Big sister Rico

Five years ago tonight, before Parker and I were born, our human heard a mrrrrrrrrrrrrrrroooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwww of a cat either fighting or in pain about 10:30 pm. The next morning, our mother Smudge had had kittens.

The only one still living on the farm is Rico. She opened her first eye about a week before she opened her second eye. The french word for one-eyed sounds like the last name of a 1990s ballplayer named Rico, and the name stuck. (The other kittens were Blackie; Little Smudge, who found a new home; and Tabby-tha, who disappeared her first summer and probably did not survive.)

She lost half her tail while she was still a kitten. The humans are not sure how. She had some kittens about a month after we were born, but they didn't survive. So she raised the kittens of her littermate Blackie. She had kittens that fall. In the next spring, she had another litter, and when Parker saw them, she left the shed.

There were times we would all eat breakfast on our human's lap, but Rico wanted to eat up on the shelf instead. So the picture on his lap is extra special.