DARWIN BAILEY
Darwin Bailey
is the litter mate to Desmond Bailey. Both are big yellow tabbies and looked like twins
when they were little kittens. That all changed when Desmond stopped growing and Darwin kept
getting bigger and bigger. "Der" - or Darwin is the "big boy" weighing in at 16 lbs. in the
fall/winter and sliming down to 12 lbs. by early summer. Darwin is very independent from
the other cats - he lets no one groom him or come near him! Everytime he walks thru a doorway to
a darkened room, he hisses into the dark just in case someone's in there to be intimidated! He's
very tough in the cat world but a total
mush-head
to humans.
Warning! I have a little story that will probably upset the bird lovers of the world.
One time in the spring we were sitting in front of the fireplace while Darwin was trying
to soak up some sun from the shelf in the south facing bay window. He was looking out of the
window and began to "meow" at us. We let him outside and went back to our fire. Only a matter
of a couple minutes had passed when we looked out the window and bluejays were dive bombing
Darwin in the head as he ran down a tree with a baby bird in his mouth! He bit off it's head,
dropped it at the door and came inside, back to his warm spot in the window as if nothing had
happened! We could not believe what had just transpired. His head was bleeding so I fixed his
wounds which he expressed appreciation for and off to sleep he went. When instinct takes over, it
really takes over, mindlessly, in the domestic world of this cat we call Darwin.
You might wonder why we named him Darwin and his brother Desmond. When they were little kittens and
we had just moved into this big 'ole house, they would go out on "walk about" like nature boys into
the woods and explore to their hearts content. We would walk together thru the woods and then back to
the house sometimes taking a 2 or 3 hour hike on Saturdays. They were more like dogs than cats I
remember thinking at the time. Because of this "nature" connection, we named Darwin after the great
naturalist Charles Darwin, and his brother after Desmond Morris the Anthropologist famous for "The Naked
Ape", "The Human Zoo" and all the "___ Watching" books.
This is Darwin as a kitten - always a
mush-head!
This is Darwin - King of the Trash Bin!
Cats
Screemin' Screens Company © 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999
Last Edited 14 MAR 99