Last week I discovered the Instagram account of Cody, who fostered Charlie and George for Seattle Area Feline Rescue when they were tiny. So, for your weekend viewing pleasure, I have permission to share these four pictures.

Here’s Charlie already utterly self-confident and playing to the crowd:

Tiny Charlie is fat and happy

I thought at first this was George, because George is shy, much less confident than his brother, and doesn’t always do well with new environments. Obviously the red ball is no consolation. He’d much rather have his brother to hide behind. But given his colouring, it could be Charlie feeling unwell—which they both were when they were first rescued.

Tiny George is sad. Or maybe it’s tiny Charlie.

No doubt which is which in this picture. Charlie is on top, hugging his brother, or maybe initiating an early attempt at chewing his ear off. (This is now a firmly established habit; George is very patient.)

I luv you bruv!

And here is George looking much happier after his hug. Or maybe he just prefers white balls to red ones.

George with his ping-pong ball

We have the medical records of the four original siblings who survived to reach Seattle. They were severely malnourished. Two of them then died, despite everyone’s best efforts. But SAFR and Cody worked like heroes to make sure George and Charlie survived. If you would like to see more of these doughty little beings make it to adulthood and a happy life, you might want to donate something to Seattle Area Feline Rescue. And go take a look at Cody’s Instagram which shows fetching pictures of a constantly changing roster of foster kitties. If you have room in your heart and home, perhaps you’ll adopt one or two.

Meanwhile, both kittens are now full of beans and growing at an alarming rate. We are delighted with Charlie’s progress; the brain plasticity of a kitten is truly amazing. I’ll talk more about that in another post.