Bright Copper Kittens

I've been humming My Favorite Things, since early November.  That's when work began on the Raindrops and Roses, Whiskers on Kittens blog post (see archives: November 23, 2015).   I hope the ghosts of Rodgers and Hammerstein won't haunt me like Jacob Marley's ghost.  I've changed the lyrics to their Broadway musical hit ever so slightly.  

You see, I don't have any bright copper kettles to photograph.  I have bright brass tea kettles, a copper pot (the kind a leprechaun would dance around), a copper bottomed au gratin dish (you'll remember it from The Mystery of the Autumn Woods, archives: September 27, 2015).  I also have a pounded copper serving tray, even a tarnished copper pitcher, stashed under the kitchen sink because it would break my heart to throw it away.  Not a copper tea kettle to be had.     

In desperation, I turned on the television to the Fireplace Channel, and placed the brass kettles on the copper tray, in the hopes that the flames of the faux fire would reflect in the brass kettles, creating a copper look. Awful. 

So, bright copper kittens it is. 

Ginger, marmalade, orange and apricot - delicious words, all used to describe the copper coloured fur on these little kittens.  Lori, from Kitty Cat Rescue, calls them "red" kittens, which may sound odd, until you realize that that's exactly how we refer to ginger haired humans - red heads!

Did you know that 75% of ginger cats are male?  It's just easier:  male gingers need the orange gene to attach to only one X Chromosome.  To produce a female ginger, the orange gene must be attached to two X Chromosomes.  

While we're lapping up scientific information, the University of California actually studied cat popularity.  Gingers are the most popular, because they're seen as "lovable and friendly".  

The first movie that I can remember seeing was Walt Disney's The Three Lives of Thomasina (1964). Thomasina is a Scottish ginger cat, and she narrates the story of her life - or lives.  

The year is 1912, World War I is far in the future, and Thomasina lives in one of the grey stone houses, along the cobbled streets of Inveranoch, Scotland.  Thomasina is a glorified doll for a little girl named Mary MacDhui.  Mary loves to dress Thomasina in a white gown and bonnet, and parade her through the village in a baby buggy (I was inspired.  My own cat - with the embarrassing name of Thomasina Puss-In-Boots Fluffball Adams - would have none of it).

Mary's mother has died, and Mary's father (Patrick McGoohan), the village Veterinarian, blames God for her death. Andrew MacDhui is not a nice Vet, and has a reputation for putting down dogs and cats that aren't working animals (and I don't mean by use of condescending words).  Horses, cows, guide dogs for the blind, even chickens matter more to him than Thomasina.  

When Thomasina is chased by dogs, and develops tetanus from her injuries, he has her euthanized. Mary vows to never speak to her father again.  What he, and tearful Mary don't realize, is that the injection didn't kill the cat, it only put her in a coma.

Mary and her friends, bagpipes a-wailing, give Thomasina a funeral in the glen.  When they see "Mad Lori" (the lovely Susan Hampshire, who also played Fleur in The Forsyte Saga) they run for home in terror, because they think she's a witch.  Of course, she's not a witch!  She's a healer of animals. 

Lori brings Thomasina back to her home, where the ginger cat begins her second life.  In Lori's hands, Thomasina makes a full recovery...except for her memory.  She can't remember her first life, with Mary.

Meanwhile, back at the Vet's - MacDhui is furious that the children, who've now discovered that Lori can cure animals (but still don't know that Thomasina is alive), are telling villagers to boycott his clinic.  The Vet storms over to Lori's hillside home, and winds up treating one of her injured woodland creatures.  It's the beginning of a lovely romance.

Thomasina's memory is returning in flashbacks.  She remembers her way back home, but runs away from Mary, who chases her through a violent thunderstorm.  Mary gets pneumonia.  For the first time since his wife died, MacDhui prays for a miracle.  Then, a bolt of lightning strikes a tree in the glen, and suddenly, Thomasina remembers everything!  She knows where she belongs!

She runs straight to Mary's bedroom window, peers in, and sees Mary's distraught father - the man who "killed" her.  She's learned about love from Lori, and in an act of forgiveness, she steps in through the window, and MacDhui places her in Mary's arms.  Mary survives!  

So begins Thomasina's third life, the one in which she and everyone else live happily ever after, when the Vet marries the witch who really isn't a witch.

This Christmas, think of adopting a kitten or cat that needs a good home.  You'll be glad you did.


Photographs Copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins, Photographic Images Inc.