Solentiname relaxing on one of the snake cages.
She is named after the Mano Negra/Manu Chao song Sueño de Solentiname. (Solentiname is a group of islands in Lake Nicaragua.)
Other names considered: None. The name occurred to me the first time I saw her, before she even came to live with us.
We're going to try to call her Tiname, but likely as not, she'll end up with some strange, unrelated nickname. For the moment, we're still referring to her as "the kitten" or "the baby" most of the time.
Solentiname was a bit malnourished when we got her and for some time, was on the small side for her age. She's not fully grown yet, but we're betting she won't end up being very large. She is, unfortunately, quite chubby already; in fact, we've never had a cat get so plump so early in life. We attribute this to her taking her food cues from Dubh, who eats like a pig. We recently changed the way we feed the cats and are hoping that will help.
Though we're reasonably certain she is not a purebred, she looks like a Lynx-point Siamese. She has gorgeous blue eyes. Of all the cats I've had in my life, she's the first blue-eyed one.
She has little fits of talking several times a day. At first I thought she was meowing because she was hungry, but she apparently just likes to talk. That also may be the result of her Siamese ancestry. When she was little, she had a high-pitched, squeaky little meow. It is still fairly high-pitched, but at least sounds more like something that would come out of an adult cat.
She has a nice, moderately loud, rumbly purr, and she has little bouts of affection, including purring, several times a day. She didn't make biscuits at all at first, but now makes enthusiastic but very gentle biscuits when she's especially happy, usually at bedtime and often on my face.
We took Tamerlane to the vet on June 23, 2006 for a mild bladder infection. As usual for that time of year, the clinic had a number of stray/abandoned kittens up for adoption. There was one especially cute Siamese-tabby girl we looked at longingly before leaving and I believe I remember exclaiming, "I WANT A KITTEN!" but that's a pretty common sentiment in my household.
The next morning, Chris went to run errands and returned with the kitten. He couldn't handle leaving her there. I was taking a nap on the sofa when he got home and he woke me up by tapping me on the shoulder, then holding the kitten in front of my face. I can't think of a better way to wake up, actually.
Solentiname is a fairly sensible little girl, though she spends a good deal of time running around the house at top speed and playing with things, as is required of all young cats. She enjoys sitting on people to some degree and loves to be petted, but isn't thrilled about being picked up and cuddled. She isn't terribly nervous about strangers, though she prefers that they don't touch her.
As a little baby, she was strangely wary of the adult cats. All the other kittens I've had were wary on their first day and maybe into the second, then proceeded to pester the daylights out of the adults, but she was cautious for a long time. It was the first time I'd had a kitten who was more scared of the big cats than the big cats were of her. Solentiname now plays with several of the big cats, but doesn't curl up next to them or cuddle with them except for Dubh, occasionally. She can be a bit of a bully at times.
None so far.
In addition to the usual kitten obligations of exploring and playing, she enjoys biting people's hands, running around the yard during Supervised Outdoor Playtime, and playing with mesquite beans. She prefers mesquite beans to any other toy and routinely brings them in the house during Outdoor Playtime, then plays with them for hours. One of her favorite things to do is pester poor, patient Dubh mercilessly.
As a small baby, she seemed most comfortable around Arlo, but as she got older, Dubh became her favorite. She and Calypso play very energetic games of tag on a daily basis and she sometimes plays with Molly, also.
She was wary at first, but now it doesn't bother her at all.
