"Needy" kittens

Hi All,

I was just playing string games with my Russian Blue female, Natasha.
She has the sweetest face of any cat I've ever seen (all right, it's
obvious I'm prejudiced). I mentioned to DH that someone had written
about a kitten keeping them awake all night and that they eventually
ended up shooing the kitten away. I didn't bookmark that post, but I
did want to go back to it and make some observations so I'm starting a
new thread instead.

When 'Tasha came to us, she had upper respiratory problems and eye
problems. These weren't apparent when I went to the shelter and
adopted her and her cage-mate Sumo (actually Sumo picked me out). The
thing is, when she was still small enough to fit in a pocket, she
needed pills and eye ointment. She had also been weaned too early by
the breeder since she didn't meet the breed standard. She was tossed
away like garbage because she has a little white star on her chest and
the last bone on the end of her tail has a little kink that you can
feel if you run your hand down her tail to the end.

Besides the normal things that kittens will do, such as wrestle under
the dust ruffle of the bed with her brother all night, crashing into
the bed and making more noise than you'd think two tiny kittens could,
she liked to suck on my neck at night. Since I was still working at
the time and needed some sleep, I ended up shooing her away.

If I had it to do over again, I'd just do without the sleep. Tasha
grew up into an introverted cat who loves affection, but will not come
and get it on her own. She's also a kneader, but not on me or Lynda,
she has a close relationship with an afghan that Lynda crocheted. If
she's walking by, I'll always pat my leg and she'll come by for a few
skritches, but will then move away. I can't really explain why she
only wants a few pats and then I have to pat my leg some more to call
her back for a few more skritches.

Perhaps I'm reading too much into it, but I'd swear that she doesn't
really believe that she deserves a good skritching, "Thank you daddy,
but you really don't have to skritch poor old unlovable me".

Let me wind this up, I could probably go on and on, but I hope I've
made my point. I wish I had it to do over again.

Regards and Purrs,
O J (Old John) Gritmon