Our Newest Family Member

This is Miss Rita Mae Moonsparkle. She's five months old and hates having her picture taken. I managed to slide the cardboard in behind her while she was asleep; there's no way I could have lowered the blinds without waking her, and the glare from the window would have ruined the photo. She took off like a shot right after I got this photo.

She came to be our newest kitty daughter in this manner: Several weeks ago, I heard someone calling "Hello? Hello?" Thinking someone was lost, my husband went out to see what was going on. A teenager was holding a scared little black and white kitten and asked my husband if he wanted her. She explained that the people next door to where she lives had moved away and abandoned the poor little kitten. Her mom wouldn't let her keep her, so she was trying to find the kitten a home. Well, she did!

She is not at all intimated by our much bigger, much older cats. George, who out weighs her by 18 pounds, swaggered up to her the first day we let her out to meet her new siblings, under our close supervision, and gave her his best "I'm gonna chew you up and spit you out" glare and growl. She wasn't scared by him at all. She calmly looked at him like she was saying, "Yeah? Well, take your best shot, buddy, because that's ALL you're gonna get!" George backed up, sat down and considered this little toughie, then suddenly remembered he had pressing business with a bowl of cat food. Our dogs, Bonnie and Fiona, adore her and she adores them right back. In fact, she gets along with everyone, which is very unusual for a new family member. It usually takes several weeks of fussing before everyone settles down.

I was hoping to name her Francesca or Isabella, but she wasn't responding to either of them. After two days of this, my husband was getting ready to go to the bookstore to see if some books I had ordered were in. I called to him, "See if the new book by Rita Mae Brown is out yet, please?" He replied, "Brown who?" I said, "Rita Mae." As soon as I said that, Miss-no-name-as-yet popped out from under the couch and walked over to me. She sat down by my feet and I said, "Rita Mae?" She jumped up into my lap, meowing and purring. She doesn't seem to care about 'Moonsparkle' one way or another, but I just liked the way it sounded with 'Mae.' Every time we say "Rita Mae" she either comes to us or meows at us so, even though I'm not really all that fond of the name, Rita Mae she is!