Our
cats are brothers. They are Himalayan cats, same mother and father, but
from two different litters. They are indoor cats. Isolde ("Baby") on the left is 4 months younger
than Tristan ("Tristie") on the right. Baby is a Blue-point Himalayan and
Tristie is a Seal-point. Himalayans are a mixture of Persian and Siamese.
Isolde
is very playful. Even though both cats are 16 years old (2003) they still
play quite a bit with strings and other toys. They used to jump up on top
of kitchen counters, cabinets, etc. Now they have slowed down a lot. Going up
the steps for Tristie is quite a chore, I often carry him up myself to spare him
the trouble.
Tristie
has eyes of slightly different color. His right eye is browner than the
left eye which is blue. He is the more balanced of the two, loves to play
with guests and does not run to hide like Baby does. Both cats run away if
we have company with children.
Isolde
loves to "smell" the air coming out of the vents when the A/C or
heating in the house is on. He also loves to sit on every chair in the
house. He sheds a lot of his long white hairs, and we can find them in and
on everything around us.
UPDATE: On Tuesday, May 6, 2003, sometime between 1 AM and 7 AM Tristie passed
away. He died in his sleep peacefully like he lived all of his life.
For days after that, Isolde would wail, howl and cry, in the most eerie and sad way,
calling for his brother whom he has known for the past sixteen years. It
was Isolde who led me to the place where Tristie died. He would look back
at me and walk forward begging me to follow him. I did, and he led me to
Tristie's body which was still a little warm at 7 AM. Tristie is buried in
the ground near our home, not far from my wife's dogwood tree. There we
could see his resting place anytime by looking out from our living room window.
UPDATE #2: On Wednesday, November 24, 2005, one day before Thanksgiving day,
Isolde died. By that time we had moved to California. Isolde (also known as
Baby,) became very frail and lost most of his weight. Amazingly, he could still
jump over the gate to the pet room. He had a great time the last days of his
life. He would go out and drink water from a container we put for him. Also,
two ducks would come and keep him company. The ducks would eat figs and other
food collected from the grass, he would mostly avoid them but kept them close,
he wanted their company. The male duck was very protective of his mate and kept
Isolde at a safe distance. We buried Isolde in the back of our house where we
could see his grave between a lemon tree and an apple tree. I am sure he is
back with his brother happy as before they both died...