Sophia relaxing on one of the heated cat beds.
The staff at our cats' vet's office names all the kittens who are up for adoption. They named this little girl Sophia, which we liked and wound up keeping.
The Bug.
Sophia is a little red-tabby-and-white short-haired girl. She was the runt of her litter and when we got her, she was alarmingly small and delicate. After a short adjustment period, she began eating voraciously and put on weight quite rapidly - to the point of being slightly pudgy. Ultimately, she grew out of the pudgy phase and wound up being slender and quite petite - under 7 pounds (3.1 kg) She's the smallest of our cats.
Her eyes are a lovely orange color.
Her meow is rather hoarse and raspy and on the low side for a girl cat. She started out being quite talkative, while her brother was very quiet. They have since reversed positions, though Sophia does have little fits of meowing when she's really happy.
She has quite a loud purr, which she fires up whenever we pet her. She saves her biscuits for special occasions: when she has affection fits. Even then, she makes very gentle, non-painful biscuits.
The Fall of 2009 through late June of 2010 was a stressful, depressing time in our household, as we dealt with both Andromeda's and Arlo's terminal illnesses then lost them both within a month. When Arlo died on June 24, we discussed adopting a kitten in the near future. We didn't plan on it happening the very next day, however.
When I called our cats' vet to let her know about Arlo, I learned that they had kittens up for adoption. A litter of four had been found motherless in the downtown area and needed homes. It's always nice for kittens to have playmates and we had room for two, so two it was.
Sophia is a cheerful, good-natured, affectionate little thing and is fairly adventurous without being obnoxious. She tends to be the first to try new things, such as climbing the big cat tower in the living room, with her brother quickly following suit. More independent than her brother, she quickly grew out of the Clingy Kitten phase and doesn't sit on laps very often anymore, though she likes to stomp all over people when they're lying in bed.
She absolutely loves being petted and having her little head rubbed. She loved the head-rubbing even when she was a tiny baby, which is kind of unusual.
None so far.
She's a bit more placid than the average young cat, but she does spend a fair amount of time pursuing the usual activities, such as playing with toys, climbing things, and wrestling with her brother.
Her most unusual hobby as a kitten was playing with water. She loved to fish around in water bowls, in glasses of water, and even in puddles outside and doesn't mind at all when her paws and legs get wet. She appears to have grown out of this phase now, but here are a few examples:
Not surprisingly, she mostly hangs out with her brother. Flynn loves her and often plays with her, and in turn, she views Flynn as her surrogate mother. She has developed a crush on Dubh, who is quite popular with most of the girls, and plays with Mosaic and Calypso.
She was terrified of it when she was a little baby, but doesn't much mind it now. She's the only cat I've had who started off frightened of the vacuum cleaner then changed her mind later.
