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When I was deciding whether or not to keep Purrsimmon's name, I googled "persimmon" and was surprised to learn it was a Native American word, or rather, an aglicization thereof. Specifically, it is an Algonquin word of the Powhatan people, which are the people who lived where Purry was found, fostered, and now lives, and if I followed correctly, some descendants have taken up tribal recognition in NJ, the state where I was born and grew up. So these are all awesome connections arguing for keeping the name.
I had always thought "persimmon" was an Asian word, probably because more grocery stores carry Chinese and Japanese varieties of persimmons. But since Purry is a siamese cat, it's good that there is an Asian connection here in usage and there are varieties of persimmon trees grown in the highlands of southeast Asia. There are hundreds of varieties world wide, but the Powhatan would have been referring to the Virginia Persimmon, a tree that grows throughout the eastern US up to CT and as far west as Minnesota, and has a smaller fruit than the popular Asian varieties. In those of these trees that live at least a century, their heart wood (dead core) becomes a hard ebony wood, and ebony trees are actually of the same family. Technically, the fruit is classified as a berry, which means I have me a Purry Berry! A Creamy Dreamy Sunny Funny Furry Purry Berry with the Bluest Blueberry eyes!!! Mooooore nicknames! I will save telling you her full name for another entry.
Here's a good pic I finally got of my Elf Princess's eyes:
The outer ring of her eyes is baby blue, but the inner is a very dark blue, such that unless you can really zoom in or see her eyes in a bright light, it's very hard to see where her pupil ends and her iris begins. Her pupils are actually pretty slitted there, not dilated at all. It's also hard to really see their color because her fuzzy brow sticks out over them shadowing her eyes. The top of her eyes slope down and then curl up at the very outside point so exquisitely. She has that narrow, well defined nose, and tiny elfin chin, and from the front at some angles, her mouth looks horizontally straight, such that it gives her kind of a primate-look. I'm just so fascinated by the sculptures of her face from different angles--I've never seen another cat's quite like hers. Her pretty face is very expressive, and she is actually quite talented at a variety of sour looks. Purry Berry with the Blueberry Eyes. That's enough digressing for now. On with the story:
So off I went to Dundalk in pursuit of Pecan Pie. I'm not sure if I had ever been in Dundalk before, but there I was. The Dundalk Petsmart. I found the adoption area in a back corner, a small circular room-sized area barricaded by 4 foot room dividers. There were the 2 rescue volunteers, a few people there to meet and take home their adopted kittens, and a couple of litters of kittens. Most of the kittens were lying together in a kitten-pile on some cushions. A few were ambling about or batting balls and other little toys and one kitten was running round and round and round the perimeter batting a ball before her as she went, a couple of others sometimes straggling behind her. As people came in, she would check them out. I saw immediately that this was my girl and brought her my little bag of offerings of a couple of balls and fresh catnip and laid it before her.
Pecan Pie was pretty fearless and absolutely adorable and sweetly licked my hand before she was off with the crinkle ball I threw for her. She was just who I was looking for personality-wise, who I was hoping to be the perfect companion for Purry and me. She and her brothers and sisters had all been spayed and neutered the day before--they were born September 20th, so they were just over 3 months. My vet doesn't approve of that early a spaying/neutering, but rescues often feel duty-bound to make sure they are not putting more kitten producers out there, if adopters turn out to procrastinate getting it done too long, and they need the help of volunteer vets when they are available. Plus the fact that siamese girls can be fertile by 4 months. So most of the kittens were pretty wiped from the surgery, hence the kitten pile. Not that you could tell from Pecan Pie's marathon lap running.
I saw one of her brothers, Apple Pie's pictures on Petfinder--he was a flame point siamese with more tan points, but I met a couple of her sisters, so I could see she was median sized for her litter. Cranberry Pie was a larger tortie-point siamese kitten with mostly gray points lying on top of the pile. A tiny, precious, mostly gray dilute tortoiseshell kitten with the most beautiful green eyes followed Pecan Pie around some, keeping up with her where she could, though she looked like she could have been a month younger.
I am so grateful for the time and work these volunteers put in for the kitties and us lucky adopters. The one problem was that they had these kittens here all day and had not thought to provide a litter box. Pecan Pie, being the resourceful girl she is, made use of the plastic bag I brought the toys in to pee in, and how excellent was that of her? She could have just peed on the floor, but she held it until there was something to go "in." I was impressed. I took the bag and found a trash can to drop it in, and didn't think much of it, forgetting that I had put Pecan Pie's after-surgery antibiotics that she would need to take for the next 10 days in the bag, and wouldn't realize that until we got home.
After watching and playing with Pecan Pie, and talking with and paying the rescue volunteers and getting the vet records, I put Pecan Pie in the carrier I brought. Her poor tiny tortoiseshell sister came over and mewed and pawed at the mesh for her sister, and it just broke my heart, though I didn't see much reaction fromm Pecan Pie. I felt so bad separating them, but the tiny sister was already spoken for, so there wasn't even an option to take her if I had wanted to. And thinking about it, this little one following her big sister around would always be in Pecan Pie's shadow if she stayed with her more bold sister. This was her chance to grow and come into her own in a way she wouldn't have the opportunity if they stayed together. So sometimes separations aren't a bad thing. A rationalization maybe, but it feels true to me. I hope her people are treating her like a queen and she is blossoming now with buds that couldn't form in the shade of her bigger sister. Still, I don't think I'll ever forget the look on her tiny face as she reached for her fun, smart sister. One door closing as others open.
So I drove home with Pecan Pie. She was pretty quiet on the ride and I worried if she and Purry would get along, but OMG, she was so cute with her big blue eyes and tortie markings! The rescue volunteers said she should be kept in isolation for 2 weeks to heal from her spaying, but I felt that would be torture for a kitten. I would keep her in the upstairs bathroom for maybe 3 days and that would be bad enough for a kitten. I introduced her to Tuxie on the way in through the mesh of her carrier and he made the obligatory hisses and "Wait! There's MORE of them?!!" and set her up in the small upstairs bathroom with beds and toys and all she'd need. But here you can see her big blue eyes and winning ways for yourself:
Where Saki was a lilac dilute tortie-point siamese, mostly gray points and gray over her cream body with touches of peach and tan, this kitten is a caramel dilute tortie-point, with rust, peach, and lilac gray patches, and warm browns, tans, and golds starting to suffuse her cream body, and she is also a snowshoe with her little white feet. She's got Saki's big blue eyes, but they're a slightly different shade--more bright sky blue than baby blue like Saki's, and a tiny bit crossed, but she also has my cali-tabby (torbie) Milli's magnificent multi-colored ringed tail, though she doesn't have the tiny red dot at the end of the black cap that Milli had. And her nose and mouth are such a bright pink they are almost magenta. I have never seen a cat with so many colors! She's a rainbow kitten! And she poses even when she's exploring:
"Pecan Pie" just wasn't cutting it as a name for my kitten, though she is every bit that sweet and that nutty. And I already had one kitty with an edible name. Here, you can see the nutty shining through as she shows off how happy she is to maul her toy there:
Definitely a dragon kitty full of fight. And a delightful smart ass with ideas and imagination. So I was deciding between calling her "Iskierka", the fierce, but winsome dragon from Novik's Temeraire series who hatched saying, "I want to fight!" or "Shuri" the smart, funny, adorable, fierce princess of Wakanda. If I got to keep this little movie star:
If she and Purry took to each other. Though she was the pushier personality, she was younger than Purry, and smaller for the time being, which would give Purry a chance to lay down some precedents, and that would balance things between them--that's what I was hoping for. It was a good plan. It had to work, right? But that was not a question I could answer that very long day . . .
I had always thought "persimmon" was an Asian word, probably because more grocery stores carry Chinese and Japanese varieties of persimmons. But since Purry is a siamese cat, it's good that there is an Asian connection here in usage and there are varieties of persimmon trees grown in the highlands of southeast Asia. There are hundreds of varieties world wide, but the Powhatan would have been referring to the Virginia Persimmon, a tree that grows throughout the eastern US up to CT and as far west as Minnesota, and has a smaller fruit than the popular Asian varieties. In those of these trees that live at least a century, their heart wood (dead core) becomes a hard ebony wood, and ebony trees are actually of the same family. Technically, the fruit is classified as a berry, which means I have me a Purry Berry! A Creamy Dreamy Sunny Funny Furry Purry Berry with the Bluest Blueberry eyes!!! Mooooore nicknames! I will save telling you her full name for another entry.
Here's a good pic I finally got of my Elf Princess's eyes:
The outer ring of her eyes is baby blue, but the inner is a very dark blue, such that unless you can really zoom in or see her eyes in a bright light, it's very hard to see where her pupil ends and her iris begins. Her pupils are actually pretty slitted there, not dilated at all. It's also hard to really see their color because her fuzzy brow sticks out over them shadowing her eyes. The top of her eyes slope down and then curl up at the very outside point so exquisitely. She has that narrow, well defined nose, and tiny elfin chin, and from the front at some angles, her mouth looks horizontally straight, such that it gives her kind of a primate-look. I'm just so fascinated by the sculptures of her face from different angles--I've never seen another cat's quite like hers. Her pretty face is very expressive, and she is actually quite talented at a variety of sour looks. Purry Berry with the Blueberry Eyes. That's enough digressing for now. On with the story:
So off I went to Dundalk in pursuit of Pecan Pie. I'm not sure if I had ever been in Dundalk before, but there I was. The Dundalk Petsmart. I found the adoption area in a back corner, a small circular room-sized area barricaded by 4 foot room dividers. There were the 2 rescue volunteers, a few people there to meet and take home their adopted kittens, and a couple of litters of kittens. Most of the kittens were lying together in a kitten-pile on some cushions. A few were ambling about or batting balls and other little toys and one kitten was running round and round and round the perimeter batting a ball before her as she went, a couple of others sometimes straggling behind her. As people came in, she would check them out. I saw immediately that this was my girl and brought her my little bag of offerings of a couple of balls and fresh catnip and laid it before her.
Pecan Pie was pretty fearless and absolutely adorable and sweetly licked my hand before she was off with the crinkle ball I threw for her. She was just who I was looking for personality-wise, who I was hoping to be the perfect companion for Purry and me. She and her brothers and sisters had all been spayed and neutered the day before--they were born September 20th, so they were just over 3 months. My vet doesn't approve of that early a spaying/neutering, but rescues often feel duty-bound to make sure they are not putting more kitten producers out there, if adopters turn out to procrastinate getting it done too long, and they need the help of volunteer vets when they are available. Plus the fact that siamese girls can be fertile by 4 months. So most of the kittens were pretty wiped from the surgery, hence the kitten pile. Not that you could tell from Pecan Pie's marathon lap running.
I saw one of her brothers, Apple Pie's pictures on Petfinder--he was a flame point siamese with more tan points, but I met a couple of her sisters, so I could see she was median sized for her litter. Cranberry Pie was a larger tortie-point siamese kitten with mostly gray points lying on top of the pile. A tiny, precious, mostly gray dilute tortoiseshell kitten with the most beautiful green eyes followed Pecan Pie around some, keeping up with her where she could, though she looked like she could have been a month younger.
I am so grateful for the time and work these volunteers put in for the kitties and us lucky adopters. The one problem was that they had these kittens here all day and had not thought to provide a litter box. Pecan Pie, being the resourceful girl she is, made use of the plastic bag I brought the toys in to pee in, and how excellent was that of her? She could have just peed on the floor, but she held it until there was something to go "in." I was impressed. I took the bag and found a trash can to drop it in, and didn't think much of it, forgetting that I had put Pecan Pie's after-surgery antibiotics that she would need to take for the next 10 days in the bag, and wouldn't realize that until we got home.
After watching and playing with Pecan Pie, and talking with and paying the rescue volunteers and getting the vet records, I put Pecan Pie in the carrier I brought. Her poor tiny tortoiseshell sister came over and mewed and pawed at the mesh for her sister, and it just broke my heart, though I didn't see much reaction fromm Pecan Pie. I felt so bad separating them, but the tiny sister was already spoken for, so there wasn't even an option to take her if I had wanted to. And thinking about it, this little one following her big sister around would always be in Pecan Pie's shadow if she stayed with her more bold sister. This was her chance to grow and come into her own in a way she wouldn't have the opportunity if they stayed together. So sometimes separations aren't a bad thing. A rationalization maybe, but it feels true to me. I hope her people are treating her like a queen and she is blossoming now with buds that couldn't form in the shade of her bigger sister. Still, I don't think I'll ever forget the look on her tiny face as she reached for her fun, smart sister. One door closing as others open.
So I drove home with Pecan Pie. She was pretty quiet on the ride and I worried if she and Purry would get along, but OMG, she was so cute with her big blue eyes and tortie markings! The rescue volunteers said she should be kept in isolation for 2 weeks to heal from her spaying, but I felt that would be torture for a kitten. I would keep her in the upstairs bathroom for maybe 3 days and that would be bad enough for a kitten. I introduced her to Tuxie on the way in through the mesh of her carrier and he made the obligatory hisses and "Wait! There's MORE of them?!!" and set her up in the small upstairs bathroom with beds and toys and all she'd need. But here you can see her big blue eyes and winning ways for yourself:
Where Saki was a lilac dilute tortie-point siamese, mostly gray points and gray over her cream body with touches of peach and tan, this kitten is a caramel dilute tortie-point, with rust, peach, and lilac gray patches, and warm browns, tans, and golds starting to suffuse her cream body, and she is also a snowshoe with her little white feet. She's got Saki's big blue eyes, but they're a slightly different shade--more bright sky blue than baby blue like Saki's, and a tiny bit crossed, but she also has my cali-tabby (torbie) Milli's magnificent multi-colored ringed tail, though she doesn't have the tiny red dot at the end of the black cap that Milli had. And her nose and mouth are such a bright pink they are almost magenta. I have never seen a cat with so many colors! She's a rainbow kitten! And she poses even when she's exploring:
"Pecan Pie" just wasn't cutting it as a name for my kitten, though she is every bit that sweet and that nutty. And I already had one kitty with an edible name. Here, you can see the nutty shining through as she shows off how happy she is to maul her toy there:
Definitely a dragon kitty full of fight. And a delightful smart ass with ideas and imagination. So I was deciding between calling her "Iskierka", the fierce, but winsome dragon from Novik's Temeraire series who hatched saying, "I want to fight!" or "Shuri" the smart, funny, adorable, fierce princess of Wakanda. If I got to keep this little movie star:
If she and Purry took to each other. Though she was the pushier personality, she was younger than Purry, and smaller for the time being, which would give Purry a chance to lay down some precedents, and that would balance things between them--that's what I was hoping for. It was a good plan. It had to work, right? But that was not a question I could answer that very long day . . .
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I petted the little one, but I didn't feel like I had the right to pick up someone else's claimed kitty--weird, huh. And my kitty was shut in the carrier and needed to be attended to. And it was kind of an overwhelming and distracting time and I was over tired at this point.
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Shuri squeaks? Squee! Squeaky kitties are darling. :) And often amusing!
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Shuri is darling and amusing! She also trills everywhere she goes--a sound that is a cross between a bird and small primate and definitely like an R-2 unit droid. And she purrs like a motorboat at any human contact, or at least this human so far. May she never grow out of these sounds!
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Re the tiny dilute tortie: Oh my goodness, teeny sweetheart! I sincerely hope she is happily adopted and dearly loved. My mind works in odd ways, and jumped to imagining her getting adopted by none other than the original Enterprise's McCoy. I absolutely picture him trying to be gruff about things and failing spectacularly when faced with an itty scared creature. He'd adore her in about three seconds flat, but you'd never hear him say it outright.