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Roo's Relatives
Jan. 6th, 2006 09:53 amI don't have too much of interest to report at the moment, except for one thing - I met one of Roo's relatives the other day! Now, as you probably know, my cat Roo is a stray that I picked up off the streets in September. So how do I know this was one of her relatives?
On Wednesday I was on my way to catch the bus and passed by a skateboard shop on 3rd and South. There in the window was a black cat, peering out at me. I thought it was cute, so I went in briefly to pet it. And as I did, I noticed a couple of things: it had the same little white hairs, the same facial shape, and the same vestigial "earlets" as Roo![1] Although this cat was full-grown and therefore bigger than Roo, the resemblance was unmistakable.
I asked the guy working at the shop about the cat. He said that the cat was male and had also been a stray kitten - they found him in the basement of the shop a few years ago. The shop guy also said that there were some other cats in the neighborhood who looked a lot like him. So this cat is very probably Roo's cousin, uncle, or older brother (not her father, though, as he was fixed long before she was born). It seems that Roo is descended from a family of feral South Philly black cats whose babies are occasionally adopted by caring humans. Awww!
[1] Roo has a genetic quirk, common among cats, that gives her "four ears." She has these extra flaps of skin at the base of her ears, on the outside, that are actually incomplete vestigial ears. Suzanne was the first to notice this.
On Wednesday I was on my way to catch the bus and passed by a skateboard shop on 3rd and South. There in the window was a black cat, peering out at me. I thought it was cute, so I went in briefly to pet it. And as I did, I noticed a couple of things: it had the same little white hairs, the same facial shape, and the same vestigial "earlets" as Roo![1] Although this cat was full-grown and therefore bigger than Roo, the resemblance was unmistakable.
I asked the guy working at the shop about the cat. He said that the cat was male and had also been a stray kitten - they found him in the basement of the shop a few years ago. The shop guy also said that there were some other cats in the neighborhood who looked a lot like him. So this cat is very probably Roo's cousin, uncle, or older brother (not her father, though, as he was fixed long before she was born). It seems that Roo is descended from a family of feral South Philly black cats whose babies are occasionally adopted by caring humans. Awww!
[1] Roo has a genetic quirk, common among cats, that gives her "four ears." She has these extra flaps of skin at the base of her ears, on the outside, that are actually incomplete vestigial ears. Suzanne was the first to notice this.
