Happy Birthday, Jake!

It's finally here--my 13th birthday! Mom says that I have to wait until morning till I can open my present, but I guess that's okay. At least there is a present!

I'll briefly retell my story, which I have posted on my Catster page.

My cat mother was a young kitty who found herself pregnant and out on the cold streets of Centreville, VA in the dead of winter. A kind lady from Mom's office found her and took her in hoping to reunite her with her family. She posted signs and checked with the animal shelter, but no one claimed her. This kind lady was going to Arizona on a February vacation and she got Mom to agree to care for my mom kitty while she was away. Mom named my cat mother Caterina for Katarina Witt because it was 1994, and she was trying to make a comeback at that year's winter Olympics. Caterina was a voracious eater and was gaining weight. Mom had no idea that she was dealing with a pregnant cat.

No one claimed Caterina, but soon after the kind lady returned from vacation, she and Mom found a nice man from their IT department who agreed to adopt my cat mother. He took her to the vet and learned that she was pregnant. On March 27, my cat mother Catarina gave birth to four kittens in a makeshift nursery in the bathroom of a Centreville townhouse. The nice man's wife assisted. I was the last born. I had a brother and two sisters, one of which looked just like me except that she had white feet.

Mom agreed to adopt one of the boy kitties since she didn't have a little boy at home--just Precious and Bathsheba. She named me Jake, which is short for Auguste Jakob Julius __ the IV. She named me for her great-grandfather from Germany. (Her dad was supposed to have that name, but his parents changed their minds and decided to give him a different name. He was thankful he didn't have such a long name.) I like my name because I think the shortened version sounds quite manly.

Mom and I thought that some of you might enjoy more of my kitten pictures. I can't remember being so small, but these photos don't lie. Notice how Bathsheba appears to guard her food and put her back to me. She didn't like me from the start.

Mom used to take me along for Sunday visits at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Here I am holding my own with two dogs: Oakley the miniature schnauzer who lived with Grandma and Grandpa, and Cassie, a Cairn terrier (Toto dog) who lived with Mom's brother and family. When Cassie was a puppy, she lived with Mom, her brother, and niece, as well as poor Precious and Gus, Mom's former cats.

Here I am looking very small next to mom's curly-haired niece who was three years old at the time.

And here I am with Mom's blond niece, age 4 and one-half, who just loved kitties. Precious would hide under the bed when these little girls would visit.

The blond niece has her own Bengal kitty now.

Happy Birthday to me!

~Jake