PHOTOS                                                                   


That's Harlequin Historicals author Lyn Randal  on  the 
right and me on the left, at a Southern Magic  meeting 
in 2004. Heard recently that Lyn may have a new
book coming out from HH later this year. Yay!


Harlequin author Bonnie Gardner on the left, 
presenting me with a First Sale plaque from 
Heart of Dixie  Romance Writers.


This is the cake Heart of Dixie had made to celebrate 
my first sale.  You'd be surprised how giddy a
little something like a cake and a plaque can make
a new writer feel.


Feral kittens born in the basement of my day job 
office.  There were three; I took two and an office 
mate took the third one, Boo, a little black 
long-haired male.  All three kittens were males.

Cody, the red tabby.  Notice the "thumb."  Cody is a 
polydactyl—he has 6 toes on each of his front
paws.  He's what's commonly called a Hemingway
cat, because Ernest Hemingway was famously a 
fan of polydactyl cats.


Mac is a brown tabby. He has the classic tabby
 pattern, with large black stripes.  In this photo, his
 eyes look blue, but they're turning a golden green
 color as he grows.

Cody, sitting in the windowsill, pretending he's the
thoughtful sort.  As if.


Cody, sitting on top of my wireless router and next
to part of my collection of books on serial killers and
violent crime.  Hmm, that's one of Gayle Wilson's 
books on top.  It sort of fits the theme.  Cody is 
squinting at the bright sun outside.  Or maybe he's
contemplating bird-i-cide.  Whichever.

Mac is just a pretty, pretty cat, isn't he?  He's not 
even six months old yet in this picture and he's
already up to 8 pounds.

Lest you think that the kittens are all the cats I have, 
au contraire.  This is Sabrina, aka Tatertot, aka
TayTay.  She's technically my sister's cat, but we
all feed her, so I consider her part of my cat family.


Doesn't this look like a painting?  That's my sister's
other calico, Tabitha, aka Big Fluff. She's  lying on
a comforter on my niece's bedroom floor.  My
niece is a slob. 

 


Here's another little calico, Gingersnap.  When my mom got up after midnight to let one of the dogs out to go to the bathroom, she heard a pitiful mewling sound and spotted a tiny kitten.  She tried to catch her, but she went down into a storm drain.  The next morning, my niece went searching for her and was able to catch her.  She's a pretty little Torbie (tortoiseshell with tabby markings).

We decided Ginger needed a buddy, so we went to the vet.  Came back with not just one but two new kittens.  This is Bella, a silver tabby.  It's hard to tell in this photo, but despite the fact that she's tiny, she has huge feet and tufts on the tips of her ears that make us wonder if she has a little Maine Coon in her.

This is Tempe.  Or, as I call her, Blackjack.  She's the biggest of the kittens.  We were going to just get one companion kitten for Ginger, but my mom made the mistake of taking both my sister and my nieces with her to the vet.  They couldn't choose between Blackjack and Bella, so they adopted both.

After about a week, it was clear that Bella was so much smaller than Ginger and Blackjack, she was getting ganged up on during play time.  So we decided to go to the vet to adopt one more kitten to be a pal for Bella.  As it turned out, I lucked out and got the little Siamese mix I've been wanting ever since my cat Simi, another Siamese mix, passed away at the age of 15 a few years ago.  This is Mina, and she's a tiny little bundle of feistiness.  In case you're wondering, yes, they'll all be spayed, just as we neutered the two boys.  Spay and neuter, people!  There are too many kittens out there needing homes already to add to the mix.

 

© 2010 Paula Graves