I’ve taken to calling the kittens “Barden Bellas,” because they are so tiny, hee hee.

They have always had distinct personalities, from the moment we first saw them. It’s such fun to see them grow.

Blondie is the most mature. She’s the biggest, proportionally, of the three. She develops fastest: she was the first to learn to drink from the bottle, to gobble up soft food, to pee and poop, to run and walk steadily. I have no idea if birth order has any correlation with growth and development in kittens, but I tend to think of her as the eldest of the litter. When we let them out of the cage, she likes exploring, and will probably run under the bed or the desk if we don’t catch her.

Samwise is the roundest. She has these eyes that look either sad or worried. She has the widest head and butt of all three. I admit I’m really biased towards Samwise Blackheart.

One evening, during feeding time, she was full and had started ignoring the bottle na. She just sat in my lap, and groomed, and started purring. She was so comfortable that she started falling asleep. Of course I couldn’t put her down, and I couldn’t move, so I just sat there, round sleepy kitten in my hand on my lap. Occasionally she would look up at me with her big round eyes. I was so overwhelmed with her trust, with how relaxed and comfortable she was with me, that I started crying. Oneal had to bring me tissue. How was I ever going to give this little darling up for adoption?

If that’s what motherhood is like, then I’m going to be bawling my eyes out every minute once we have a baby (someday, we hope).

Now, when Samwise is done with her milk, it seems she just wants to sit on my lap, or climb up my chest. Then she looks up at me with those big round eyes, and I’m hopelessly lost. Yesterday she climbed up to my shoulder and on to the bed. (see photo up top)

And then there’s Imperator Furriosa. Lately we’ve started calling her Purriosa. When she’s not hungry, and she’s on my or Oneal’s lap, she purrs almost nonstop! She’s the smallest of them, but everything else about her is big. She’s so feisty and aggressive: one time she bit Samwise on the face and wouldn’t let go! We needed to put her back in the cage for a timeout. So yes, Imperator is a very appropriate name for her.

Like Samwise, after feeding Furriosa likes sitting on my lap. She looks up at me and climbs up my chest. I think she likes it when I hold her close.

It’s really hard to get a good picture of Furriosa because she keeps moving, so here’s one of the three of them piled together in their bowl. Furriosa is the one at the top of the photo.

I’m sure I’ll be writing more about our Barden Bellas, so stay tuned!