by evening lamplight

much progress today

Unfortunately, it’s physically difficult to get photos of the two invariably cutest moments: Tamanya finally agreeing to drink from the warm bottle and showing her newly ravenous appetite, and Tamanya insisting on perching on my shoulder like a parrot, which is her favorite sitting and napping position– and she’s small enough to fit there without danger of falling.

After one especially big meal, she actually curled up and slept on the couch for about 90 minutes, far from me: her first time willing to sleep without being actually in physical contact. Indeed, I actually left the house for an hour without her even noticing, which seemed unthinkable after her near-screaming reaction to my having to leave twice this morning to go shopping.

This is still a rather worried orphan, but she’s actually starting to do a few kittenesque things such as explore the apartment– a far cry from yesterday’s and this morning’s traumatized war survivor. A bit of self-confidence slowing building up.

Still no luck getting her interested in the box/nest yet, a large cardboard box in which I cut a kitten-sized entryway, lined with a soft towel. She didn’t seem afraid to be in there, just not as interested as I would have thought, given the famous love of most cats for closed-in dark spaces.

another index of size

Just ate her biggest meal so far, however, which is presumably a good sign.

what I found on the web

Yes, apparently tortoise shells (of which the calico is merely a subtype) needs a brown gene on one chromosome and a ginger gene on the other, and this seems to be possible only for females. (Except that one vet says that 1 in 3,000 tortoise shells are male anyway. Not sure why, but that’s what he says.)

[ADDENDUM: The small number of male tortoise shell cats are apparently the ones with XXY chromosomes rather than just XY, a rare event. This enables them to get a color pattern from the X chromosomes that is normally restricted to females. So I am told by someone who has read a bit about at genetics.]

naming the cat

I hadn’t decided on a boy’s name yet for the kitten, but assuming she’s female as expert word now has it, the name will be Tamanya.

Tamanya means “eight” in Egyptian Arabic, and admittedly the number eight has nothing to do with the discovery or raising of the kitten. I simply had an unusually vivid dream in my first year in Cairo in which I had acquired a cat named Tamanya, never forgot the dream, and since then have always held the name in reserve for a case like this. It’s also a beautiful-sounding name to the English-speaking ear, and shortens easily to Tammy when necessary.

cat pointers from readers and friends

Deanna writes in to say that the kitten must be female due to the tortoise-shell color pattern. All right, I’ll buy that. It’s very hard to determine the sex when they’re this size. She also says that the kitten is probably 3-4 weeks old rather than a matter of days. My friend Catarina just made the same point after dropping by to meet the new pet.

And yes, I do need to take this kitten to the vet as soon as possible, but today and tomorrow are tough days for trying to get anything done; a lot of businesses have closed down for Easter and will remain closed on Monday for the Sham el-Nessim (an Egyptian national holiday dating back to Pharaonic times), just like the University itself. Any kitten with that many fleas (and there are still a few left) may have ear mites and/or worms, so we at least need to check that.

The kitten also cries pretty much constantly except when sitting on some part of my body.

One of the funniest things so far is that she (let’s shift pronouns, then) is easily able to climb the back of the couch, but then becomes too scared to climb down, and paces back and forth for awhile looking for a less steep descent down the couch that does not, of course, actually exist.

for perspective

That’s my left thumb and forefinger only. This kitten is tinier than a toy.

The previous owners picked a very bad time to get rid of him. He barely knew how to lick up milk by himself. Finally I forced his mouth open for a bottle of warmed milk, and he loved that in the end, though of course he had no idea at first what a rubber bottle nipple was for, and preferred to keep biting my fingers instead. He can only take about 15 seconds of feeding at a time. At the end of each cycle he shakes his head fast and splatters milk all over me.

After feeding he got some flea spray (and there were definitely fleas that I saw and a lot of scratching) and a good brushdown with a musical baby brush I found in the pharmacy down the street.

He wasn’t as bad at interrupting sleep as expected. Woke me only once, at around 1:30, just needing attention.

Not sure I ever saw one this small. Must have been just days old.

This kitten’s biggest danger is that I will step on him accidentally. He hops along after me and is often between my feet. Am having to walk more carefully and slowly now.