Meet Spooky Puff

So named because he’s easily spooked. He’s almost fully grown now, and a full member of the Blue Porch Kitty Committee.

Spooky is second from left. Third from left is mother Clarice. At farthest left is Ginger Slim, the one surviving kitten of a duo of kittens from last year.

A Siamese cat was among the originals who “came with the house” when we closed on it in July 2016. I used to call her “Clarence” after Clarence the Cross-Eyed Lion from the old 1960s Daktari TV series. Then, after nearly two years, she gave birth to kittens, and Clarence became Clarice.

In a sad parallel to this time last year, one of two kittens from a litter fell ill and died one weekend in June from who knows what. The one left I called Ghost Puff for a while, because this tiny thing would “ghost out” (disappear) whenever a human appeared. Recently, I’ve taken to calling her/him “Spooky,” because I’m weird like that.

Settling on a pronoun, he’s apparently grown a bit.

Smack in the middle, smacking his chops after finding the chicken bone I threw into the yard.

Although he’s getting a little braver every day—he no longer bolts off the porch when I come out, but hides beneath the table—it’s clear he will have little to nothing to do with humans. He used to run when I came to the window. Spooky will stick around a bit now, but only so long as I stay on the other side of the picture window.

I really like the colors and composition in these last two.

This is the best photo I have of Spooky’s littermate, Dusty. We’ve been almost supernaturally fortunate in regards to the health of our animals, but it still hurts to lose one. Dusty was a gorgeous, fluffy little thing and we have no idea what made her so sick she had to lean against the side of the house to walk so she wouldn’t fall over. I leave this here in her memory.

All photographs Copyright © 2018 by Lawrence Roy Aiken. All rights reserved. Kibble for kitties gratefully accepted at this link.