Gracie's Easter Picture

Gracie Piddlewhiskers

Selkirk Rex

This photo ws taken by Katy Winbray Brinkley, who is Gracie's big sister and a real human.    

I am amazed at how different breeds have different characteristics.  Some cats come from an ancient history of catching their prey around the watering holes of Asia and Africa, and these cats are not shy of water.  We know a lot about Gracie Piddlewhiskers because we have her family history back twenty plus years.  And there are no Servals or Asian Leopard Cats in there.  Yet, she is a water-tolerant cat.  Today, I gave her a shower.  And she comes running if she thinks there is an opportunity to watch the bathroom sink faucet running or.. even better... to watch the toilet flush.  After she has a shower, she licks her curly fur all over.  I thought that was about the sandalwood perfumed soap I had used on her last time, so today I only held her in my arms under the water (all but her head) and didn't use anything for fear that she might ingest soap that would upset her tummy.  But she licked her fur down anyway.  Afterward, she seemed pleased to be so curly and all primped up.  She spent a lovey morning on Dennis' lap and then took over his office chair when he left to go to the school where he was holding a speech pathology clinic today.  

Our other cat is Zigmund Cadbury  Snugglesworth, a British Shorthair cat.  The wisdom is that British Shorthair breed cats are distinctively not 'luvvey' cats-- they're aloof and dictatorial.  I don't see Ziggy as dictatorial, but Shadow his predecessor certainly was the boss around here.  He'd whip his tail as if to say, "YOU don't call the shots.  I make the decisions around here."  And he'd jump up and rub his tail right across your mouth as if to say "zip it" if he didn't like something.  As for Ziggy, he's just spooky and shy and aloof.  Somehow these qualities make one feel honored when he does come around for petting or just to be in the milleu of Den's computer game or my quilting.  His eyes are stunning.  I'll post a picture update for him soon, as his previous family in OKC must be curious about how he looks now at almost seven months of age.