Happy 5th birthday to my beautiful ginger tom kitty, Thunder Vergil Farrell!
Thunder joined us in Balrog Bashing Month 2019 as successor to my cat Mel (named after a certain Ken fan, while he still faked a crush on me), who I had lost to a stomach blockage on September 6 that year. Again, Mel's case for the Rainbow Bridge airing security was
purrticularly
purrsonal to my
dad, hence dad stepping in to vet Mel: one of my then-imminent airing days was the Grandpa Ken anniversary! For this reason, that year
Ken Masters had to
retake his spotlight for the Street Fighter mandate - and like with my revenge on Carie (which Ken ended up effectively
leading), even then we ended up using
Kylie Minogue's Christmas album. Dad and I have thus joked, that I also should have named Thunder 'Ken'
Because my parents were going on vacation on the day after we lost Mel (I always babysit their cats, whenever they go on vacation), I agreed with dad that we'd talk kittens when he and mom returned - but just three hours later, mom contacted me to offer me this sweet ginger tom kitty, I know mom chooses me a cute kitty cat so I accepted him and named him Thunder (yes, after T Hawk, and having previously considered 'Cherokee' particularly after our Jay-protecting anthem), and we agreed I'd have him when she and dad returned from vacation.
Thunder turned out to be such an excellent little brother, too! When I began a new airing celebration on November 4 that year (the announcement flag went down, following my airings a couple of days after we lost Crystal - but it went right back up again, the very next day), I caught baby Thunder pinning Yoshimoto down on my newest airing shirt, to give him a wash... and despite Yoshimoto appearing grumpy, he just sat there and took it all in. I just
had to get a picture!
And after we surrendered Yoshimoto, and mom decided to get Jasmine for me... I was at my parents' house, and mom said to dad "I think he'll make an
excellent big brother", obviously meaning Thunder. And she was right - Thunder did show signs of pining for Yoshimoto; and initially, he did try to
Hundred Hand Slap Jasmine... but a few days after getting used to her, he now dotes on her!
