You knew this was going to happen didn’t you? In a few days I’ve gone from “We’re probably not going to keep her,” to “We probably are going to keep her.” Honestly, I was serious about not keeping her but after having her around for a few days, getting to know her, playing with her, getting used to seeing her adorable little face looking up at me, I want to keep her. I still don’t really want three cats, and it’s a little disturbing to see my sweet, precious little Dax turn into a vicious, hissing, snarling little monster at the site of this adorable little kitten, but… well… darn it, she’s such a cute little rascal and she has decided that I’m her new mommy. How can I give away one of my kids just because my other kids don’t get along with her? (Yeah, I know… I once said that a cat or a dog is not a child and I still believe that but the cats think I’m their mommy. Really.) Besides, Kes is over ten years old now so in about five years or so we’ll have only two cats again.

I decided to call her Three when I thought we weren’t keeping her. Now, I’m not sure. I have a relatively low tolerance for silliness and I especially don’t like silly cat names because they’re a little embarrassing when you have to take them to the vet. But on the other hand, I’m inclined to stick with Three. In this case I actually sort of like the silliness of it, or maybe it’s not silliness but cuteness. I said I was going to always give my cats Star Trek names for “good luck” because our two longest lived cats so far have both had ST names but I can’t think of any more good ones and if you really bend and stretch matters you could say that Three is a Star Trek name. You know… the Borg, Three of whatever. And then there was that episode when they were stuck in a time loop and Data used the number three to send a message from one loop to the next. Well, anyway…

Three is healthy and playful, every bit the typical kitten. She demands a little more of my attention than I really want to give her but I expect that in a few weeks she will snub me in favor of my husband like most cats do. If I was going to pick a cat based on looks alone gray and black tabbies would be the last ones I’d look at. They’ve always seemed sort of dull and ordinary to me. I like colorful and unusual-looking cats. But when you start really looking at Three you see that she is rather interesting, if not unusual. Her gray is a warm gray, she has a bit of almost white on her face and under her chin, and her spots and stripes form interesting and attractive patterns. She’s going to grow up to be a fine looking cat and I think she’ll probably have a pleasant personality. The last time we found a kitten in a tool shed she turned out to be someone special.