Fauna: I named her Minnow. She stank of something fishy, and was very tiny. She never grew very big, years later she still liked to snuggle in a coat pocket. Several of my smaller cats have liked that. I've noticed that cats that have starved as kittens go one of two ways: either they stay very small, or they turn into great hulking brutes, nothing inbetween.
Belatedly, yes, this is totally true! My cats are from the same litter; they were washed out of their nest in a storm and possibly fished out of a storm drain. Had a feral mother who never managed to find them again, or abandoned them. The black cat, whose name is Manita (short for 'Hermanita') has turned out looking like a professional wrestler with a beer belly while her brother, Garcia, is a dainty skinny gentleman who can still fit into the desk drawer where he used to snuggle when he was a kitten.
It's given them weird eating habits as well: Garcia eats brocoli and peas, literally, he will climb into the sink and eat them out of the strainer, and thinks it an inalienable right to help himself to whatever's on my plate. Meanwhile Manita, in spite of being fat and therefore, you would assume, very slow, is a sinister hunter and has literally chattered birds right out of trees. I caught her trying to take on an Eastern Water Dragon half her size yesterday and she got mad at
me of all things for taking her away from that suicide mission!
