Despite being only two months old, Izzy was immediately put to work as guardian of a pair of traveling musicians, Anita and Peter. While under her care, they performed in the Cypriot National Orchestra and many other fine ventures. Izzy credits her charges with imbuing within her an appreciation for the arts, while she oversaw their safety and general upbringing.
"They were young," says Izzy, "and with that comes a certain naivete of course. They believed that they were raising me, which of course is only endearingly cute." As for their musicianship - "Well I don't wish to diminish their own skills, which were extraordinary, but I should say that I was certainly their muse. Their technical abilities were excellent, and I merely supplied the passion. That is all."
Still, life was never easy for Izzy. Rather than leading the picture-perfect life of a cat fancier's fully-sponsored, well-kept purebred, she often ran brazenly through the night streets of Nicosia, mixing with wild cats that lived wherever they were at the time.
"One cannot miss the existential nature of being wild and untamed, free in spirit. Or if one does, is one truly ever alive?" muses Izzy. "I think not." What makes this perspective even more impressive is that Izzy has endured many hardships: in late 2001, she was diagnosed with a parasitic infection. Her fate was uncertain, and many deemed her sickly, and even, terminally ill. Yet, Izzy credits this difficult time with only re-invigorating her lust for life. "It is when one is faced with death, that a decision must be made: to embrace life fully, or to not. I chose the former, and I do so every day."
It was in early 2002 that Izzy immigrated to the United States. Asked by her young charges Peter and Anita to watch over their brother for a while, she decided to accept this sacrifice and made the journey to Massachusetts. What she didn't realize at the time was that her many dalliances with the wild cats of Nicosia resulted in a pregnancy. After a couple of months in her new home, on April 3rd, 2002, Izzy became Grandmadam Izzy, the mother of five healthy kittens. "They're beautiful - of course," smiled Isobel, plainly proud of her brood. "Their looks are all mine," she beamed, "a fine thing, since their father, or seed-jockey as I like to call him, was high on passion and excitement, but low on the scale of appearance."
Thus the Furious Five began their furious little lives in Massachusetts, running amok through their caretaker/slave's house. There was Stripe, a girl and the first to be born, and the leader of the pack in many other ways as well; Mewtwo, who at first appeared to be the gangsta of the lot, a girl with a huge afro; Wayne, the big brother of the clan; Spot, a meek and shy fellow; and Whitey, at first seemingly the runt of the litter, a little baby girl that eventually found her role as Most Favored Pillow of the other kittens.
Ten weeks later, the cats began to part ways. At the beginning of June, Izzy and her good friend Stripe left for the new home of Peter and Anita in New Hampshire. The very next day, Wayne and Mewtwo - the latter of which had actually ended up being the little momma's girl of the bunch - moved upstairs to take care of Amy. This left Spot and Whitey, and next week, Whitey will go to her new home, that of Jenny. Spot is the sole survivor!