and shut the doors, of course we were there also, we wanted to make sure they would be alright together. Snowflake wouldn't have anything to do with "El Zinger", he got her smell and he acted like he was interested, but all she would do is hiss and spit at him when he got to close to her. She cowered in a corner and hissed and spit at every one. Well, I only stayed for about 30 minutes, because we could tell she wasn't going to be receptive to this idea at all.
The funny part of this story is, once I got her home, she wasn't in heat anymore, and she hasn't been in heat since. I'm not sure if the fact that "El Zinger" was as BIG as he was or that she was uneasy of her new surroundings did it, but either way she got it, (heat) scared out of her real fast, she won't be coming into heat again as I plan on having her spayed just as soon as our vet can get her in for the appointment.
Update to this story, I did not get Snowflake to the vet in a timely manner. By the time I did decide to get her to him, our local vet had gone out of business. So, you guess it, she came into heat again, this was around December 19th, 1997. Well, instead of putting up with the howling and screaming this time I gave into her demands and went looking for a reciprocating male. I found one through a friend, his cat's name is Weasel, and he is a Burman. A big beautiful cat with the prettiest blue eyes I've ever seen. I figured, if Snowflake was going to have babies, she might as well have pretty ones, right?!
Well the conclusion of this story will be known around February 22, 1998. Stay tune to find out how many babies Snowflake has, and what characteristics they will possess. Will they look like their gray striped Mother or will they perchance take after their Dark face, blue eyed Father?
UPDATE---On February 20th Snowflake gave birth to three kittens, at 6:00 p.m. Midnight was born, (solid black). At 6:45 p.m. Goatee was born, (black with a white chin). At 7:30 p.m. Tiger-To was born, (looks just like mama). I am happy to announce that Snowflake demanded that I be there for all three of their births. She didn't have any problems and she has turned out to be one fantastic mommy. She loves for me to play with the kittens while she takes a break from their demands. I'm not to good at figuring out their sexes at this age, but I can tell you two are the same, and one looks different from them.
Update---Midnight is a short-haired, solid black, blue-eyed male. He has found a home with two small children that will lavish love and attention on him.
Goatee is a long haired, dark brown/black marmalade, gray-eyed male. He is lovable and cuddly and loves to romp wildly around the house. I think I will keep him. My husband calls him flat face, he does look like a pug. I call him funny face, as the lighter brown hair is prominate around his eyes, giving him a silly look to his features.
Tiger-To is a short-haired, black and gray tabby striped female with gray eyes. She isn't as friendly as Goatee. I call her Missy becuase she is so prissy and small. I would like to find her a home where she could be loved and spoiled rotten.
At this time we have Tiger-To and Goatee and they love to romp and play with each other. Snowflake romps with them occasionally and she still lets them suckle once in awhile. She still likes to bath them whenever they get close to her. And they love to pounce on her head and nip at her ears. Goatee loves to bat around her tail. She is still very possesive of them and attacks Bud when ever the kittens get to close to him. Poor Bud's life has been miserable since the kittens have the run of the house. He has to slink to the food bowl or the cat box when they are sleeping, otherwise he gets swipped at and spit on by Snowflake.