Mehitabel

This is Mehitabel. She is a large (11.4 pound) tabby-tortoise-calico mix, sister to Duma. I find I blip her big brother (14.8 pounds) more often than I do her. Not sure why really except that he is really special. He's goofy, smart, handsome and has the sweetest disposition of any cat I've ever had except my all time favorite cat (though now Duma is right there with him) Archie. Yes, the same "Archie" that gave birth to Mehitabel's name.

Okay I find I'm rambling a bit here. Years ago when I was quite young I got two long haired alley angora kittens and I named them Archie and Mehitabel in honor of a book by Don Marquis about a cockroach (Archie) and a cat (Mehitabel). They were gorgeous kittens. Archie lived to be 16 and was my cat soul mate. Mehitabel unfortunately disappeared when she was about six months old.

Fast forward many years to five years ago. We had only our old queen Fiona, who actually looked a bit like Archie but was a purebred Maine Coon. We thought we would not get another cat until we met Duma and Mehitabel's dad at an artist's studio during the fall artist studio tour. (You still with me? Goodness you are brave.) He was orange and funny and sweet... and we praised him and said we wished we had a cat like that. The artist said, "we have kittens." Of course you know the rest. We wanted an orange boy so Duma was our first pick. There were four kittens and the artist's daughter who was raising them wanted to keep two of them. That left Mehitabel. She had an opinion and sat firmly on Arvin's foot the second time we visited as if to say, "this one is mine!" What we later realized was that in all the photos I took of the four kittens, Duma and Mehitabel were always together. Lucky she was the one who came home with him to our house.

Fast forward almost five years: The Queen has gone to kitty heaven. We have the two "kittens" and they are both the best cats we've ever had. Duma is cute and goofy. Mehitabel is beautiful and sometimes wild and crazy. She has the most beautiful face to me. I love those little light lines that cross the edges of her nose. And she is a sweetie too. Take a closer look at her face.

So that's my blip. Today we are doing the wash. I had lunch with my good friend Judy who happened to be in town this day getting a couple of my brother's etchings framed. We had a lovely lunch together.

Arvin, Helena and I took a short walk to suss out the bus line that comes near our house. We plan a quiet evening tonight. Hope you are all having a lovely day. And Happy Labor Day to all my US friends.