There were 3 orange male kittens, 1 grey and white female kitten and Tamlin.  Tamlin was a beautiful male kitten with unusual markings.  He was white with many shades of brown and black that made him appear that he had a saddle on while his tail looked more like a racoon's tail.  A week after he was here he rolled down the stairs, crawled up my leg and made himself at home in front of my monitor.  Many times he would play with the images on the screen while at other times he would curl up into a ball and go to sleep on my mousepad.  I just knew we had to keep him.  This was in August of 1997. 

The other kittens found homes, but one orange male came back to live with us, Marble.  At that time we had 2 much older male cats named Nightmare and Rocky, a 3 year old female named Oreo, a 1 year old male named Little Boy and a 6 month old male named Frisky.  Well, Marble, Tamlin and Frisky formed a bond of destruction.  They were the youth squad of mischief.  You never knew whether to yell at them or to just give up and laugh at the stuff they would pull. 

Jessie is a human who moved into our house in May of 1997.  At that time he didn't understand cats at all.  But living in our home educated him to the joys of cats and their odd way of looking at life.  Tamlin became very close to Jessie and loved to help him build computers.  Whenever Jessie would lay down for a nap, Tamlin would hop up on him and show his love for Jessie by kneading him over and over with claws of love.  I explained to Jessie many times that this was Tamlin's way of saying he loved him.  Jessie would ask me how come love had to hurt so much.