Baby

I have two contradictory first impressions of Baby, one audio and one visual, that stick with me even now.

1 – Ann’s cheerful exclamation from an adjoining room: “BAAY-bee!”
2 – Me looking in to see what the fuss is about and finding a fluffy orange cat occupying the bathroom sink with an emphatic scowl

That kind of sums up Baby. He’s one of the cats featured in a RAPS blog entry from June of this year titled “Dr. Jeckyll and Mr (or Ms) Hyde Cats at the RAPS Cat Sanctuary.”From that blog:

“Baby’s owners not only abandoned him at a boarding kennel, but they’d left a collar on him that was way too tight. No wonder he’s a grouch sometimes! With his long, ginger fur and sweet face, Baby is a very handsome cat but don’t be fooled – he has been known to give a nasty scratch to the shins of innocent passers-by. However, now that he knows he can trust us, Baby is becoming more friendly and much less unpredictable. He loves ear rubs and gentle petting, at least for a while. No collar for him though – never again, we promise!”

See also: Baby’s story from The Love Blog

Ann seems to have good luck accessing his sweeter side, but Shannon and I aren’t so sure what we can expect from him on those days when he chooses to wander into the trailer where we’re doing our evening feeding and scooping. Even while I was taking his picture, he sat there looking at me, alternately going “meow?”… “grrrrrrrr”… “meow?”… “grrrrrrrr”…

So I get the Jeckyll & Hyde reference to be sure, and yet –

Why is it that whenever I look at this picture…