the fiery tempered king

I'm a little nervous about today's PICTURE OF THE DAY, for I fear that it will set the bar too high for this feature. For one thing, I've decided to use three pictures because I just can't choose. And these are three of the most adorable pictures I've ever taken. I just hope I'm not peaking by posting these on Day 2.

Today's pictures are of my family's newest member, a cat named Tiki. Tiki started life in a rough neighborhood and then hitchhiked from Charlotte to Candler. When she was just a tiny little kitten, Tiki was offered to my dad by my sister-in-law Courtney. Dad has long wanted a cat in his empty nest years, apparently. Now he's got little Tiki and it's sorta like he's got a fourth child. Well, that's how it can feel to his human children sometimes. Let me give you an example. Dad had one of those chips put in Tiki so that if she gets lost, then she can be scanned and returned to Dad. DID HE EVER PUT A CHIP IN ME??? I DON'T THINK SO.

But perhaps I am getting a little ahead of myself. Let me go back to when Tiki first entered our lives. Courtney's family was calling the kitten Houdini since she suddenly appeared, but Dad's first order of business was to change the name. Early on, the name Tiki became a possibility, in recognition of Tiki Barber, a football player for the New York Giants, a correspondent for the Today Show and a special guest on Season 4 of Project Runway. But most importantly, of course, Tiki Barber went to the University of Virginia, just like Dad did, though my dad didn’t set all the football records that Tiki did.

The name Tiki almost hit a snag in the vetting process with Dad consulted his copy of "Tiki: My Life and the Game Beyond" and saw that Tiki's given name, Attim Kiambu means "Fiery-Tempered King," and well, we had a little girl cat on our hands. But Tiki stuck, though now you'll hear variations like Tiki Monster, Tiki Girl, Teeks, etc.

When Tiki first arrived, she could fit in our cupped hands. She'd sit with you and purr and be adorable. Dad goes on and on about how sweet Tiki is, and I'm not going to lie, he has put Tiki on the phone to talk to me. I heard anecdote after anecdote about cute things Tiki did. But while Tiki showed nothing but her sweet side to my father, she and I have had our problems, perhaps because of all our female hormones. But for whatever reason, we didn't get along -- suffice it to say that there was a lot of hissing and I was not the one doing it. I started to resent Tiki because she was so mean to me and so nice to everyone else.

But after Tiki had her lady parts removed, we've gotten a little bit closer. She slept on my bed once. We play a fun game where I try to pet her and then she scratches me and bites my hand. But occasionally she does let me pet her, and she gives me little cat kisses, and she does funny things like skidding across the kitchen floor. Clearly, I too have fallen in love with our adorable little Tiki.

And now to the picture(s) of the day!

Here's an action shot:


Here's an adorable shot, of Tiki cuddling up to my leg:

And here's Tiki in the middle of one of her favorite activities, eating Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches. You should see her wolf these things down. She gets so excited, from the moment the freezer door opens. I know everyone thinks that their pet is the cutest, but c'mon, look at this. The cat is eating an ice cream sandwich. That's a cat after my own heart.