Peekay’s First Year
Peekay came into my life almost a year ago, wrapped like a newborn in a little blanket up to his chin, his big ears flat with worry. Barely eight weeks old, he looked at me and sensed that a change was about to take place, and I was it. I soon learned that this tiny yellow tabby/Bengal kitten was born smart as a whip. He’d been carried around by his semi-feral mother who was looking for a family to take over his care; and as it happened, I was ready to be his person.
Peekay had never had litter mates, so I brought him home in a little tote with a stuffed toy kitten that looked just like him. Over the past year, the two have remained inseparable friends. Once the same size, Peekay now carries Peekaboo around in his mouth and always remembers where he last left his now whiskerless little friend. Which has me wondering if I should adopt a kitten so he has a real live playmate to chase and wrestle with. More on that thought later.
From the get-go, I’ve been photographing Peekay who is without a doubt incredibly adorable and photogenic. It’s tempting to stop describing him and simply fill this blog with his kitten pictures, but I’ll restrain myself and include just a few. This image is one of my favorites. When I first let him wander the house on his own, he’d find me at my computer working on a blog, climb up my pantleg, plop over on his back, and soon fall sound asleep in my lap. This gave me a chance to capture Peekay’s big ears, pink nose, and the gorgeous array of circles and stripes on his belly. Not wanting to disturb him, I had to type with my arms extended out from my desk to allow him snooze space between me and the keyboard.
Now fully grown and lordly, he loves snuggling into the lime green and fuchsia colored silk pillows along the back of the couch across from me while I read. As he luxuriates atop the cushions, he gradually sinks into one of his many catnaps, something cats do for hours a day. Nighttime is his time to prowl with Peekaboo in his mouth and play with his other favorite toys (feathers, wadded up pieces of paper, a small soccer ball, catnip-filled squishy toys, pieces of rope, a toy named Mousey, one named Octopussy, a braided strand of sweet prairie grass, and sachets of lavender that he finds even when I think I’ve finally hidden them out of his reach).
Now that he is a big boy and a year old, Peekay has expressed a keen interest in being outside to romp and roam on his own; but he is not savvy in the ways of this wild forested world we live in. Black bears, foxes, coyotes, and neighborhood dogs share our world with the squirrels and wild birds he watches attentively through the dining room window. Just last week, the 10-year-old son of our next-door neighbors came within ten feet of a mountain lion that was crossing our road in broad daylight. For a mountain lion, Peekay would be a tasty kibble treat and gone in an instant.
My solution has been to add a Catio enclosure to the deck where Peekay can watch the friendly backyard black capped chickadees that perch and converse in a nearby redbud tree. From inside his Catio where he is surrounded by Peekaboo and friends, Peekay flattens his ears, twitches his whiskers, and softly chitters with excitement. While he birdwatches, I water potted plants on the deck, then pull up a chair with whatever I’m currently reading and keep him company.
Which brings me back to the one cat or two question I’ve been mulling over. Daughter Heidi and my cat-loving friends Suzanne, Sheila, Paul and Rod all think a kitten would be great for Peekay, and the sooner the better. As I ponder the idea of a little kitten for Peekay to play with and tutor, the first four lines of A.A. Milne’s poem “Pinkle Purr” about a kitten and his evolving relationship with his mother Tattoo are now stuck in my head—
Tattoo was the mother of Pinkle Purr
A little black nothing of feet and fur;
And by and by when his eyes came through,
He saw his mother, the big Tattoo.
Dear readers…Stay tuned and feel free to share your thoughts on the subject.