Orange Baby

AKA The Crazy Cat

    It was a rainy February night, cold for Tampa Bay, when I found the kittens. There were 2, frightened and crying. One came to me readily, I thought it was alone until I heard another faint “mew” from the bushes that lined my front porch. Peering into the darkness, I could see the pitiful thing, muddy and shivering.

  “Okay, then…you’re ok…” I muttered, fumbling back into my trailer with the soggy babies. Flipping the kitchen light on, I set them unceremoniously on the counter to see them better.

    The larger of the two was beautifully marked. Swooping swirls of dark orange and white in a tortoiseshell pattern, with a bold white blaze between expressive gold eyes. Four little white boots and an extra long tail with a funny little bend at tip, like a question mark.

    ” The question is, where have you come from?” I asked.

    She peered quizically over her sister’s back at the kitchen appliances. Her little sister was not as fortunate in the “looks” department.

   “Oh my, you’re a little sad sack, aren’t you?” I picked up the tiny muddy kitten and my heart melted. She was as plain an orange tabby as ever there was. No white on her, not anywhere. Just a dingy yellow-orange coat, and tufty at that…