The photo of Trixi with the bandages on her leg was taken after she had been shot with a B-B gun. My dear mother told me that she was probably mistaken for a deer. Years later I realize that she was trying to spare me from the knowledge that dumb kids do terrible things to cats for fun. Now I also realize that dumb adults do terrible things to deer for fun, but that is beside the point.

Tabitha was the only kitten in Trixi's first litter. She was born in my livingroom June 10, 1979. She was horribly frightened of almost everything. From the day she was born she was harrassed and tormented by my father for fun. When I went to college in 1993, I took her with me. She was very happy from that day forward. I had tried to give her to my sister a month before, but could not stand to be without her. On April 21, 1996, Tabitha was euthanized at the age of 17 after her lungs filled with fluid. She was my whole world for most of my life.

Trixi had a second litter of five kittens the following November. Since there were also five people in my family, we each named one. Fluffy, Kitty-Cat, Speedy, Sparky, and Junior (short for Big Boy junior - named after my neighbor's enormous persian.) Sparky, now named Katrina Sparky Rabenau, was adopted by my wonderful Aunt Kathie, where she lived to the ripe old age of 17 with her kitty friend Abigail.