It's a great responsibility... but also a great opportunity for capturing those special moments of creature comfort and feline ferocity.

Meet Sapphire:

pIMG_6239 pIMG_6180

Kitten. Instigator. And "personal trainer" to a certain much older, much fatter Tom named Mr. Seymour. An old Tom who's rapidly losing weight from alternately pouncing in anger and fleeing in terror.

pIMG_6196 pIMG_6211 ​

Sometimes he sees her coming from a long way off.

pIMG_6203

Other times, she takes him by surprise... that's when the claws come out!

pIMG_6287

Once in a while, Mr. Seymour just wants to chill, in a classic "draw me like one of your French girls" pose. He's still so fat, he can't really roll over or move much at all without falling off, but it's fun to watch him try (and occasionally fail, always followed by a reproachful little "I meant to do that" mrow).

pIMG_6209

Sapphire has her pensive moments, too.

pIMG_6333

Yet most of their time together seems occupied by wrestling, or a particularly feline version of tag. The most entertaining part of that is their wordless "negotiation" concerning who is "it." Sometimes they guess wrong, and both shoot off in opposite directions.

Let me tell you, Sapphire has some straight-up Ninja wrestling moves. She runs flat out straight at him, and what follows when they meet is always different, and always entertaining. Once she jumped straight up over him, spun 180 degrees in mid-air, and gently nipped him at the base of his tail. Another time, rather than leaping straight up, she somersaulted when halfway there, slid feet first across the hardwood floor *under him*, then wrapped all four paws around him from below and *flipped* him over. These things happen so fast; if I ever got them on video, they'd go viral for sure!