A Tale of Two Kitties

I thought it would be nice to post some pictures of our two cats that we were lucky to acquire in Saudi Arabia. This is the story of their ancestry:

A good friend of ours had two beautiful cats that were given to her by one of the Saudi princesses here in Riyadh. The male cat is grey and white with very long fluffy fur and the female is a calico (white, cream and grey) full-blooded persian. These two cats mated and had four kittens. My DH (who loves cats) brought two of these kittens (both females) back to our house during summer 2006 (while I was in the States on vacation!) When I came back from my vacation that summer I was delighted to see that they were so beautiful and well-behaved so I caved in and decided that they should stay. Don't get me wrong - I love cats but the absence of good veterinary care here in the Kingdom has always made me a bit wary of taking on the responsibility of taking care of pets especially cats! I did find a wonderful American-trained vet, Dr. Majed, who was able to give them all the necessary immunizations and to spay them at 8 months. (Oh, I hope Dr. Majed stays in Saudi Arabia for as long as we need him!!!) So they are fine for now. Maybe some day I will be able to bring them back to the USA.

It is interesting to note that one of the kittens looks just like the father cat (but not as magnificent as what my DH says) and the other one is every bit like her mother with a cute little persian face and the calico coloring. I never realized that cream/white/light grey mix would be classified as calico until I saw it in some cat breed book designated as dilute calico! I still haven't been able to determine what kind of cat the father is. My DH says that he has beautiful long fur like a persian but that his face is more like an ordinary cat and the eyes are green. Maybe he is also some sort of angora mix but I think the princess who originally had the cats said they were special, who knows... It's hard to keep track of these things when you are a princess!!!

Here are some pictures of them that I took this morning. Their eyes are more beautiful than that (the pics don't do them justice) but it's just to give you an idea of what they look like.