We adopted Cheyenne in January. She was a black cat about 11 months old. A couple of days later, she became Jasmine. That was the name of the Princess and a lion in "Secondhand Lions." For about the first week or so, Jasmine was a bit overwhelmed by the change. She ate fine, the vet announced that she was healthy, and she even played some. However, her tail was always down, and she acted like she was afraid to jump in my lap even though she wanted to. The only hint of things to come was when she started to sleep in our bed the first night. Today - well, Queen Jasmine reigns.
We're not exactly strict kitty parents, and we haven't needed to be. She loves her scratcher and leaves the furniture alone. She doesn't get on the kitchen counters, and she's immaculate with the litter. She doesn't bite or scratch. We really don't care if she likes to climb book cases and sleep on the DVD player. She's always easy to locate - we just look for the tail waving like a flag straight up in the air. She's extraordinarily affectionate. She seems to prefer my lap and spends a lot of time there.
She's very playful - very, very playful. No toy mouse is safe with her around. She "hates those meeses to pieces." She pounces on them, she does flips with them, she can actually throw them, and she's very good at catching them. She likes some of her feather toys, but not as much as the mice. She has a favorite game that we call ambush. I think you can figure that one out. She loves to run. Fortunately, our central hallway is very long and parquet. She can run and slide - and she does. We have a large screened in porch with a wicker kitty bench we keep next to one of the screens. Last spring, when the weather finally permitted, we opened the sliding door. You would have thought, Jasmine had gone to kitty heaven. She wandered around the porch for about ten minutes, and then the celebration began. She started to run in and out. She kept jumping in our laps and looking us in the face. She couldn't understand why we weren't as excited as she was. She spent many hours there this summer. We like to sit in the rockers and watch the birds, rabbit, and squirrels. She would sit in our laps and watch along with us. People walk their dogs on a path about thirty feet from our porch. A few have walked over to the screen to see her. She showed no fear of the dogs. I think it's a very good thing she's a housecat.
She has a beautiful coat. It's very shiney, but also very soft and silky. It seems difficult for humans to keep their hands off it. Since she loves to be petted, that works out well for her. She always announces herself when she enters a room that we're already in. When we have been out for awhile, she meets us with a "roll and greet." She loves an audience. She literally dances around the room when we tell her how beautiful she is. A couple of months ago, I told her she was going to be a very spoiled cat. Ed said, "What do you mean going to be?" Quite true.We have thought of getting a companion cat for her, but she seems quite happy with the status quo. Since we're both retired, we're home a lot. We are her companion cats. She can snuggle up with us and play with us whenever she wants. I talk to her a lot. Sometimes you can just tell when a cat is happy.
We do want to thank you for Jasmine. You gave us a most wonderful gift.
Thank you,
Michael and Ed
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