One day, my good friend Werner was told by Thijs, a colleague and friend of his: "You are going to be an uncle!". As it turned out: Thijs's tortoise-shell cat Lotje was expecting kittens. Immediately Werner replied: "Oh, I would love to have two", knowing full well that happiness has eight little paws. And so it came to pass that, when Lotje delivered her litter, on the 16th of August 1991 in Scheveningen (The Netherlands), Werner became uncle to six little felines. Two black ones with black noses (but with white bibs, socks and gloves): one a tomcat and one a female. And four pink-nosed ones: a chubby red tomcat (aptly named Tommy), a slender red-white tomcat (Ouzo, who died on ??nd November 2012), a cow print patterned tomcat and finally a tortoise-shell female.
"That little black female is the smallest, the oldest and the smartest", Thijs had said. And later: "Those black-nosed ones are a pair". And yes, it was obvious that these two shared the same father, who was called Paganini. To Werner it was clear: these two adorable little creatures would move in with him.
But how to name them? It goes without saying that they needed grand and distinguished, yes, even aristocratic, names. And as Werner is of Indonesian birth, it was clear that these names would be in Bahasa Indonesia. Therefore: Kucing = cat, and Hitam = black. And to keep them apart a modifier was needed: Ini for 'this one over here' (the little female) and Itu for 'that one over there' (the tomcat). But these full names were mostly used whenever they had done some mischief. Normally it was just Ini and Itu. (See also Itu's own Geocoin page.)
Ini was a kitten and later a cat to watch. Prone to hide herself, e.g. behind books in a bookshelf. To gnaw on plastic (especially electricity and computer cables!). And she loved to play 'go fetch', preferably with little wads of paper. Or play volleyball with them. Or catch them when they were thrown at her, bringing them back with a begging face: "That was fun. Can we do this again?"
For more than twenty-one years she was lovingly looked after and pampered by what she regarded as her 'personal valet' Werner, until after a short sickbed, she passed away in her sleep in the night of 26th October 2012.
This Majestic Cache Cat Geocoin has been released in Ini's memory on the 42nd day of her demise. The quote from Tay Hohoff (the author of 'Cats And Other People') on the back reads: There are few things in life more heartwarming than to be welcomed by a cat.
May it travel the wide world and meet many people in interesting places. And may discovering it bring joy and happiness to the finder!