Edith and Lucy

My heart was broken by the passing of HRH, but I now have two girls who are doing their best to mend a broken heart.  There names are Edith and Lucy, and they are just over two months old.  Edith is slightly younger than Lucy.  They are not sisters but get along very well.  I adopted them Saturday from the Montgomery Humane Society.  I had not been without a cat since 1985, and though many might question getting kittens so soon after Victoria's death, I don't.  There was a void that needed to be filled and these two little ladies are doing their best to fill it.  I saw Edith on the MHS website and fell in love. My cat before Victoria was a calico, named Calico (I was 7 when I got her and wasn't very imaginative).  I've always loved calicos for their sweet disposition, and I knew if I got another cat, it would be a calico. 

Edith is a calico with big ears, long hind legs, and a bobtail.  She has the sweetest disposition and is very loving.  The MHS says she is a desert lynx mix, which is the reason for the large ears, long hind legs, and bobtail.  She's mostly black with an orange face, pink nose and white chest and feet.  The Desert Lynx breed is a combination of exotic looking cats with a dog-like personality. They are supposed to be extremely people loving, loyal, with a sometimes overly affectionate personality. They are known to you when you call them, follow you around , and even enjoy playing fetch with you. She's such a beautiful baby girl and so very sweet.

Lucy is a domestic shorthair diluted tortoiseshell with white.  She's absolutely gorgeous and as soft as can be.  She mostly gray, reminding me of HRH, but with dabs of light orange in her gray and with white feet.  She has what looks like half an orange mustache on her face that when you look at the rest of her face extends up to look like a crescent moon. Diluted torties are gray while most torties are black.  They often don't have white but if their color patterns are not completely separate they are considered tortoiseshell not calico.

They received their names from the animal shelter, and though I considered changing them, the names just fit so well.  Edith is my little Edith Wharton, on of my favorite early 20th century writers.   Wharton combined her insider's view of America's privileged classes with a brilliant, natural wit to write humorous, incisive novels and short stories of social and psychological insight.   My Edith is a little lady just like Wharton was.  I also love Edith Wharton because there was a series of mystery novels by Lev Raphael,  The Nick Hoffman Mysteries, in which the main character Nick Hoffman was an English professor who was an Edith Wharton bibliographer.

Lucy is my little Lucy Ricardo.  Of course you probably know Lucy Ricardo as the red-haired housewife of Ricky Ricardo of I Love Lucy fame, who always gets into trouble and mostly caught by Ricky.  If Lucy is not sleeping she's getting into something and/or exploring.  She has to be watched  a lot.  She's so sweet and funny though, and she loves to cuddle.  She'll already look up at you and meow to be picked up and held.  She also purrs louder than any cat I've ever known.  I wonder:  if I get on to her in Spanish, will she maybe listen more?  I doubt it.  I love that she has an independent spirit.

Neither of the girls like to be alone, so they aren't too independent.  They know they are loved though and they have a wonderful home with me.  I hope they will both have a long and happy life.