Kitty of the Year 2019 - Contestant #1

It's almost that time of the year again - time to vote for the annual Kitty of the Year contest.  The 2019 contest is going to be a tight race, with three strong contenders.  In this article, we will introduce Contender #1 - Peanut Briggs.

As you surely know, the Kitty of the Year title is awarded to the most popular kitty in the Briggs household.  This contest has been taking place annually since 2004.

Belle won the award every year from 2004-2018.  She and Peanut had a lot of close races between 2008-2018, but Belle always narrowly prevailed.  Of course Peanut was devastated when Belle passed away last year, but on the bright side, Peanut has one less cat to compete with this year.  (well, technically, she has one MORE cat to compete with this year, but we won't worry about that until our next article).

Peanut has made a strong case for herself to win Kitty of the Year for 2019.  She has provided some (very) tough love for the new kittens in the household, Robin and Tiny.  She has been reluctantly showing them the ropes and has taught them how to growl and tussle over food.  She always makes a point to pre-lick their food for them so they won't have to deal with too much gravy.  What a good grandmother!

Peanut has really stepped up her lap game this year too.  Whenever anyone takes a break for some reading or TV time, it won't be long before Peanut finds them and claims a spot on their precious lap.  In a pinch, Peanut will resort to snuggling up on top of the wood pellet stove, as seen in the photo to the left.

Peanut has been looking a little worse-for-wear this year, as age may finally be catching up to her. Andrea has taken to calling Peanut 'decrepit', but I like to think of her as 'wise' & 'grizzled'.  Andrea claims that Peanut is deaf, but Peanut claims that Andrea is deaf, so I'm not sure who to believe.

This may be Peanut's best opportunity to win a Kitty of the Year award, since she was the only cat to spend the whole of 2019 with us (assuming she makes it to the end of the year).

Introducing Peanut (a long overdue introduction)

Well, it's been a little while since the last entry on this blog.  A few things came up.  Children born, bought house, settled down, etc.  Oh, and Belle died.  Sweet old Belle.  She lived a good life and got considerably more plump than you may remember her.  Her coat of fur stayed silky smooth to the very end.  We'll have to do some more posts about Belle's later years eventually.  I'm sure we have enough photos to support many many more blog entries about Belle.

But for today, I have someone new to introduce to you.  Her name is Peanut, and she was Belle's bestest friend.  They lived together and "loved" each other for many many years - "the best years of our lives", as I wish I could recall Belle saying.

As with any long term feline relationship, there were some quabbles concerning food, litterboxes, comfortable spots to lie in, human companionship privileges, and most everything else.  But through it all, they tolerated each other with minimal bodily injury, and what more could we have really asked for?

Belle passed away in Summer/Fall of 2018 (it's a little foggy right now and we can't be bothered to check).  Which means that Peanut was a solo kitty for the better part of the past year.

Peanut liked her year alone well enough, but things weren't quite the same without someone to hiss at on a regular basis.  Luckily for her we got some new kittens this Summer, and now she has plenty of hissing opportunities each and every day.

These pictures were taken back in April, during Peanut's alone period, or her "glory days" as she likes to call them.  One of Peanut's most favorite things in the world is staying hydrated.  As she says, "you can never hydrate too much!".

At Peanut's behest, we purchased an expensive cat fountain last year, which she will drink from when there are no other available options.  We also regularly fill bowls of water for her which we set by her cat food, and she ignores them because they are horrible.

As Peanut tells us, she is a member of a rare breed of cats known as "water scavengers".  It has a fancy name in her ancestors native country of Ireland, but she can't remember it anymore.  "Water scavengers" prefer to drink water from any spot they can find that was not intended to be drank from.  The water in these spots is much more delicious and nutritious.

Here we see Peanut enjoying the rain water from our bird seed feeder.  She said the water had a nice hint of plastic and bird seed flavoring, and just a pinch of dirt like she likes.  What a good kitty.