I disappeard from this site. My life underwent some big changes, positive changes, and it took time to sort it all out. Now I'm back to share one of the changes, Pantera's newest friend/ apprentice.
Her name is Pimenta. She comes from a small feral colony behind a local school. We took her home on Christmas day ( this is Rio de Janeiro, it was 38C/ 100.4 F on dec. 25th). A few days after that, she had her first exam at the vet, where it was determined that she was approximately 16-18 weeks of age at the time, and apart from worms was otherwise healthy. Aside from being the only kitten we saw at the feral colony, she had absolutely no fear of humans. She came straight up to us asking for food and attention.
Of course, Pantera was not thrilled. At all. She had finally outgrown her worst drama queen tendencies, and grown into a generally laid back young adult (although she still played as much as before, and her greater strength left me with more visible scars). Then Pimenta appeared, and the drama queen came back
Since then, Pantera has used Pimenta as her personal punching bag, and bullies the kitten constantly. This isn't aggression, though: Pantera had plenty of opportunities for aggresson, but initially acted out of jealousy (lots of scandalous noise, but no actual attacks). Even now she takes her rough playing style to Pimenta, who was afraid of the initimidating predator. As time went on, however, we saw that pantera has been teaching litle Pimenta the basics. How to fight, how to hunt, etc. We've watched as Pantera catches insects, and passes them to Pimenta and watches the little one play. Once she caught a moth with a 5 inch wingspan (); after ripping one wing off, the two took turns tormenting the moth over the course of a few hours. We've seen on other occasions that Pimenta watches Pantera intently, and later imitates her.
One result of Pantera's "tough love" style of teaching is that since her arrival Pimenta has been gaining almost a pound a month, all of it hard muscle. She's still a skinny, lanky kitty, but now upon picking her up you can feel that she's got some meat on her bones. And she's learning to fight back against Pantera (which Pantera loves; she adores prey that fights back
Taken right after arrival, estimated age 16-18 weeks
Pimenta after roughly two months here
It's clear Pimenta is settling in: she's getting a lot more confident (learning Pantera's bad habits? )
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Willa (5/1/1997-3/17/2018)
I can see she has put on some weight since you got her, it suits her. 
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