Vintage Photo: Fawn and Nikka, 1997

February 10, 2019March 14, 2023 Bernadette

These two were sisters, born in My First Litter. Fawn, at the top, is the subject of “my first painting”, “the portrait that started it all”, “Waiting for Mom”. Nikka, at the bottom, is the subject of my rescue story, “Coming Back Home”. Fawn and Nikka were also mentioned in my rescue story “Cast Away” as two cats who shared the house with me at the time I’d rescued Sasha. They were two of the many torties who ruled my life for a period of years; at this point there were also Cookie and Kelly, four tortoiseshell cats, how did I survive?

Fawn, a “torbie” or tortoiseshell tabby stayed with me when all the rest of the litter had been adopted, including their mom. She had very clear stripes all over, but some were orange and some were black. Her paws were marbled, and she had two orange stripes at the end of her tail that were always signaling something, waving for happiness or twitching like a rattlesnake for tortitude. You can also read more about her in “The Balloon”. Fawn did have some tortitude, but she was all talk. She was the little sister of everyone and loved it until I moved here and Sophie and Cookie came along.

Below, her dilute tortoiseshell sister Nikka was not to be taken for less than her sister Fawn. Nikka was adopted, then I took her back at age 5 (that’s the story of “Coming Back Home”). Nikka was friendly and playful and silly, but she was also a bully; the cat who she’d lived with suffered from urinary issues and was constantly ill and underweight until the two moved apart and he was like a totally, totally new cat. Unfortunately, Nikka chose Fawn as her target and literally stalked her and terrorized her often enough to keep Fawn worried. Then at other times they slept near each other like this, actually touching! This is the only photo I have of this event.

Both of them were absolutely beautiful and helped give me my lifelong love of tri-color cats; Nikka was the original dilute kitty who made me love them all.

~~~

Other Vintage Photos and photos From the Archive around this date

From the Archives: Mewsette and Jelly Bean Are “In”, 2008

two black cats in sorting bin — Mewsette and Jelly Bean are “in”.

They learned very early on that my desk was the place to be. Here are five-month-old Mewsette and Jelly Bean hanging together in my inbox, which is holding just about its maximum capacity in kittens.

Mewsette looks cool and confident, but Bean looks as he often does, a little confused. Good thing he has siblings to take care of him.

Mewsette: “It’s okay, he’s harmless.”

Jelly Bean: “She tried to kill me!”

Below is what they looked like just before this photo. Note that Mewsette is pretty much sitting on Bean’s head. Perhaps he has the dazed and confused expression because he was oxygen deprived thanks to his sister. Some things never change.

From January 11, 2008, 5 months old.

two black kittens in sorting bin — Attempted fratricide? You decide.

Photos From the Archives and Vintage Photos

Photos pulled “From the Archives” were taken by one or another digital camera of mine between 2002 and, well, yesterday, but usually they are older than that, and I had never had the chance to feature them. Vintage Photos are from my film archives back to 1983 when I purchased my Pentax K-1000 camera. They’re a fun way to “introduce” other members of my feline family who came and went before I began blogging, and to illustrate my feline family in general from days gone by.

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Fine Art • Photography • Gifts • Greeting Cards • Books • Commissioned Portraits & Artwork

Waiting for Mom, pastel, 16″ x 23″, 1988 © B.E. Kazmarski

This was my first full-color portrait of one of my cats, and she led the way to all the other commissioned portraits of animal companions I’ve done in the past 20 years. Read more and purchase.

Copyright

All images and text used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission, although links to your site are more than welcome and are shared. Please ask if you are interested in using and image or story in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of an image or a product including it, check my animal and nature website Portraits of Animals to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.