The Lounge  
 Created 
 09 May 2011 


Meet
Tippy

Tippy came to live with us on 22 April 2011.  Born on 24 February, he's a male Siamese kitten of (as yet) uncertain coloration that varies with the lighting.  We expect his salt-and-pepper accents will mature into a "blue-seal," with muted gray-brown points.  Note the odd white tip of his tail, which is not only a distinctively waving rear-end marker (flashing lights not being available options on kitties), but also the source of his name, not to mention hours of tail-chasing excitement.


The Chameleon

Yes, it's the same cat!  When sunlit, Tippy's seal-brown accents soften to the gray of a blue-point, with a hint of "lynx" striping in his tail.  His eyes, of course, are baby-blue.

Tippy is raucously playful, cannon-balling through the house, where just about anything he encounters (including people) becomes a toy.  A friend of ours once commented about scratch-and-bite marks, that it's hard to tell whether a person's pet is a friendly cat or a mean dog.  And it certainly seems true for this little guy: he's an energetic ball of tiny needles!

But he's also intensely affectionate.  When he wants to be held, he signals with an eep-oo!  Once settled in a warm lap, he gives out with a rattling purr loud enough to be heard across the room.


Tippy - 8 May 2011

By the time Tippy has aged a few months, it's clear that his eyes are changing color.  Though still an intense blue immediately around the pupils, the irises blend to pale yellow at their perimeters.  When his pupils contract, the eye color at a distance appears soft blue-green.

The Chase (4 August 2011)

1. A small brown tornado flashes through the house, momentarily coming to rest on the back of the living room couch.  Our wily guard-cat has spotted an intruder: I spy a fly!

2. Aha!  Thought you were safely out of reach up here, did you?  A staccato of batting paws contains and stuns the insect.

3. As the battered fly struggles to get airborne and escape, Tippy the monkey-boy does a pull-up on the window sash and snatches the prey in his teeth.  Gotcha!

(And this solves the mystery of how and why the wet-nose smudges get up there!)

Wow, that was hard work!  Time for a quick snooze...

Tippy is outgrowing his little basket, but he made it clear he didn't like new, larger one we bought him.  He prefers his napping place "cozy," even though his legs, head, and tail overflow it when he stretches out.

 

Every cat is an individual, with his or her own moods, preferences, and bag of tricks.  Tippy, for example, is the only cat I've known who loves to be petted while he's eating.  (Most cats prefer not to be handled at mealtime.).

Tippy also has some peculiar poses.  Here he relaxes in the study, but with an odd twist.  Notice that he rolls onto his right shoulder, while his posterior rolls to the left instead.  (He reverses the twist, too, so it's not scoliosis.  He's just a very flexible, adolescent kitty.)

In this picture, Tippy is seven months old.  His back fur is losing its kittenish paleness, and his points are showing a blend of coloration: seal point and blue point, with distinct lynx point rings around the tail—still with its trademark white tip.
 



Now eleven-pound (5-kg.) "Mister Twister" sometimes even sleeps in this posture.
With his spine wrapped into an almost 180-degree helix, and hind legs apparently sprouting from his back, Tippy resembles an escapee from Dr. Doolittle's menagerie!


Ooh, wakey, wakey...

What're you lookin' at?

Note that, at two years of age, Tippy's eye color has paled to a ghostly blue-gray.



By the middle of his sixth year, Tippy's coat has darkened considerably, though his tail's distinctive tip is still brilliant white.
At this point, he weighs in at 6.8 kg (15 lb) and counting, which might explain why he seldom does the twist anymore.
No, the bluish glow above his head isn't an aura; it's just the glow from the TV screen.