Feather Cinderfrost

[innoko]

Name: Feather Cinderfrost Gender: female Date of Birth: July 15th, 2006 Height: 23 cm Sexual Preference: straight Status: not spayed Coat Color: silver Coat Pattern: tabby (classic) Eye Color: gold Fur Length: medium Appearance Extra: tufted ears and toe-tufts, very long feathered tail History: Feather's sire was a purebred Maine Coon, only pet quality but still a very handsome animal. He and Feather's mother, Lily Cinderfrost, didn't have any sort of starry-eyed courtship, they simply crossed paths at the right time. Lily didn't even know her mate's name and so gave her offspring her own name. Three of the four kitten had his long, flowing coat and grew into huge paws and plumed tails, and these were the three that went quickest when Lily's owners gave them away. They were rather...unsophisticated people, and when a young couple saw them handing kittens out from the back of their pickup, they couldn't help but save one from who-knows-what fate. They didn't choose a kitten, a kitten chose them. Little Feather, all fluff and tail at that time, peeked out of the box just in time to spot the friendly looking couple walking toward her, and immediately she felt a connection to them. She mewed plaintively, big paws dangling over the side of the box, and immediately stole their hearts. They scooped her up and took her home with them. She spent the next year with them, completely content to play in their little house and chew the houseplants. They were entirely enamored with her, although they never called her by her proper name but by 'Jinx,' or 'Jinxie-poo.' or some derivative thereof. But she forgave them, enjoying her easy, pampered life and doting owners. But only a year after she came into their home and filled it with happy-kitten-ness, the woman's belly began growing rounder and she avoided Feather more and more. One day, the man loaded Feather into her carrier and put her in the car with a very sad look on his face after having a fight with the woman. Feather could not have understood that his wife was, in fact, pregnant with their first child and terrified thanks to an old wives' tale that their fluffy little cat would smother the new child. The husband tried and tried to calm her fears, to explain that they could simply lock the cat out of the baby's room, but the woman would have none of it and insisted that Feather go. So it was with a heavy heart that the man brought his beloved half-grown cat to the home of a co-worker. The family had several animals and a few children, and he thought Feather would be happy there; he couldn't have been more wrong. The family's pet were combative and unfriendly, especially toward newcomers. At first they kept Feather--whom they called Fluffy--inside the house, but their pack of tiny, yappy dogs constantly chased her through the house and would not let up barking at her. So after a few months they tossed the young cat outside in the yard. Never having been outdoors on her own before, she was understandably terrified and had no idea what to do. A few other cats more or less belonged to the family and lived outside, and most were unkind and unhelpful toward Feather, but one grizzled old queen took the little Maine Coon cross under her wing. Her name was Cypress Swaybranch, and she taught Feather almost everything she knew about living as a stray; to belong to that family meant that you were basically a stray to whom food was thrown once in a while, whenever your 'masters' remembered you were there. However, in the early spring of 2008, Cypress was killed when one of the family's outside dogs escaped its chain. This event, coupled with the previous chasing by the housedogs, instilled in Feather a tremendous fear of canines which she is crippled by to this day. After Cypress died, one of the children noticed Feather outside and brought her back into the house, dragging her around like a ragdoll. This existence was not easy or comfortable, but Feather found it preferable to living outside, so she went along with it. At one point, the little girl began locking the cat in her room for days on end. Without a litterbox, Feather paced restlessly until she just couldn't hold it anymore, and when the parents noticed what she'd done, they were furious. They were sure that, if they just threw her back outside, their daughter were drag her back in, so they stuffed her in a burlap sack and drove out to the country. They reached a winding path near Silvercrest Woods and simply tossed the sack out the window. Personality: Feather has always been a bubbly, happy cat. She's almost constantly playful, sometimes obnoxiously so, and has a generally optimistic outlook on life. She's usually very forthcoming and honest, and she won't hesitate to tell the truth; she doesn't do the 'white lie' thing. Having spent her formative years as an only cat, so to speak, she never learned such formalities and is sometimes awkward in conversation; if she can't think of anything to say she might just mention something happening nearby. She's a hopeless flirt, not shy in the least about talking to strangers, and it seems unlikely that she'll ever settle down unless she can find a mate who will keep her close without stifling her free spirit. She has never bred, nor is she excited about having kittens someday, but she'll probably make a good--if reluctant--mother. Of course, no one is happy all the time, and on the rare occasion that Feather is unhappy, it's not hard to tell. When she's upset her entire demeanor and carriage changes. Her normally raised tail droops, her bright eyes dim, and she withdraws into herself. Gone is the playful, bouncy cat, replaced by a downtrodden, introverted dustball. On the other paw, Feather doesn't really know how to handle anger. Usually she shrugs off slight feelings of annoyance, and when she's genuinely angry she often keeps her feelings inside. Of course bottling up feelings is never a good idea, and when it finally gets to be too much she tends to explode in a very uncharacteristic fit. Unfortunately, this means she usually takes out her frustration on an innocent bystander. Feather prefers to go with the flow and is generally easygoing, but at times she can be a real brat; if she is surprised with a negative response she might just go off and pout somewhere. She is completely terrified of dogs and all things canine thanks to bad experiences with her second owners. If a dog happens to cross her path she freezes, eyes wide, tail even more fluffed if that's possible, and stares silently at it. If it happens to take notice and bark at her, she'll turn tail and take off at a dead run; she's quite fast and can outrun most dogs, but she runs from them all, whether they take up the chase or not. Nor is Feather much of a fighter, against dogs or her own kind; probably the only time she could win a fight would be if she was startled into blind terror. If confronted, she'll first try to submit to the opposer, then flee or hide behind someone else. Image: (photo by berylm @ flickr) Your OOC Name: Innoko Other Characters On the Site: none yet