I’ve been wanting and wanting to tell you all a story about my three moms (well, really four, if you count lisa-mom, but I’m just talking about my three cat-moms) and this morning I’m finally getting the chance! I’m only four weeks old, but Olly, Brasen, and Lira said they’d help me write my story while lisa-mom was out cleaning the garage.  

I’m Leshya – but you can call me Shya. Everyone does. My sister Yfandes (we call her Desi or Dez-Bez,) my brother Kyrith and I are the New Companions. The big cats around here tell us it’s some kind of tradition for Talia-mom’s babies to be Companions. Whatever. Nobody ever calls us the Companions – mostly they just call us “babies” – except for Ken-dad who calls us “stinkies”. But we don’t stink!!!

Our real mom’s name is Talia. She’s a good mom with lots of milk so we can grow big. We’re not even interested in real food yet, but lisa-mom says we’re growing like weeds. Desi and Kyrith are the biggest kittens she’s ever seen at this age. Me, I look so little next to them and I’m average – I’m not small at all! Besides, I’m the sweetest, funniest, and most adventurous, if I do say so myself. Size isn’t everything!

But about Talia-mom. She washes us. She worries about us. She feeds us. She talks to us. She is teaching us about being cats. She’s very patient. We climb over her. We bat her face. We bite her feet. I especially like to roll around on my back and take swats at her. She doesn’t even get mad at me! We love Talia-mom.

But about two weeks ago I guess Talia-mom decided she needed some help with us. Maybe it was because our other sister Leksi died. We were all very sad. Leksi hadn’t been feeling very good for days and lisa-mom tried and tried to help her. So did Talia-mom. But it just wasn’t enough. I think Talia-mom still misses Leksi ‘cause at night when lisa-mom makes us go to our bed, Talia-mom walks around crying like she still thinks there should be four of us to tuck in. But anyway, I don’t want to be telling a sad story here. Lisa-mom says Leksi is on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge. She’s happy and perfect and has lots of energy.  One days we’ll get to play with her there ‘cause she’s waiting for us.

So about the help… Our big sister Fiala (everyone calls her Olly) started taking care of us. She’d spend all day and all night in our bed with us. She’d wash us and cuddle with us. And even when Talia-mom wasn’t with us we were still all warm and cozy ‘cause we had Olly to snuggle with. We love Olly. One day lisa-mom brought us some toys ‘cause we’re growing up and she thought we’d like them. Well, we did. But Olly thought we were too little for toys. She took them all and hid them in the back of our bedroom. Then she sat on them so nobody could find them. When lisa-mom found them, she told Olly that we were plenty big enough for toys and she put them all back where we could play with them. Now Olly not only let’s us play with toys, SHE plays with us, too! At least she’s gentle. Our big half-brother Brasen thinks we’re squeaky toys and sometimes he comes charging across the room and bats us before running off again. It’s a little bit scary.

A couple days after Olly started staying with us, Talia-mom talked to Aunt Bria about helping out. I guess she thinks the each of us needs our very own mom or something. Or maybe Olly said she was still a kitten herself and didn’t want to be with us all the time. So Aunt Bria comes and stays with us part of the time, too. Aunt Bria is gentle and cuddly. We love Aunt Bria.

For a couple days, Talia-mom, Olly, and Aunt Bria all would be there, but I think they’ve worked out some kind of schedule. Usually either Aunt Bria or Olly is with us all the time. Then Talia-mom comes to check on us and feed us so she’s there with one of them part of the time. We always have a mom to cuddle with, give us baths, play, and keep an eye on us. We are never alone.

 

I think Talia-mom might have talked to Aunt Shira about taking care of us, too. She comes by and inspects pretty often, but she never stays. She runs our house and is the Queen of Everything. Maybe that's why she doesn't stay with us - she's too busy. Sometimes she swats our Talia-mom. I don't know why. I think Talia-mom is the perfect mom and she doesn't deserve swats!

It’s a good thing Olly thought it would be okay to sneak downstairs to write this story, ‘cause Aunt Bria said no and Talia-mom gets too worried if we leave our room. Not that we do very often. Lisa-mom hasn’t even put the gate up because the only one who ever left was Kyrith and he just went out into the hall to have a snack with Talia-mom. The one time lisa-mom took us downstairs Talia-mom followed us down and called to us to follow her back upstairs. We didn’t do it – we were busy exploring – and she got really stressed. Lisa-mom then made us go back up. We might have to live in lisa-mom’s room forever if this keeps up!

I was going to tell you all about Desi and Kyrith, too. I’ve heard that introducing ourselves is another tradition around here. But I hear lisa-mom coming so I’d better quit before I get in trouble. Maybe Desi or Kyrith will write to you another morning when lisa-mom is busy.

Love,

 Shya

(Please note that you will see a number of photos of our cats and kittens that I've taken outside in a natural setting. The LostWoods cats do NOT go outside unsupervised! When we do go outside for pictures and occasional adventures, there is always one person and usually two watching them closely. We do have an outside, fully enclosed run to which the older cats are allowed access, but even then we check on them often.)

Site content copyright lisa s. vasa 2001-2009. Do not use without permission.