CHAPTER 3: Our Kitten
Jennyanydots:
I was so proud of my only daughter – I still am, of course. She is stunningly beautiful and is such a talented dancer. I could dance, but not like Victoria. I only danced tap, not ballet, but now I'm too old to even dance tap properly.
Victoria was such a blessing for us. We thought we would never have kits. Skimble and I were really disheartened when we thought we couldn't.
Then along came Victoria. Our little treasure. I was so shocked when I found out I was pregnant – I just couldn't believe it! I was three weeks gone by the time it sank in completely.
The remaining six weeks seemed to fly by, and very soon I was giving birth to my first kitten – a queenkit. Her face when she was born was the most adorable sight ever – I'll never forget it. I was overflowing with love. Those first few weeks after Victoria's birth were so full of ineffable emotion for both of us.
As proud parents, Skimble and I adored our little queen, and everyone else quickly fell in love with her also. As she grew older, she made friends easily, and, when she was nearly out of kithood, acquired a throng of admirers also. I was glad that she seemed happy, but, at the same time, I was very worried about her. In that sort of a situation, jealousy is always running high, and anything could happen as a result. Besides my concern for her safety, I didn't really want her to be exposed to such an evil emotion at such a young age, but maybe I was just too overprotective of my only kitten – she had to learn about it at some stage – but I certainly didn't want her to be the one at whom jealousy was directed. Unfortunately, in that position, it inevitably would be.
I did see the positive side of it – Victoria would be able to choose who she wanted to mate. Skimble and I rather hoped she might choose Mistoffelees – he was, after all, her best friend already, and we both thought he would be quite suitable. Tumblebrutus also would have been suitable, although he maybe wasn't quite as mature for his age as Mistoffelees was. Victoria did seem rather attached to Mungojerrie, however, and we worried about this a fair bit. He was a nice lad and all – very polite and well-mannered – but he had this habit of…well, of stealing. Skimble and I were very concerned that Victoria might get into that if she hung around that particular tom too much. It wasn't that we didn't trust her – we just didn't trust his influence.
She began, I noticed, to give Tumblebrutus a bit more attention than the other toms. Maybe there was hope yet…
When she was getting closer to coming out of kithood, I tried to speak with Victoria about toms. I asked her if she liked anyone. She merely blushed and nodded. When I asked if it was Mistoffelees, she clammed up and wouldn't say who it was. That was the problem with Victoria – she was too shy and guarded for her own good. I could tell she was embarrassed, so I didn't press her on the subject, but I was worried. Afterall, if she couldn't talk to her own mother, who could she talk to? I wondered if the age gap made a difference – I had given birth to her at a more mature age than that of most queens. Maybe she felt like she couldn't talk to someone who could have been her grandmother?
Skimble and I often rued over the fact that Victoria didn't really have any queen friends around her age. There was only one other queen her age, but she, Rumpelteazer, was into theft just like her brother. I silently wished that there were other young queens to play with.
Soon enough, there was. I had two more kittens, both queens. I named them Etcetera and Electra. However, Victoria only played with them as kits, not when they began to get older. Electra was very much like Victoria in her personality, but Etcetera was completely different. She was…unique (and rather noisy). Although Victoria and Electra were similar, Electra wouldn't leave her twin's side…and Victoria insisted on hanging around those toms.