Rene

Back in 1999, I pined for a cat. We had two big dogs, but no cats.

Back then I was married to Ry's dad. I called home from work. "Honey," I said, "I want a cat. I love grey tabbies, and I like female cats. Let's see if we can find one at the shelter tonight." He agreed.

An hour later, he called me. "You won't believe this," he says. "The dogs were going nuts, barking like crazy, and I went out there to see what was wrong. It was pouring rain. I thought it was a tiny rat or gopher at first, but then I realized it was a tiny kitten in the corner, inside the wooden fence somehow, soaking wet, crouched and hissing and spitting and swiping claws at the noses of the dogs.

"So I picked her up, and I took her outside the back gate and set her down and walked away. But she sat at the gate and yowled pitifully. I came back to talk to her a couple of times, and then finally had mercy and picked her up and took her in the house. I dried her off and fed her, and then suddenly realized -- she is a female grey tabby! Exactly what you asked for!"

She "imprinted" onto Lu, who was at home with her, like a duck, and they were inseparable. She loved to stand on his shoulder, so he named her Rene (for Rene Descartes, to whom is attributed the famous saying, "We stand on the shoulders of the giants who have gone before").

The day I drove into Oklahoma several months later, she went into heat, before I'd had time to spay her--we had only guessed at her exact age. We ended up not being able to move into our rental house for a week due to plumbing, so she lived alone with a catbox and food/water except once a day when we visited for a couple of hours to begin unpacking things. And wouldn't you know it... she got out and was pregnant at the speed of light.

When she was near to giving birth, she came into my room one evening. I was meditating and praying, and she crawled up on my lap and sat there, purring very heavily. I laid one hand gently on her for awhile, then removed it and had nearly fallen asleep when I heard, "MEW! MEW!" and realized she'd begun having her kittens -- on my LAP!

I was able to place her and the kitten in the box with towel I'd prepared, and she had the rest. See "Katrina's" story for our little birth drama!

Rene had a fourth kitten we named Peacemaker, who looked a little like Tigris. He got his name because he seemed to be the goodnatured kitty that always made peace between the others. Unfortunately he disappeared when very young, and as he was our favorite kitten we were very sad!

In late 2001 when Lu had been visiting Rykah and was leaving back to Canada, we put Rene, Brynner and Georgia in hard cat carriers and shipped them on the airplane home to Canada with him. They lived with him until he (temporarily) returned in summer of 2004, when they came back to us!

Rene is so light in weight it seems almost unnatural. She has a very expressive face and is able to "look mad" and other emotions with remarkable clarity. She still bosses her kids, especially Brynner whom she slaps upside the head regularly whether he needs it or not (apparently she thinks he does!), which is funnier when you understand that he is about four times her size. He could just sit on her and she'd be helpless. ;-)

Rene is a study in extremes socially. Very intelligent. She has a tendency to go "hide" somewhere and come out not more than once a day for potty and food -- she virtually disappears for a week at a time in a cupboard, box or bedroom. Then suddenly she is there and insisting on being right on your keyboard and driving you crazy for awhile.

She is the queen as we call her sometimes, and the dominant female of our brood.