inx is our new kitten, obtained at about 2 months of age on September 22, 2003. She was born to some people who didn't want her and we adopted her from the humane society after seeing her on display in a cage with her brother at a local pet store.  We couldn't take two kitties, unfortunately, so her brother had to stay behind. We hope he found a home also.

Jinx caught our eye immediately due to her being so active.  She was the only kitty of the 8 or 10 on display who was really playing.  They had a little cat toy hanging on a wand in front of her cage and she was constantly climbing up and pawing at it, leaping, falling over backwards, and so on. Very cute.  We liked her pelt also, not black like Dusty (or her brother) and not too light either, plus she appeared to be reasonably-short haired, even though she was a bit mangy early on.

Over the next two months her fur filled in and she got ridiculously soft, and it became obvious that she was going to have long fur.  We didn't want a long-furred kitty, but oh well. We weren't going to take her back after two months because she was too fluffy. We'll just have to comb her more often so she can avoid hairballs and the resultant hork attacks on the hall carpet at 3am.

Jinx has a very curly tail and looks to be well on her way to very long fur.  She's growing into her body a bit, and no longer appears to have stilt-length legs stolen from a much taller feline, though she's still very lean and quick and has not an ounce of fat.

Jinx has strange hungers, and loves waffles, popcorn, rice, and anything made of dairy, as well as any sort of fish or human hand flesh. Bowls of cereal are best eaten while standing up, if she's in the vicinity and you don't want her putting her entire head into your breakfast, and she's a very constant companion if you've got any sort of meat or cheese on your plate.  Even if you don't, and you are quite sure whatever you are eating will have zero appeal to the kitty, she's as likely to take your word for that as the cops are that the light was still yellow.  Our usual training method for her is to throw little bites of whatever we're eating across the room, so Jinx will race over and eat them while leaving us alone to eat for a minute before she returns, ready for more snacks.

We're so not ready for kids.

Speaking of kids, you know how parents always have about 500 photos of their baby just lying there or sort of smiling, and how they go on and on about it and think it's the cutest thing ever, while everyone else looks at those photos and thinks it's exactly like every other baby to ever live on the planet?  You don't suppose the same thing applies to new kittens and their owners, do you?

Nah, me either.

Jinx has been discussed in the blog many, many times, and there are dozens of pictures and stories about her that you won't find on this page. Check the following links for (far) more details.

• September 15, 2003: Kitty shopping.
• September 22, 2003: Jinx arrives!
• September 23, 2003: More on the new kitty's arrival.
• September 25, 2003: Dusty growing to accept Jinx.  Sort of.
• September 26, 2003: Jinx and Dusty again.
• September 29, 2003: Jinx being playful and cute and sleepy.
• October 3, 2003: Jinx and Dusty being calmer together.
• October 7, 2003: Jinx and Dusty photos and behavior.
• October 9, 2003: Jinx and popcorn.
• October 11, 2003: Jinx encounters rodents for the first time.
• October 13, 2003: Jinx and Dusty in photos and playing.
• October 14, 2003: Jinx and Dusty encounter a snake and freak out.
• October 23, 2003: Jinx's quirks, Part One.
• October 24, 2003: Jinx's quirks, Part Two.
• November 10, 2003: Jinx plays rough, and the scars to prove it.

This is page one of the Jinx photos, showing her from the first day to about six months, in the middle of adolescence. Click to page two to see newer photos of her adolescent habits, behaviors, and cuteness.

Photos from the first day home. Back then she was intent on exploring and mostly ignored us as she did so, not even looking over at the camera.  Taking a candid shot of her now is much more difficult.

She was ready to play and chase right form the start. This photo is from the second day she lived here.

Back when this footrest was almost a challenge to leap up onto, and a string over it was a great adventure.

She slept on the carpet in front of the couch the first day or so, apparently feeling safe there, while ignoring the risk of being stepped on by forgetful humans.  Laps and chairs and sleeping upside down anywhere came later.

Her new scratching post was a lot of fun for a while, though she was largely ignoring it by the second month here, other than as a step while racing around the condo. The green collar was Dusty's old collar, one that we replaced with a shiny red one after a few days, figuring the red would contrast very nicely with her fur.  We were right.

Yes, she was always cute and very alert.

Her joy at the prospect of eating popcorn was clear from the very start.  We used Trader Joe's white cheddar flavored popcorn as a major tool in her potty training, for god's sake.  It was a reward, as well as an incentive to get her to enter the initially-frightening trapdoor to the litter box shed.

She was scared of this spider initially, but soon got over it and grew to love attacking the dangling toy.

She was a consummate lap cat from about weeks 2-5 living here, spending hours on my lap while I was in my computer chair, despite my position and keyboard and constant typing making is pretty uncomfortable for the kitty. She's since quit sitting on my lap in my office chair, but she'll still happily sit on my lap or Malaya's lap if we're on the couch. And while she won't let you hold her down on her back, once she's settled down and comfortable, just about any sort of stroking will cause her to stretch extravagantly and repeatedly and turn upside down quite happily.  She's quite often sleeping on her back when we come home, or she'll wake up a bit and stretch and look around while yawning and viewing the world upside down. 

Yes, she often looks quizzical and is very cute doing it.  Here pictured on Malaya's lap.

Jinx doesn't have any idea what to make of the rats yet. She sees them outside and is interested, but has no idea what to do with them when they're face to face with her. She's fascinated, and will occasionally paw at a tail, but the lack of hunger in her body tends to keep her natural rat-eating instincts from kicking in full blast. And it's not as if we'd let her attack either of the rodents anyway, nor let the rodents attack her.

This rat here has drawn first blood, taking a good chunk out of Jinx's paw when I foolishly put Jinx up on top of the rats' cage and Janky (the fat white rat) leaped up and bit Jinx's right front paw pad.  It bled, but just a little. Dusty's always refused to get up on the rat cage wire mesh roof... and to think, we thought he was the stupid one.

Numerous additional photos of Jinx encountering the rodents can be seen on the Interspecies Dating Page.

Malaya's paper-shredder and trash can has long been a source of fascination for the Jinxers. She doesn't much like the whirring sound it makes when shredding paper, but she's always found it a useful perch, and sometimes enjoys the nice bat-able shreds of paper inside of it.  When the can is less full she's fond of leaping inside of it, often tipping it over in the process. Not that it being on its side slows her down any.

Jinx loves the tub, when it's dry. Well, not dry exactly, but at least not full of splashing or standing water. She's been known to walk around the entire outside of the tub when it's full of water (and humans), and she constantly stands up on the side and licks water off of the metal sliding door frame or out of the slot.  She'll often stand on the side when someone's in the tub and sniff and sniff, and paw at the bubbles or lower her paw down to touch the water's surface of your arm or chest.

The minute Malaya or I get out of the shower, she usually comes charging up and leaps onto the edge, and often goes right on down into the basin, getting her feet wet and licking the water everywhere.  She's never actually leapt into the tub while it was full of water or the shower was running (yet), but we think that's more due to luck than any conscious design on her part.

Here are a couple of pics of her sleeping on my office chair, and lounging out and contorting as she usually does. She's got this cute slit-eyed gaze thing she does when sleepy, where her eyes are just golden.  The bonus yawn in the lower shot is cuter yet.

Well, sort of, cats do tend to open their mouths disturbingly wide.

Yet more cute Jinxie pictures. She's doing a cute slightly-pensive or insightful thing in the left shot, and in the right the yellow red-eye is distracting, but the photo was trying to show her being cute in her pose, since she was lying flat on her belly on top of the table, while her front legs were both pointing straight down off the edge, sort of like a sprinter lining up at the starting line. Or those big gorilla-armed guys who drive American wannabe sports cars like Camaros and Corvettes and have their seats up so close that one wrist is always draped over the top of the steering wheel with the hand dangling down like a much smaller version of the beer-fueled limp dick they'll present to their wife later that night. Though that's a much less cute image, I must admit.

And one last upside down happy kitty.  She seems to smile as she turns over and stretches and begs for me to rub her hot, furry belly.

I usually do.

For Xmas 2003, my mom sent us a couple of cat blankets, one "personalized" for Dusty, the other for Jinx. The cats took to them as eagerly as they do to anything soft and laid on a horizontal surface, and made it quite easy for us to send mom some photos of her present in use.

More shots from this set:

• Close up tummy.
• Sprawling.

Considering how much time she spends on her back, it's amazing how cute it still is to see her like that.  She's quite calm about it all, lying like this anywhere and at any time, and if you rub her tummy she'll stretch out completely, flop over from side to side, etc. Malaya calls her a "whore" for this sort of behavior, and I suppose she's got a point, though I think "wanton hussy" would be more appropriate.

Jinx went through a phase where she was fascinated by Malaya's monitor, and would sit right beside it, or right in front of it, staring at the moving pointer, or just the screen in general.  This was cute right up until it got old, and we've since decided that no kitties need to get up on top of our work desks. A bit of yelling and throwing and they no longer try to get up there at all. At least not while we're here to stop them.

Even if they were painfully cute when posed on the desks.

How wide is kitty's wheelbase? About this wide.  You can also see why we always keep the couch covered with various drop cloths; it's old, ugly, and a refuge from Malaya's parents' basement.

Outdoors kitty!  Click the shot to see it much larger. We really do have a pretty back patio view.

See Jinxie in her adolescence on Jinx Page Two. -->

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