Snow-in-Summer

Snow-in-Summer is a slender cat with a coat of pure-white fur. She's a pedigree lykoi and sports the breeds signature werewolf-like features--coarse fur and a hairless mask around her eyes, nose, mouth, underbelly, and paws. Her skin is light pink in tone. Her eyes are primarily blue, with golden highlights. She wears a number of herbs throughout her pelt: possumhaw berries, a sprig of redosier dogwood, fellenwort, jack-in-the-bush flowers, and tall thimbleweed.

Snow's a tough cat through-and-through. Her initial tone can give her a 'soft and sweet' vibe, and she can be quite polite when she'd like to, but she's ever-aware of what's going on around her and what other cats think of her. She's built up walls over the years, slow to trust and prone to hiding her feelings. Lately, she's been letting those walls down more and more--learning what it means to laugh loud and love louder. Her closed-off attitude means she doesn’t like to feel vulnerable around others. She’ll put on a tough face and tuck it away until she's sure she's alone and can take the time to process. It takes a very special cat to see her cry.

An observant cat, Snow would sooner reach her own conclusions than ask any cat directly why they’re choosing to act a certain way. She’s fiercely loyal and intensely protective of her loved ones. She’s got an adventurous streak, willing to let a little something new into her life so long as she gets to go along for the ride. She’s not a fan of routine and will mix it up day-by-day to keep it fresh.

Snow-in-Summer was born as June, a kitten of two lykoi parents belonging to a breeder. She had a number of siblings, included her brother August and her sisters April, May, and July. June's father, Pictor, expected her to uphold the family pedigree and carry on their names, teaching her from a young age to be polite and sweet and caring. While her other siblings were bought, June stayed in the cattery, the picture-perfect future lykoi to continue the family line. It was June's mother, Perdita, that gave her other ideas--she'd fill her head with dreams of living whatever life she'd like to live, telling her stories behind Pictor's back. The two of her parents never had a lot of love for each other, and June knew it. She didn't want that kind of life for herself. She wanted to know what lay beyond the grates of the catio outside.

Her mother escaped first. She left June behind when she did it, didn't even tell her she was going to do it--she was just there one day, gone the next. One day, when she was about a year old, June waited for one of the humans to open the door and took her chance, darting into the open world outside. The human gave chase, exasperated, but June was much quicker, and she didn't stop running until she was far, far away.

June traveled for a long time, meeting a myriad of cats along the way. Some were aggressive, wanting her gone--others would take pity on her, teach her to hunt, to survive. She never stayed in one place for too long, feeling like she'd wasted too much of her life already. She picked a direction--towards the setting sun--and rarely strayed from her path. When it was getting tough, when a sickness had caught up to her that she refused to slow her down, she found a farmhouse. While the big house and field of horses weren't anything new, the tomcats taking up residence in the barn were. There were five of them, all charming in their own ways, and with her sick-addled mind she blearily let them guide her to rest, and she was out.

She met them properly when she woke: Jack-in-the-Bush, a large cream tabby cat with a sweet voice; Thimbleweed, a siamese cat with a tendency to keep quiet and speak wisely when he did talk; Fellenwort, a rather serious gray cat who seemed to guard the entrance to the barn while she rested; Possumhaw, a nervous white-and-orange fella who didn't seem particularly eager to have her there; and Osier, a pretty ginger cat who never seemed to stop chatting, and had her laughing within five minutes of talking to him. What turned into a short stay in the barn until she recovered gradually bloomed into something more. She found herself falling in love with each of the barn cats, starting with Jackie and including wary Possumhaw, who opened up to her over time. It was Thimbleweed that solidified her place among the mousers, offering her a chance to belong in the form of a new name: Snow-in-Summer.

Snow seemed to be the missing link between the five of them. It was her presence (and their growing love for her) that made them realize--gradually, some longer than others--that they'd loved each other for a long time. It became the six of them from each on. A family--a real family, with real love. Snow was home.