Honey and the stork

Honey, the exquisite feline, has given birth to four honeyettes: one piebald and three milky mini Honeys, variously marbled orange like their Mum. Because the gorgeous and imperial Honey has recently joined our household as a gift from Lauren Chatterton, now that her father has moved on from WWF PNG to WWF in Austria (i.e. from posion pitohuis and Hercules moths to adelweiss, dirndls and beer steins---well, I guess no such a great leap after all), we are trying to determine which kitten will be named Lauren, and which one Jack, after Lauren’s brother. I think the creamiest white one will be Sugar, as offspring of Honey (or maybe Saccharine---or Sweet and Low --pending personality), and the multi colored one might be Pepper or Masala or Chocolate Jimmies or something else edible. Whereas I like to adopt kids with name in tact, to avoid making big decisions (and reprogramming children), I rather like playing with pet names. We have had a long series of Nala and Simbas here at Lion King Fan Central, based very arbitrarily on color rather than gender. If these were Cherokee kittens, they might be named all manner of interesting things like Fur Ball Born in a Closet, or Sugary Topping on a Hot Rock. I had a friend, a renowned Cherokee artist, named Edgar Heap of Birds, who replied, when I asked him how I’d recognize him on our first meeting at a coffee shop, “I’ll be the Indian.” Duh. The only pan-face with guava-sized cheekbones and beaded hair. But because we are in PNG, these kittens might also be named after their Mum as follows: Jimmies Honey, Lauren Honey, Jack Honey, Sweet and Low Honey, and so forth--and their own offspring would then be called Sweety Jimmies, Simba Lauren, Pussy Jack and Herbert Sweet and Low, as per PNG custom---adopted, they say, to fill the census rolls when people never had 'second' names in the past, and now an excellent means of wiping away one's geneaology or living on the lam: everyone's second name is a first name.  Anyway, I post this message to show Lauren and family in far away Austria what their legacy in PNG looks like. They're very small and furry. Currently Honey’ biggest fan is our alleycat, Nala (yes Nala), who comes from a long line of Bilbil ratters, and whose obsequious personality (I say this from observation ) has done nothing but irk poor Honey, especially during the critical last days of her pregnancy. Not that he threatens her. He’s more inclined to come up and sniff , or stare, or invade her personal space. Im OK, you're alittle too close. At first she’d swipe and snarl, causing him to jump back on his hindquarters, twirl away faking nonchalance. But he responded to the threat she posed to him as the household ingenue by eating all her food, and not always surreptitiously. Langorous and elegant Honey eats half her share and walks away. Nala scarfs his and poounces on her leftovers. He laps the bowl of milk placed before the kittens, and the special tinned food left for Honey under the table. There is no end to his appetite. Proof that cats can have eating disorders too. In the past two weeks he has expanded by 50% while Honey's lost four lumps and is being sucked down to heroin chic by nursing kittens.