Kitten Three

Toronto, Ontario, July 1963. Here I am with "Mitsė" ("Mittens" in Lithuanian, ha ha), the long-haired Tuxedo Cat that belonged to my Dad's twin sister, Jonė, and her daughter, Toronto Cousin. I usually preferred dogs to cats, but Mitsė was an awesome cat. He was friendly, beefy, and he let me carry him around as though he were a doll. Even my Mom liked Mitsė.

Kitten Two

This is no ordinary house kitten. This is a Siamese Cat with a diamond-studded, turquoise collar.

Suburban Chicago, Summer 1963. The cat belonged to the neighbors who owned Mikey.

Kitten One

There are few photographs of me holding kittens or cats. As a child, I loved all animals, but I've always favored dogs.

This kitten was special because she belonged to friends of my Parents who lived in an outlying suburb of Chicago. Their home sat on a five-acre lot, and the property was quasi-rural. They had many kittens and cats. They also had a white German Shepherd dog. Best of all, they owned a horse.

I loved going to that place and playing with their daughter. Sometimes, when my Parents dropped me off for a day visit during the winter, I often hoped that it would snow so that I'd be "stranded" there and would have to do a sleep over.

Today, of course, that "outlying suburb" in which they lived is in the middle of an urban area.

Suburban Chicago, 1963. I absorb the greatness of spending an afternoon with a baby animal.