Mr. Independence from the Beginning
From the beginning, Stanley was independent. Don and I had the kitten on our laps sitting on the sofa when he insisted on getting down at less than six days old. He proceeded to run across the room as quickly as his wobbly legs could carry him.
Even at that age, his goal was to get up on the low fireplace hearth. It was about 15 inches off the carpet and Stanley would sit at the bottom and cry to get up. It was quite the day of triumph when he finally achieved his goal without the help of his parents.
When I put together a cozy box with a heating pad under it, a soft towel inside and a cover for privacy, it surprised us to find Stanley had climbed out of the box and onto the top of it. Mr. Independent.
These two photographs of Stanley on the box were taken June 7, 2002. You can see his first litter box – a small disposable pizza pan with a little litter on it. I showed Stanley twice how to “dig” in the litter. He has been extra conscientious about covering his deposits ever since.
In fact, he even covers Iris’ deposits since she isn’t quite as good at ensuring everything is covered. From the look on his face, Stanley is pretty annoyed at her lackadaisical attentiveness in the litter box. Maybe one reason why he still occasionally picks on her. But, that’s another story.
Anyway, this was about the same time he first purred. I was down on the floor with him near his box when he purred. It totally startled him. He looked around for a second to see where that came from, then continued to purr the same awkward coarse purr he has today.
Stanley, the Scottish Fold, would definitely tell us when he wanted something, but otherwise he was a quiet kitten.
Up to June 7, 2002.