Xander

Well, we've decided to adopt a new cat, both because we love cats and we'd like to get a playmate for Niven.

So, we looked at rescue operations, and found a lovely friendly little gray kitty that seemed to have some Russian Blue in him.

It's Caroline's turn to name the cat, so in keeping with the Author theme of Niven, she decided to go with a Russian Author.

She decided to go with Alexander Pushkin, but though that was too long, and would give him a nickname like "pushy".

So, she decided to shorten it to Alexander, but that was still a bit too long. So he became Xander (no relation to the Xander on Buffy the Vampire Slayer which is a pretty good show).

The vet can't say exactly how old he is, but it turns out that at his first visit he still had a baby tooth, and was maybe 6 months old. As I write this (April 28th, 2002), that would make him about 7 1/2 months old. He's still a baby...

He's grown a lot, though. We started calling him the "little gray ghost" because he was small and could get lost in shadows.

Also, we would look up at night and see him sitting on the bed, but never felt him jump up on the bed.

But, now, he's almost as long/tall as Niven, though he is still slimmer and more "wirey". He'll never be the "big beefy boy" that Niven is.

So far, he and Niven are doing OK. No blood, and Niven is the "top cat" as we expected. Although Xander is sticking up for himself. I'm wondering if he's fighting for "top cat" position, or he just wants to play?

As he's grown, his eyes haven't changed to green, like they would if he were a true Russian Blue. He's always had a little green around the pupil, and he MIGHT be slowly getting some more, which means that he might have some Korat in him, as they are also a gray cat with an oriental body shape. However, the Korat starts off with Amber eyes with a green tinge around the pupil, which changes to luminous green at 2 to 4 years of age. So, in a couple of years we'll see how much Korat Xander has in him.

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