Kassie Is A Kitty

Kassie is a kitty.

Just ask her. Go on... I'll wait.

Over the last year or so our daughter has been gradually been transforming into a feline entity of cute and cuddly proportions. Until now.

We have had various stages of cats/kittens for the last year or so. When we moved to Saratoga Springs last August we were very thankful for them because there is a huge vole problem out here. Voles are nasty little burrowing mice that mess up the lawn and whatnot. Having cats turned out to be a real boon because we hardly have any voles digging up our lawn thanks to our furry friends.

Anyway, Kas has always loved our kitties and she is generally responsible for various functions important to any kitten: naming, cuddling, snuggling, wrestling, strangling, mauling, etc. She goes around the house on all fours as often as not and if you ask her a question you are likely to get a meow and nod or shake of the head instead of actual words.

Now, time for cat geneology. We originally picked up two free farm kittens a couple years ago. One disappeared when we were gone for an extended weekend and the other (dubbed Splotch for her pretty black fur with orange and white splotches) became the mother and later grandmother of all future generations of Munn cats.

When we moved to Saratoga Springs from Lehi, Splotch decided to go a little wild and left her kittens with us while she roamed the neighborhood hunting and killing. Soon, after her kitten Kiki had kittens of her own, Grandma Splotch showed up to teach her poor neglected grand-kitties to hunt. She had a surprise as well a couple weeks later: a batch of half-feral kittens of her own. Most of them were very shy and would run away as the first sign of a human. But, not all of them.

One of Splotch's new kittens was quite vile. This kitten, we'll call him Heeeeee, did not run from humans. Christoper and Kassie were trying to catch it in the garage and I decided to give them a hand. The kids cornered it and I made the grab much to Heeeee's (and soon my) dismay. Heeeee lived up to his namesake and hissed mightily while turning into a veritable tornado of fur, claws, and teeth. I was the proud recipient of no less than three kitten bites and numerous scratches. We had a cat carrier nearby and I decided that would probably be a good temporary home for Heeeee until the children were out of sight and I could deal with him "properly". I went in the house to tell Meri about the goings on and when I returned to the garage I was in for a surprise.

Kassie was standing in front of Heeee's cage and they were having a competition to see who could hiss the loudest at each other! "He heeeeed me dad! He heeeeed me!" We laughed about that for a long time.

Heeeee went off to animal control to be tested to see if he was rabid (or rabbit as Mason says) and Kassie has added a new kitty behavior to her repertoire. She now does scary kitty impressions for all and sundry so BEWARE.

P.S. Luckily no one is rabbit.