Hwadu is our playful, fearless 6 month old black, polydactyl (extra toed) male cat. Last winter the farm house was invaded by mice and rats. The barn is a free land for many rodents. This spring our local friend, Chris brought us a black boy kitten (April 20).
Back in the day, black cats were believed to bring luck to sailers. Polydactyl cats too. With the help of their large wide paws polydactyl cats made excellent mousers. So, Hwadu would bring extra luck... by being black AND polydactyl.
When I arrived at the farm mid-May, Hwadu was still very small. He was very people friendly, would try many various human food (meat, yogurt, chips, vegetables, flies, fish). He loves climbing trees. One day he was gone outside and it began raining hard. I went out looking for him but nowhere he was found. After several hours of pouring rain, after many searches, I found him on the top of the metal silo. He climbed up the cherry tree right next to the silo and jumped to the silo top. He was soaking wet but no crying. I fell in love with this kitten.
I wanted offsprings of Hwadu. At the end of October I found a girl kitten at a farm in Kinderhook. Driving back, she was calm and affectionate. Back home, when Hwadu met this girl, both started hissing at each other. O.K. I thought they needed time to get familiar with each other. However, later in the evening we found the girl in HEAT! No, she is too young and too skinny! Since then, these two kittens stayed up 3 nights, trying to mate, playing, fighting.... In this while, I named her DOTORI (acorn in Korean)
Finally today (October 31) both are calm, affectionate and by 6 pm, they are ready to sleep after exhaustive 5 days of their newly wed life. May they be happy together for a long time!