Kitty Star of the Week for April 9 - 15, 2000.
Jasmine came to her mom in 1987, a stray kitten needing a home. She is
polydactyl, which means she has extra toes. In her case, she has one extra
toe on each foot. Before she was declawed, she even had one extra claw
between two of her toes. It was not retractable, so it made walking on
carpets and upholstery a little problematical. Jasmine has an extremely
soft, thick coat. Once, a vet with a rather interesting bedside manner
exclaimed, "Oh, I want mittens lined with this cat's fur!"
Jasmine is possessed of the classic feline inquisitive nature.
She loves to investigate
every new nook, cranny, and doorway. This aspect of her personality led to
the photo you see here, taken when she was an adolescent. These
days, Jasmine still enjoys investigating, but she has given up the bottle,
preferring instead to sample the lint from the purple blanket on her mom's bed.
She
has a purr that you can hear in the next room, and when she uses it her mom call
her "The Tabby in Overdrive." As she has aged, Jasmine has taken on a
tremendous air of elegance in direct contrast to her feline housemate,
Patchouli. Jasmine is slender, dignified, aloof, and graceful, where
Patchouli is a roly-poly clown. Jasmine is only one year older than Patch,
but Patch seems to recognize her betters, because Jasmine is the dominant
feline, and always gets first dibs at the food bowl.
Jasmine enjoys chasing a laser pointer
beam as much as the next cat, but she's smart enough to understand the
source of the fun. So when her mom pulls out the laser pointer she keeps staring
expectantly at the device itself until her mom calls her attention to
the light beam itself. She will tolerate no roughhousing, and does not like
being held, thank you. But she will grace your lap with her presence if you
sit still long enough, and at those times you really feel privileged. She
brings to her mom's home perhaps the only touch of real class in the place.
How she manages to be so elegant with such big feet is one of nature's
mysteries!
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