In my excitement over the kitten I forgot to tell the story.
When we took Mao to C's brother, they mentioned that the neighbours' cat had recently had kittens and one had not been spoken for. I asked if I could see the kitten, and the neighbours gladly showed the kittens to us.
They were only three weeks old at that point and would not be available till they were 12 weeks old. The remaining kitten was grey with white markings and adorable as only a kitten can be. The owners referred to it as 'she', but when I checked it was clearly a 'he'.
I may have been hasty, but I decided to get him anyway. One couldn't see much of his personality, but I felt it was right to get him. So we booked him and were told that he'd be ready around 21st of September.
Then, last week we got a call saying that the kittens had weaned and were ready to be adopted. We fetched him on Thursday and I spend the whole Friday keeping an eye on him to see how he adjusted to the move and the other cats. By Sunday night he had the free reign of the flat and there was occasional hissing when he got too close to the only female.
When it comes to personality, he is perfect. Happy, inquisitive, friendly, playful and cuddly. I could not have made a better choice! He may or may not be a lap cat, only time will tell that, but if he keeps his cheerful disposition, all will be well.
I'd decided not to think up a name for the kitten before I'd brought him home in case it wouldn't fit. So he was nameless until I found 'happy' in a language we could all pronounce that wasn't English or Swedish. When I was asked what happy was in Estonian and I answered: "would you be able to say õnnelik?", the answer was "no".
I checked several languages, but 'happy' seems to be a word that can't be turned into a name that easily. I'd almost given up when I thought of Irish Gaelic and it had the perfect words: sonasach and sona. Both mean 'happy' and thus provide the short and long form of the name. Thanks to the wonders on the Internet, one can even listen to the pronunciations of these words on-line. That's an excellent thing because I wasn't entirely sure how they were pronounced and one can't be too careful with a language that writes 'eoin' but says 'owen'.
Little Sona is the most adorable kitten in the world and I'm completely in love. May he live a long and healthy life without being passed from owner to owner. I really hope I do not have to give him up too.