Emma, the third of Ginny's kittens, was born between 6 and 6:15 pm EST on April 17, 2008. Although I witnessed her birth, at the time it did not dawn on me to look at the time. I was too busy watching the contractions, which looked like ripples along Ginny's body.Emma reminds me of her aunt, Grey Ghost, because she's got her shade of gray, although Ginny's sister had no white in her coat. In personality, they are also similar because they are not afraid of anything, which I suspect caused Grey Ghost to use her nine lives up rather quickly as a feral cat. Grey Ghost would blend into the mountain fog nicely, and the first few times I saw her, I was not sure if I'd seen a cat or a ghost. I was giving Civil War names to cats at the time--hence, Grey Ghost was appropriate, despite the gender.
As for Emma, who is serene by nature (usually--after all, she is a cat), I have often thought that she could be a living statue used for meditation purposes. She has this calming quality about her. And she is totally calm whenever she gets into serious trouble, which is twice now by my count. When she was a kitten, my visiting friends noticed Emma calmly swinging like a trapeze artist; Emma's hind legs had somehow gotten tangled in the cords of one of the venetian blinds, and she waited patiently, not making a sound, while I extricated her. The second time was fairly recently, when one morning I saw Charlotte peering into one of the heating/air conditioning grates in the dining room and, to my horror, I discovered that Emma was stuck below the grate. For all I know, Emma could have been quietly awaiting rescue for many hours during the night. I was able to pull her out quickly, and Emma was not frightened or hurt in any way. Serene Emma. By the way, Emma had apparently removed one of the grates in the living room floor before making her journey to the dining room. Yes, we were indeed fortunate that she had not gotten stuck midway.
Although Emma is completely obedient with me (almost doglike obedient, which is highly unusual for a cat)--for example, I can put her inside a cat carrier with no problem, even though there is the suspected imminent threat of going to the vet's office--the cat who exudes tranquility can be feisty with the other cats at times. I am chuckling now as I recall Emma helping me catch Karma, who needed to go for a vaccination last month. That is also unusual behavior, since cats tend to hide instead of rounding up another cat to be put inside a cat carrier, whenever they suspect someone's going for a dreaded trip to the vet's office. Yes, sweet Emma has quite an interesting personality.
