Sasha

Moonlyte Sassafrass
June 19th, 1993

Sachet's third litter was fathered by our own darling boy, Fen. In this lovely litter were four kittens ... a seal point boy, a lilac tortie point girl, a chocolate tortie point girl, and the little chocolate point fellow we called "Sassafrass". At ten weeks, he went to live with a wonderful lady in Vermont, who nicknamed him Sasha, and who loved him dearly for nine long happy years.

Then, in January of 2002, our dear friend, Sasha's mommy Fi, passed away suddenly. With the help of our friends Mary (Fi's sister) and Elise, and others, we moved heaven and earth and brought our baby boy back home. Full circle.

Even though Sasha was nine when he arrived back in our home, he moved right in and took over. It was clear within days that he remembered the place, and he even tried to get into the closet that used to serve as our kitten birthing room/nursery. Not long after coming home, Sasha had claimed the space on the cabinets above the fridge as his own, and I woke one morning to find him up there with a baby blanket ... one of the little soft "receiving blankets". I thought someone had given him a blankie to snuggle with, but none of the other humans in the family knew anything about it. Sasha had apparently gone into the linen cabinet in the bathroom and selected his own blanket and carried it up to the cabinet! As if that wasn't strange enough, on examining it more closely, I realized it was the very blanket I used to line the kitten box with. Sasha didn't just find a baby blanket ... he found his baby blanket!

Because his mom had been inactive due to health issues, Sasha had been rather sedentary in recent years, and came home quite overweight and out of shape. A healthy diet and lots of room for exercise have trimmed him down nicely ... and he has even regained his beautiful clear chocolate point coloring.

Mister Trouble

We quickly discovered that Sasha was not only smart and inquisitive, he was eager to find trouble unless it found him first. Very food motivated, Sasha will eat anything he thinks might be food, and we have to be diligent to keep things out of his way. On his birthday, the year he came home, Jess was giving him a piece of ham as a treat and when he scarfed that down, Sasha managed to swallow a brass paper fastener as well! So, Sasha's birthday present was abdominal surgery! Ouch!

He recovered completely, however, and has not learned his lesson at all. That's our boy!

To the left, is a photo of him after the surgery, and before the hair grew back on his leg where the IV had been inserted.

Family

Despite his penchant for mischief, Sasha is one of the most sweet and loving cats imaginable. In fact right now, as I type this, he is sitting in my lap giving kisses and inspecting his own webpage! He's purring loudly, so I guess he approves.

One of our sad points in life was the loss of dear Fen, Sasha's father. Having Sasha is like having a piece of Fen back with us. He has the same marvelous temperament, beautiful blue eyes, and deep male Siamese voice as his wonderful father. He is truly family, and so very special to all of us. We are so happy that we were able to bring Sasha back home when he needed us.

Since Sasha spent most of his first nine years as an only pet, he is more attached to his human family members than the other cats or the dogs ... even though Sachet and Pree are his mother and sister. He loves to sleep in bed with Jess and Devon, and often tells Jess that he wants her to go back to bed in the mornings instead of going to school or work ... just so he can snuggle with her for a little while longer.

Flying kitty

Although when Sasha arrived home, he hadn't had much exercise in a long while, he trimmed right down and toned right up. In fact he's become quite the acrobat, including a many-times-per-day leap from countertop to fridge and back. Sasha even "flies" on command!

One of his favorite games is to tease our black Saluki, Kai, into playing the "make the kitty fly" game. Sasha will get on the counter and make a funny "bleating lamb" noise to call Kai to him, and then Kai will try to leap after him as Sasha flies to the top of the fridge. Of course, we think he thought this game up because it always leads to someone in the house scolding, "Kai! Don't chase the cat!"

What can be more fun than getting the puppy in trouble?