Scooter progression

It's been only a little more than seven months since Scooter came into our lives. I don't think I've shown these photos before.

This is Scooter on July 17, 2007, when he was just a few weeks old and had just been ripped from his mother by a neighbor who hated stray cats. (That's a paper towel he's on.) He spent most of his time at this stage in a rigid state of tonus, his neck arched back and his front legs fully extended. At this point he wasn't Scooter yet. He wasn't even Wiggles. We actually didn't think he had much chance of living, and were just providing him with a safe and comfortable place to die.

He didn't.

Your forehead has a flavor.

Here's the thanks I get for months of tender loving care, including holding the little guy inside my shirt and letting him fall asleep curled up against my heart. This is Scooter a little more than four months later, on Thanksgiving 2007. I would submit this to I Can Has Cheezburger?, but it's too blurry. (It was taken with my nephew's camera phone.)

Here's Scooter ten days ago, on February 16, 2008. He looks somewhat wary in this picture, perhaps even calculating. In fact he was probably just half-asleep. Not bad for a cat who wasn't expected to live at all!