JoJo (Vester) is First Again!

It's appropriate that this newest post is about Vester (now JoJo). He went home this week and took over as if he'd been there forever. He was purring and stomp purring and taught himself to fetch while Jason was visiting with Becky and Jerry.



JoJo was always the first of Ayo's kittens to do anything: he was the first "over the wall" of their kitten bed; the first to purr (and the last to stop purring); the first to pounce on his mother; fly off the cedar chest; jump into my arms... he just leads the way into every adventure.

Received this email a few minutes ago. And once again, JoJo is the first of our kittens to fetch in this manner. He's very intelligent, and gorgeous (he's blossoming fast), and I'm prejudiced!!!

From Becky (fantastic photos are hers, too):

"Jerry and I were just playing fetch with JoJo. I was sitting on the floor in the bathroom, and Jerry was lying on the bed.

I threw the toy and JoJo jumped up on the bed and gave it to Jerry, Jerry threw it and he brought it to me, I threw it and he took it to Jerry, Jerry threw it and he brought it to me. This went on over and over again until he just plopped. He never got confused and returned it to one of us twice in a row, he always alternated.

A cat playing fetch is amazing enough, but how JoJo plays fetch is absolutely incredible."

We are SO happy Becky and Jerry fell in love with our Vester (previously Vesper, we THOUGHT we had a girl...), now their JoJo.

I think Becky needs her own blog!

Vester Vies for Visibility

Vester is an absolute sweetheart, outgoing, light-hearted, totally oblivious to the Blazing Saddles final scenes chaos churning around him with the other kittens. He does a Snoopy Dance trying to grab the antique brass keyhole on the low cedar chest. Doesn't give up even when he can't "catch" it.

He never meets a stranger and it's as if he knows he's a duckling now (but he'll be a swan in about a year), but that he knows he has to make up for his transformational stage with his personality.

If you've seen photos of Aja (we called her Audrey) on the Testimonials pages and on the Aja and Shombay Blog... Audrey had the same huge ears, thin coat, not high contrast when young, delicate face as Vester.

We knew Audrey was going to be spectacular when mature because we'd had one other kitten with the same attributes and he grew into a gorgeous Savannah. And both are the most affectionate, bonded, sweet creatures you can imagine. Very typey at maturity although not when younger. But you can't anticipate their beauty unless you've watched someone with similar attributes blossom.



Vester is endearing. Outgoing, engaging, interactive, never intimidated, always happy, carefree, oblivious, he shares well, plays well with everyone, including us. He's very mature, physically and emotionally, and he purrs if you talk to him from across the room.

When he winds down, Vester drops in place, curls up like a lamb, puts his head on his front paws and is out hard til he recharges. You have no choice but to fall in love with him.

We're in the process of making our final choices for our kittens and it appears that Murray may be available, too.

Murray is in the back, playing with Emmett's tail. Murray runs non-stop, tail totally fluffed out, fur fluffed, full-speed, and dances sideways, up on his toes, at the other kittens inviting them to chase him. He also drops in his tracks, but it just takes longer for Murray to wind down than it does for Vester. Murray has striking gray eyes and will look very much like his mother Komari when mature, but has Cary's long, long legs. You can see his happy fluffy tail in the bottom photo.

Murray the Moose?

Have the Netbook webcam set up and able to take a short break from Kboo and kittens. They're all asleep and maybe I can get this published without running upstairs five times. But I doubt it...

Murray is going to be a big boy, and he is full of personality. VERY full. He was serval-leaping at his mother this morning, would fall short, then roll, grab her front leg, bite and kick like mad. Really feeling his testosterone. He's a lover, but he's not intimidated by anything. He chose Andrew, big time.

Jericho lays in wait under the end table, then launches out and tackles whoever is close, then dashes back in to do it again. He still does not like heights. He spreads all four feet out like those stuffed cats that suction cup to glass. That's Jericho. Maybe I should have named him Geronimo, like when you jump out of planes or off high places. The name Geronimo would fit.

Emmett wanders around looking for trouble and he grumbles if we hold him when he wants to be down running around. He and Vester both climb to the top of the small scratching post, then wait for Ayo to come by, then pop her on the head. Vester tried to bite an ear, but so far, hasn't connected. Lucky for him. He also jumps down from the scratching post but not very well, he tumbles end over end. Emmett just jumps down and keeps going.

It's so hard to tell what their size will be, except that the big boys will definitely be big. The average-size and above-average kittens OFTEN surprise us. And even Jack, who was just a bit larger than average, is now HUGE.

If you haven't visited recently, check out the Aja and Shombay blog, Rita updated it last week.

This younger photo shows Isabella (larger than her mother already) Jack, and Genevieve (Fina) with Kboo at approximately the same age as Ayo's kittens -- to give you an idea of size. Jack at almost six weeks is equivalent to Murray at the same age. And Murray has very large feet (and a bigger attitude, but in a good way).



The Audrey and Jack photo below is from right before they went home; Jack was 12 weeks of age.



Wait til you visit their blog and see Audrey and Jack (Aja and Shombay) now. Love the one in the doorway where he has his paw around her. Our kittens who go home together, bond with their humans first, but they also love each other. Audrey mothered Jack when they were younger. Now just look how he protects her!

Shombay (Jack) is gigantic, 19 pounds and only 15 months old. Jack is Tessa, Genevieve (Andrew's Fina) and Isabella's brother.

So... if you find yourself in love with a kitten's personality and temperament, but it's a matter of not quite large enough, I'd say take a chance. Because our kittens always surprise us with their eventual size.

Even our F3C Brie (Matthew who has Brie and Lucy) is going to be big. And she was tiny. We told Matthew we never expected her to be any larger than 10 pounds, and she's 16 pounds now at only 20 months. And a total lap cat for Matthew. She took one look at Matthew and decided he was hers. He met us to see Lucy -- and Brie chose him. So he got both girls, photos on Lucy and Brie's blog. And Brie (and Lucy) is everything he wanted because he's the human that BRIE wanted and she made it happen. She's a dynamo.

Need to update for Kboo's kittens next.