This is Chase. He and Kali came to us by way of my sister, whose neighbor had found them alone and cold at probably 2 weeks of age. Nobody has any idea what happened to their mother, but we think she might have been hit by a car and killed. They were the smallest little kittens we’d ever seen, too young to eat solid food, and still needing kitten milk for nourishment.
They had fleas, and they wouldn’t calm unless they were closed in somewhere, so we kept them in a carrier with a folded-up king-size flannel sheet, a sweatshirt, and a small heating pad beneath all of that, set on low.
Here is Chase in 2009. At this point, he’s about 3.5 to 4 weeks old.
Still 2009, and right about when his eyes started changing color. For awhile, he seriously looked like he had purple eyes.
He liked feet back then. He still likes feet, especially when they’re dirty.
This is still 2009, and he’s about 10 weeks old in this picture.
He loves dirty shoes, too.
Another photo of a 10-week old Chase.
TOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much catnip, too much partying.
This is 2010. At this point, Chase is about six months old. He’s starting to fill out, and his fur has gone from short to long. He doesn’t quite have a ruff at this age, but it was around now that we started noticing that he’s got Maine Coon in him.
Chase likes to sleep with his tongue out for some reason. We have several pictures of him sleeping like this.
Now it’s 2011, and we’d just put some new vertical space in. You can’t see it in this picture, but his favorite toy is above him, on a newly installed shelf. He doesn’t know yet where it went.
This picture was taken at Christmas in 2012, and we sadly had to hightail it out to my father’s house after my stepmother was in a fatal car crash. The crash happened over Thanksgiving weekend, our usual pet-sitters were out of town, I was having trouble finding a flight, so we packed up the car, including all four cats, and drove the whole way. The cats and I were there for about six weeks, and they wasted no time in making themselves at home.
2014 now, and of course Chase has long since become fully grown. He’s always been a very alert cat.
See the Maine Coon in him?
A happy Chase. He thinks I’m his mother.
The video below is just an example of how Chase is like a child, particularly caught doing something he knows he’s not supposed to be doing. We’re slowly trying to train him to stay off the table, but we have a long way to go.
